Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Foster City

Planning during your lifetime

Estate planning can coordinate documents for different decisions: a will or trust for estate planning, financial authority for money matters, and health-care instructions or decision-making. These documents address related but distinct concerns; having one does not by itself answer every question about the others.

For a first review, gather the wills and trusts you currently have, along with any financial-authority and health-care documents. Note what you want to change and which assets or decisions concern you. This creates a practical comparison rather than starting with the assumption that every available document is needed.

• For a will or trust, identify what you want the document to address.
• For financial authority, consider which financial decisions you want another person to be able to handle.
• For health-care planning, consider who should make decisions and what preferences you want communicated.

After a death: trust administration or probate?

When someone has died, the next question is not simply whether a will or trust exists. Trust administration and formal probate depend on the governing documents and on how the assets are owned. Reviewing those together helps distinguish which process may be relevant.

If you are helping administer an estate, collect the available will and trust documents and an inventory of assets with any ownership information you have. The comparison can help identify what needs further attention without assuming that a particular document automatically determines the process.

• Trust administration is a topic to explore when a trust and its terms are relevant to the assets.
• Probate is a separate process to consider in light of the documents and asset ownership.

Choose the topic that matches your situation

For lifetime planning, the relevant topics may include wills, revocable living trusts, pour-over wills, financial powers of attorney, and advance health-care directives. These are different planning tools, not a checklist every person must complete.

For administration after a death, trust administration and probate administration address different processes. Executor and trustee matters may also be relevant depending on the role and documents involved. More specialized topics—such as business succession, charitable or pet trusts, special needs trusts, and other trust or tax-planning topics—are worth exploring when they match a particular concern.

A practical document comparison

Before deciding what to change, place the current will and trust documents alongside any financial-authority and health-care documents. Add a list of assets and the ownership information available to you. Mark questions rather than making assumptions—for example, whether an asset is addressed by a particular document or whether an older document still reflects your intentions.

The purpose is to see how the documents and ownership information fit together. A change to one document may not resolve a question raised by another, and the available documents alone may not settle how an asset is handled.

Service for Foster City residents

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and provides virtual services throughout California.

For San Mateo County matters involving decedent estates or trusts, the Probate Division handles those matters. Consult its current division and case instructions for information relevant to a specific matter.