No one likes to think about their inevitable mortality. Therefore, it can take a lot of will power and bravery to create an estate plan. Those in California who are able to successfully create a plan may feel like they have achieved something major, which they have, at least to a certain extent. However, estate planning is never truly done. The legal documents through which an estate plan takes shape need revisiting from time-to-time, but even the process through which the plan is discussed with beneficiaries and heirs can have a significant impact on the plan's success.
Estate Planning Archives
Our Sacramento firm knows how to address intangible assets
Planning for your future can be a challenging endeavor. Planning for the future of your estate, then, can seem even more difficult. However, with proper guidance and some motivation, California residents can create an estate plan that works well for them and their loved ones. Assets can be protected, taxes and fees can be minimized or eliminated, and peace of mind can be obtained. Although this planning includes addressing physical assets such as one's home, bank accounts, retirement accounts and vehicles, it also often involves intangible assets, such as social media accounts, cryptocurrency, other digital accounts and even copyrights, trademarks and patents.
Prince's estate unable to avoid probate, as the process continues
It's hard to believe that pop icon Prince passed away two years ago. Since his passing, his estate has been thrust to the forefront. One reason is because it is extremely valuable, estimated at $200 million. Another reason it has received so much attention is because Prince died without any sort of estate plan. There was no will, no trusts, no direction whatsoever as to how the estate's assets should be distributed.
The basics of conservatorship in California
Although it may be uncomfortable to think about, we will all grow old and there may come a time when many of us will find ourselves unable to care for ourselves on a daily basis. While this can include the physical care of an individual, it can also include the maintenance of one's financial affairs. When a person become incapacitated and is unable to care for his or her financial estate, the court may create a conservatorship. A conservatorship allows an individual known as a conservator to manage the financial affairs for an incapacitated individual to ensure that the estate is not abused while the individual who is being held in conservatorship is incapacitated.
Cryptocurrency and estate planning
Estate planning may seem pretty easy at first glance. After all, to many Californians it is nothing more than deciding how to distribute assets upon one's death. While this is true to a certain extent, estate planning is much more complicated in practice. Those who fail to properly and thoroughly address all estate planning issues may be putting themselves, and their loved ones, at risk of unexpected expenses, tax implications, unwanted distribution of assets and debts and eve the loss of valuable assets.
Proactive estate planning can help prevent family disputes
Many people who receive inheritances from deceased loved ones are honored to simply have been remembered by the persons whose estates provided them with the inheritance. In California, a person may be an estate beneficiary through a number of testamentary devices, all of which a decedent must prepare prior to the end of their life. While in some cases a beneficiary may be aware of what their inheritance will be, in other situations a beneficiary may not know that they will receive an inheritance until their loved one has passed on.
Why may people want to avoid probate and how can they do so?
Whether or not their estate will go through probate may not be a huge concern for some California residents, since they will not be around to see how the process affects the disposition of their wealth and assets. However, a Californian who wants to take proactive steps to protect their wealth and the inheritances of their loved ones should understand why avoiding probate this is a good idea. This post will discuss why a person should work to keep their estate out of probate and how that goal may be achieved.
Health proxy takes care of you when you are unable to do so
No one wants to imagine the day when they can no longer make decisions for themselves. While many Californians envision that this moment will not take place until many years into the future, the truth is that it only takes an accident or other life-changing incident for a person to lose their capacity to understand how best to meet their own needs.
An estate plan should be made before it is too late
One of the requirements of a valid will in California is that the creator of the testamentary document is of sound mind when they sign their name to the will and make it official. A person who lacks the mental capacity to understand the terms of their will likely would not have the soundness of mind required by law to execute it, and to this end, if a person does not have a will when they lose their capacity to create one they may not be able to prepare one to protect their estate.
What is intestate succession in California?
An estate plan is intended to comprehensively dispose of a decedent's property, so that nothing is left over for the probate courts to claim and subject to the laws of distribution. In California and other jurisdictions, though, it is not uncommon for individuals to pass on without putting into place the wills, trusts and other testamentary documents necessary to ensure that the distribution of their wealth and assets is made clear. Because of this, the states of the nation have enacted intestate succession laws that designate how heirs may inherit from the decedents.
