Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Elk Grove

Begin with the decision and the person who may act

A useful starting point is to separate decisions made during life from responsibilities that arise after a death. While you are alive, planning may address financial authority and health-care decisions as well as wills and trusts. After a death, documents and asset ownership help determine whether trust administration or formal probate is involved. A person's name in a document is not, on its own, a complete answer to what authority applies to every asset.

Consider these questions separately: Who would you want involved in health-care decisions? Who would you want to handle financial matters? What arrangements should address property after your death? The answers may lead to different documents and different people. They are useful topics for discussion, not a requirement to choose the same person for every role.

• For health-care planning, explore advance health-care directives, living wills and health-care powers of attorney.
• For financial authority, explore financial powers of attorney.
• For property planning, consider wills, pour-over wills and trusts.

Choose planning topics that fit your questions

Estate planning is not one document or a package that every person needs in the same form. The relevant question is which decisions you want to address and how the documents and property ownership fit together. A will and a trust are both potential parts of an estate plan; the documents and asset ownership also matter later when determining how administration proceeds.

The available planning topics include wills, pour-over wills and revocable living trusts, along with other trust topics such as irrevocable, charitable, pet, special-needs and asset-protection trusts. Business succession planning and gift-tax planning are also separate subjects. Their presence in a menu does not mean each is appropriate for every person. Discuss which, if any, connect to your circumstances rather than assuming every option belongs in a single plan.

• If your main concern is health-care decisions, focus the conversation on the health-care planning documents.
• If your concern is financial authority, discuss that separately from health-care decision-making.
• If your concern is property after death, ask how wills, trusts and ownership relate to the assets you want addressed.

After a death: identify the process before taking action

Trust administration and formal probate depend on the documents and asset ownership. That makes it important to identify the role described in the available documents and the property at issue before assuming what a named person can do. A question about trust administration is distinct from a question about formal probate; the documents and ownership help determine which process applies.

If formal probate is involved in an Elk Grove matter, the Sacramento County Probate Division provides resources for electronic filing, case and calendar access, probate notes, and ordering files or records. Use the division's current links for access information. California Courts directs opening probate in the county where the decedent lived. If the decedent lived outside California but owned California property, its overview directs filing in the California county where that property is located.

• Explore trust administration for questions about administering a trust after a death.
• Explore probate administration for questions about a formal probate proceeding.
• Executor and trustee services are separate topics; first identify the role and process described by the relevant documents.

Prepare for a focused conversation

As an optional preparation step, gather any estate-planning documents you already have and make a list of property and how it is titled. You might also note the people you are considering for health-care, financial and post-death roles, along with the questions you want answered. These steps can help organize a conversation; they are not legal prerequisites.

If someone has died, you could bring the documents available to you and note which assets appear to be held individually or in a trust. A useful discussion can then focus on what the documents say, how the assets are owned, and whether the person named has authority for the matter at hand or further authority may be needed. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Elk Grove clients virtually from its Novato office.