Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Industry, California

Start with the decision you need to make

If you are planning for your own future, consider which decisions you want documented: how property should pass, who may handle financial matters if you cannot, and who should make health-care decisions. Wills, trusts, financial authority documents and health-care documents can work together, but they address different concerns. The documents and ownership of assets also affect whether trust administration or formal probate may follow a death.

If someone has died, first identify the documents that exist and how the relevant assets are titled. That information helps frame whether the next question is administering a trust, pursuing probate, or getting advice about another aspect of the estate. A consultation can clarify the issue to address without assuming every family needs every available service.

• Planning while alive: discuss wills, trusts, financial authority and health-care decisions.
• After a death: focus on the documents, asset ownership and the administration already underway or still needed.

Choose the appropriate planning or administration path

The firm’s estate-planning and probate services cover distinct needs rather than a checklist everyone should complete. For planning, relevant topics include wills and pour-over wills; revocable living trusts and other trust planning; financial powers of attorney; advance health-care directives, living wills and health-care powers of attorney; and planning involving business succession, gifts or charitable, pet, special-needs or asset-protection trusts.

After a death, the relevant topics may instead include probate administration, trust administration, executor or trustee responsibilities, or ancillary probate. The appropriate path depends on the particular documents and ownership of the assets. A service name alone does not determine which process applies, and a trust does not guarantee that every asset or issue will avoid court, creditor claims, taxes or changes to benefits.

Prepare for a remote consultation

A useful first step is to collect what you already have, rather than trying to decide in advance which legal service you need. A short inventory can make the conversation more focused and help identify questions that remain open.

• Gather any existing wills, trust documents, powers of attorney, health-care directives and amendments or related papers.
• Make a simple list of significant assets and note, where known, how each is titled and whether a beneficiary is designated. Flag anything you are unsure about rather than guessing.
• Write down the people you are considering for decision-making or administration roles and any practical concerns you want to discuss.
• For an administration matter, note whether a death has occurred, which documents you have located, and what steps have already been taken.
• Prepare your main questions and the outcome you hope to plan for; do not send sensitive records until the firm explains a suitable way to share them.

If probate may be involved in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Superior Court’s Stanley Mosk Courthouse probate directory separately identifies probate filing, probate records and wills services, and also describes probate-note procedures. It is a resource for understanding available court information, not a determination that a particular courthouse is correct for every county resident. Discuss the estate’s circumstances before relying on a directory listing to decide where a matter belongs.

Discuss the next step

Use the consultation to explain whether you are planning for yourself or responding to a death, what documents and asset information you have, and what decision feels unresolved. The firm can then discuss which area of estate planning or administration is relevant and what additional information would help assess the matter.