Most Estate Plans Are
Built for Today.
We Build Them to Avoid — and Survive — Court.

California has one of the most expensive and time-consuming probate processes in the country. A properly funded revocable living trust avoids probate entirely, keeps your estate private (trusts are not public record, wills are), and allows your successor trustee to transfer assets to your heirs within weeks rather than months or years. For most Orange County families with real estate or significant assets, a living trust is not optional — it is the foundation of a sound estate plan.

A will is a public document that must go through probate court — a process that can take 12 to 18 months in California and cost 4–8% of the gross estate in statutory fees. A living trust avoids probate, is private, and allows your successor trustee to transfer assets to beneficiaries within weeks. Every estate plan should include both: a trust for the bulk of your assets and a pour-over will as a backstop.

A comprehensive estate plan — trust, pour-over will, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives — typically ranges from $2,500 to $6,000 for an individual or couple in Orange County, depending on complexity. Compared to the cost of probate, which is calculated on gross estate value and can exceed $20,000 on a single $500,000 home, a properly drafted trust is a modest investment.

The primary tool is a properly funded revocable living trust. "Properly funded" is the critical phrase: the trust document itself does not keep assets out of probate — the assets must be retitled into the trust during your lifetime. We coordinate full trust funding as part of every engagement, including real property deeds, financial account transfers, and beneficiary designation updates.

Without specific planning, cryptocurrency often becomes permanently inaccessible — no probate court order can unlock a hardware wallet whose seed phrase died with its owner. California's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) gives trustees legal authority over digital assets, but only if the trust explicitly addresses them and the trustee has practical access to the credentials. We draft Digital Asset Succession Letters and trust provisions specific to what you hold and how you hold it.

Proposition 19 (effective February 2021) significantly narrowed the parent-child property tax reassessment exclusion. Previously, you could transfer a home to your children without reassessment regardless of whether they lived in it. Now, the exclusion applies only to a child's principal residence, and only up to a $1 million cap above the assessed value. For Orange County homeowners — where median home values routinely exceed $1 million — this change makes proactive estate planning more important than ever.

Yes. If your trust was drafted in another state, it should be reviewed and often amended after moving to California. California's community property rules, specific Probate Code execution requirements, and property tax laws (including Prop 19) differ substantially from most other states. Out-of-state trust language frequently fails to address them correctly, and the gaps may not surface until a trust administration or dispute.

Trust funding is the process of retitling assets into the name of your trust — transferring real estate, financial accounts, and other property so the trust actually owns them. A signed trust document alone does nothing for assets not titled in the trust's name; those assets will still go through probate. We coordinate complete trust funding as part of every engagement and confirm completion in writing.

A straightforward trust administration in California typically takes four to nine months, driven primarily by the 120-day creditor notification period under Probate Code §19100 and the time required to gather and retitle assets. A contested administration, or one involving real estate sales, business interests, or complex asset structures, can take significantly longer.

A pour-over will is a companion document to your living trust that captures any assets not already in the trust at death and "pours" them into it. Assets that flow through the pour-over will still go through probate, but they ultimately end up in the trust — where distribution follows your carefully drafted trust terms rather than the default rules of intestate succession. It is the safety net that catches what was missed during life.