Estate Planning and Probate Guidance for Portola Valley

Start with the decision in front of you

Estate planning is work done during life to coordinate instructions and authority for later. After a death, the practical question changes: do the documents and the way assets are owned call for a trustee to administer a trust, or for formal probate? These paths are not interchangeable, and a will alone does not answer every ownership question.

A useful first step is to list the assets and how each is titled, identify any existing will or trust, and note who is named to act. That preparation can help focus a conversation on whether the immediate need is planning, trust administration or probate.

Planning while you are alive

A plan may coordinate a will or trust with documents addressing financial authority and health-care decisions. Which pieces are relevant depends on the person’s goals, existing documents and assets; there is no reason to assume every family needs every planning tool.

The available planning services include wills and pour-over wills; revocable living trusts and other trust planning; financial powers of attorney; and advance health-care directives, living wills and health-care powers of attorney. These documents address different subjects. For example, a health-care document concerns medical decision-making, while a financial power of attorney concerns financial authority.

When considering a trust, ask how the assets would be owned and who would administer them. Creating a trust, by itself, does not establish that every asset is held in it or determine how each asset will be handled.

After a death: trust administration or probate?

If a trust is involved, the successor trustee’s role and the assets held in the trust are central to understanding the administration path. If assets or documents point toward formal probate, the estate may need that court process. The controlling distinction is not simply whether someone had a will or trust: documents and asset ownership matter.

San Mateo County Superior Court’s Probate Division handles decedent estates and trusts. For a matter that requires court involvement, consult the division’s current instructions for the relevant process. A court-related question does not, by itself, mean every trust administration requires a court case.

Choose a focused next step

The broader service menu includes probate administration and trust administration, as well as planning for business succession, charitable giving, pets, special-needs concerns, gifts and asset protection. Those are distinct topics, not a checklist that every person must complete. The useful question is which ownership, authority or planning concern is actually present.

Before seeking guidance, gather the documents you already have and make a simple inventory of assets, their ownership and any people named to act. Then identify the question you need answered: what planning document addresses a concern, who may administer an existing trust, or whether the facts suggest probate. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Portola Valley clients virtually and also has its in-person office in Novato.