Estate Planning and Probate for Rohnert Park Residents

Start with the decision you need to make

If you are planning for yourself, consider what should happen if you cannot manage finances or make health-care decisions, as well as how you want your assets handled. Estate planning may coordinate wills, trusts, financial authority and health-care decisions; the appropriate combination depends on your circumstances.

If someone has died, identify the documents in place and how the assets are titled. Trust administration and formal probate are different processes, and which one applies depends on the documents and ownership of the assets. A will alone does not answer every question about how each asset is handled.

• Planning while alive: Which decisions might someone else need authority to make?
• After a death: Is there a trust, a will, or another relevant document?
• For each asset: How is it owned, and does that ownership affect the next step?

Planning for your own future

Planning can address different decisions without requiring every available document or trust. A will and a revocable living trust are separate planning tools; financial powers of attorney and health-care documents address authority in distinct areas. Consider what you want each document to accomplish before deciding which topics need attention.

A useful preparation step is to make a list of assets and note how each is owned, then write down the people you would want involved in financial or health-care decisions. These notes can help focus a planning conversation; they do not determine by themselves which legal documents are appropriate.

• Wills and Pour-Over Wills
• Revocable Living Trusts
• Financial Power of Attorney
• Advance Healthcare Directives and Living Wills
• Healthcare Power of Attorney

When a death has occurred: trust administration or probate

Do not assume that every estate follows the same route. Review the available will and trust documents alongside how assets were held. Those details help distinguish a trust-administration question from one that may involve formal probate. If the route is unclear, organizing the documents and asset-ownership information is a practical starting point for discussing what to do next.

Probate Administration and Trust Administration address these different processes. The service names identify topics to explore, not a conclusion that a particular family needs either service.

• Trust Administration
• Probate Administration
• Executor and Trustee Services

Explore a specific planning concern

Some situations raise focused questions beyond a basic will, trust or authority document. A business owner, a person planning charitable giving, or someone considering arrangements for a pet or a beneficiary with special needs may want to explore the related topic. These options are not a checklist that every household must complete.

The available service topics also include irrevocable trusts, asset protection trusts, gift tax planning and ancillary probate. The relevant question is whether a particular concern applies to your circumstances and what role ownership, authority or existing documents may play.

• Business Succession Planning
• Charitable Trusts and Pet Trusts
• Special Needs Trusts
• Irrevocable Trusts and Asset Protection Trusts
• Gift Tax Planning and Ancillary Probate

Prepare for a focused conversation

Gather the wills, trusts and related planning documents you already have, and make a list of assets with any ownership information you can readily identify. For a planning discussion, note the decisions you want addressed and the people you may want involved. For an administration question, note what has happened and which documents or ownership details remain uncertain.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Rohnert Park clients virtually from its statewide service area and has one in-person office in Novato. The next step is to identify whether your question concerns planning, authority, trust administration or probate, and bring the relevant documents and questions to a conversation.