Estate Planning and Probate Options for Carson Residents

Start with the decision you need to make

If you are planning for your own future, consider which decisions need direction: who may manage financial matters, who should make health-care decisions, and how your estate plan should address assets after death. Estate planning can coordinate wills, trusts, financial authority, and health-care decisions; it is not a single document that every person needs in the same form.

If someone has died, first identify the documents that exist and how the relevant assets are titled or otherwise owned. Those facts help distinguish trust administration from formal probate. The name of a document alone may not tell you which process applies.

Planning during life: focus on fit, not a checklist

The planning services below address different purposes. A will or revocable living trust concerns estate planning; a financial power of attorney and health-care planning address authority and decisions during life. Other trust or tax-planning topics may call for a more specific discussion of your goals and circumstances. You do not need to assume that every listed service belongs in one plan.

• Wills and Pour-Over Wills
• Revocable Living Trusts
• Financial Power of Attorney
• Advance Healthcare Directives and Living Wills; Healthcare Power of Attorney
• Asset Protection Trusts; Irrevocable Trusts; Charitable Trusts; Pet Trusts; Special Needs Trusts
• Business Succession Planning; Gift Tax Planning

After a death: administration depends on documents and ownership

Trust administration and formal probate are different processes, and the documents and ownership of assets matter in choosing which may apply. A trust does not, by itself, establish that every asset is held by the trust or that probate is unnecessary. Reviewing the available estate documents alongside information about asset ownership is a practical first step toward identifying the appropriate questions and next actions.

The administration-related services include Trust Administration, Probate Administration, Ancillary Probate, and Executor and Trustee Services. They address different situations; their presence here does not mean that each is required or appropriate in a particular estate.

Prepare for a useful first discussion

For planning, write down your priorities and questions about financial authority, health-care decisions, and what you want your estate plan to address. For an administration matter, gather the documents you can locate and make a list of assets and how each appears to be owned. These are practical ways to organize the discussion, not a substitute for determining which process applies.

For a Carson matter that may involve probate, the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s Stanley Mosk Courthouse directory separately identifies probate filing, probate records, and wills services, and explains probate-note procedures. A directory listing does not determine the correct courthouse for every county resident, so it should not be treated as a decision about where a particular matter belongs.