What is a Living Trust?

A living trust, also known as revocable living trust, is a legal document that helps you manage your assets, protect your interests upon incapacity, and control how your property is passed on to your beneficiaries.

Moreover, working with an experienced San Diego living trust attorney ensures your revocable living trust is properly drafted and can help you avoid the costly and time-consuming probate process in California.

How Does a Living Trust Work?

When you create a revocable living trust, you transfer your assets into the trust instead of holding them in your personal name.

Notwithstanding the change in title, your ownership rights and your tax returns remain exactly the same.

Furthermore, you will remain in full control of your property and will be able to make changes to the living trust whenever necessary.

During your lifetime, you will serve as:

• Grantor – the person who creates the trust
• Trustee – the person who manages the trust, and
• Beneficiary – the person who benefits from the trust.

Additionally, you will continue to use your Social Security number for all trust-related transactions, making management simple and straightforward.

Who Will Handle My Trust if I Can’t?

You will appoint a successor trustee—someone you trust to manage your financial and property matters if you become incapacitated or pass away.

Thereafter, your successor trustee will:

• Pay your bills

• Manage your property

• Distribute assets to your beneficiaries according to your instructions

If needed, our San Diego trusts attorney will help you choose a reliable successor trustee and ensure the process runs smoothly.

How Do I Name Beneficiaries?

In your revocable living trust in California, you decide who will receive your assets and how they will inherit them.  You can choose to:

• Transfer property directly to your beneficiaries

• Keep the property in trust for their benefit allowing ongoing management and protection

Why Should I Have a Living Trust in California?

Yes! A revocable living trust properly created with an experienced San Diego trusts attorney offers several advantages:

• Avoids probate, streamlining asset distribution

• Reduces or eliminates certain taxes

• Protects your assets and provides for your beneficiaries

By creating a revocable living trust in California, you give yourself and your family peace of mind, knowing that your estate will be managed and distributed exactly as you intend.  If you would like to learn more, our San Diego trusts attorney provides a detailed analysis of the advantages of a living trust in California in our estate planning law firm blog: What are the benefits of a trust.

How Long Does It Take to Set Up a Living Trust in San Diego?

Setting up a living trust in San Diego can take days or weeks.

It depends on several factors:

• your assets
• your family situation
• whether you know the details of the structure you want to implement in your revocable living trust
• whether you have all of the information that your San Diego trust attorney needs to prepare the trust documents.

Our Carmel Valley estate planning attorney explains the revocable living trust timeline in detail in this estate planning blog post: How Long Does It Take to Set Up a Living Trust in San Diego?

How Much Does a Living Trust Cost?

How much does it cost to set up a revocable living trust in San Diego may vary from several hundred to several thousand US dollars.

The cost of living trust will depend on the following:

• whether you do it yourself or work with an experienced San Diego estate planning attorney,
• your family's situation,
• your assets,
• whether you have minor children,
• whether you have property out-of-state or out-of-country, and
• multiple other factors.

Our Carmel Valley estate planning law firm charges flat fees for all will and living trust packages and the fees for estate planning services range from $1,800 for a simple living trust to $6,500 and more for a complex asset protection focused living trust estate plan, which usually include high-net worth estates, business entities, and other circumstances requiring advanced estate planning strategies.

All of fees for wills and trusts are clearly posted upfront with a lot of details on what each living trust estate plan includes so you know what to expect: Fees for Estate Planning Services 

If you have further questions or if you would like to start the estate planning process, please contact our San Diego estate planning firm by phone or email: Contact Information for Milda Goeriz,  Trust and Estate Planning Attorney in Carmel Valley, San Diego.