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You’ve worked hard to build a nest egg: cash, investments, properties, and more. But all these assets could be lost in an instant through a lawsuit—even when the lawsuit isn’t your fault.
After you’re gone, similar threats could devastate the assets you leave to your loved ones—often through no fault of their own. For example, many people, after inheriting and turning (“transmuting”) their separate property inheritance to community property, find that they lose half when the other spouse decides to divorce the person inheriting.
Let’s look at some key legal strategies you can implement now, before the threat arrives. Indeed, in general these strategies only work if put in place well in advance of trouble.
Asset Protection While You’re Alive: Private Retirement Plans
We’ll start with protecting your assets while you’re still alive.
California offers its citizens plenty of legal challenges, but we are blessed by a law which allows us to create something called a Private Retirement Plan. A California PRP is much more than a mere financial plan. It includes the creation of a Private Retirement Trust, careful retitling of assets, and a written actuarial plan—all of which must be created by professionals.
At the risk of oversimplification, using a PRP, you carefully identify certain assets as “retirement assets,” after which you are allowed to build a sturdy legal wall around them, greatly improving protection from creditors and predators of many kinds. Indeed, the purpose of the law is to protect identified assets so they can be used in retirement. You can’t quite protect all of your assets, but a savvy lawyer, working with a specialized trust administrator, can help you safeguard your key investments, properties, and more against things like lawsuits and creditors—while leaving you in control of those assets, and benefitting from them over time.
CunninghamLegal
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
(818) 594-0500
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At CunninghamLegal, we offer unparalleled expertise in the creation of California Living Trusts, at affordable rates.
Why Do I Need a Living Trust?
A Living Trust lies at the heart of a modern Estate Plan, and you need to understand why.
Without a Living Trust created by a competent and expert Estate attorney, your loved ones face a complex, expensive, public, and often messy legal process known as probate.
Probate in California typically takes a year or more and requires many thousands of dollars. In larger estates, probate may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Far too often, probate creates conflict among family members as they stand in front of a judge and argue their rights to your assets.
Can’t I Just Make Out a Will?
If you leave no document at all, not even a Will, you will be creating a disaster for your family. But even a properly written Last Will & Testament is not enough to move your accounts, properties, and other assets smoothly to the next generation.
Indeed, a Will is little more than a letter you write to a probate judge expressing your desires. Then it’s up to the judge to decide.
The invention of the Living Trust goes back many years, and Living Trusts have saved countless millions of heirs countless millions of hours and untold billions of dollars.
It is a proven strategy, and everyone should consider creating a revocable Living Trust.
CunninghamLegal
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
(818) 594-0500
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Everyone has an estate, and literally every adult should have an Estate Plan, usually including a Living Trust.
No plan? Chaos.
For starters, please understand that an Estate Plan is not just about who gets your condo when you die. The right Estate Plan matters just as much when you get sick or are otherwise incapacitated. And it’s absolutely vital for anyone who depends on you.
Right now, if you got hit by a car and lay unconscious in the hospital, who would legally be empowered to manage your finances? Pay your bills? Take care of your young children? Run your business? Make critical decisions about your healthcare?
Think it’s your spouse? Maybe. But what if he or she is out of action, too?
Not quite sure? You need an Estate Plan.
Estate Planning Prevents Sibling Battles
If you left the world tomorrow, what would happen to that house you’re renting to your grandson and his family? Would your three adult children fight over it? Would the grandson have some kind of rights?
Not entirely certain how that would play out? You definitely need an Estate Plan with a Living Trust.
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With a combined 68 years of experience, CunninghamLegal’s attorneys are experts in the areas of estate planning, trust administration, Medi-Cal and VA Benefits planning, Business Law, probate, disability/special needs planning, asset protection, and much more.
CunninghamLegal
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
(818) 594-0500
living trust attorney
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CunninghamLegal
CunninghamLegal
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
(818) 594-0500
Perhaps you have just faced the pain of losing a loved one, and you are beginning to look at the steps you must take following a death in California.
If you were named as the Trustee of your loved one’s Estate, it can be more than a little stressful going through their things, finding their financials and deeds, paying their debts, paying their taxes, administering the Will and Living Trust they left behind, canceling subscriptions, closing bank accounts, and distributing assets to all their beneficiaries in a fair and legal way.
It’s often a long process, requiring a year or more—so brace yourself and try to relax. This is going to take time and it’s going to take patience. You should also immediately consider getting professional help with Trust Administration in California through an estate legal firm like ours.
CunninghamLegal provides complete Trust Administration Services in California, regardless of where you as a Trustee are located–and we often work with people located out of state. Please consider contacting us right away when you become the Trustee of an Estate in California.
Regardless of your choice on how to move forward, there are some key facts and key steps you need to keep in mind.
What Does a Trustee Have to Do? Does a New Trustee Have to Go to Probate?
Let’s assume that your loved one left behind a signed Living Trust, along with a Last Will & Testament, which has been structured as a “Pour-Over Will.” If so, you should be enormously grateful. We haven’t space in this article to deal with cases in which no trust has been left behind. Just know that in most states, including California, if there’s no trust, you must go to Probate Court. Indeed, if certain classes of assets are left out of a Trust, or if minors require guardianship, you will still need to go to probate—where we strongly suggest legal representation. You can learn more about Probate Court in California here.
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Make an appointment to meet with CunninghamLegal Woodland Hills for Estate Planning and Trust Administration. We offer in-person, phone, and Zoom appointments. Just call (818) 594-0500, or book an appointment online.
Address:
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Phone:
(818) 594-0500
Website:
http://cunninghamlegal.com/
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living trust lawyer
Our Woodland Hills Estate Planning office is headed by our CEO and founder Jim Cunningham, and serves clients throughout the area of Woodland Hills and nearby communities.
Address:
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Phone:
(818) 594-0500
Website:
http://cunninghamlegal.com/
Our Social Pages:
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Twitter
LinkedIn
living trust attorney near me
CunninghamLegal maintains 12 offices throughout Northern and Southern California, with superb estate planning attorneys located in Auburn, Folsom, Napa, Oakland, Roseville, Sacramento, San Ramon, Santa Rosa, Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Westlake Village, and Woodland Hills. Our legal services are also available over phone and videoconference.
Address:
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Phone:
(818) 594-0500
Website:
http://cunninghamlegal.com/
Our Social Pages:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
living trust attorney
Our team of California Living Trust attorneys takes a highly personal approach to Estate Planning. We devote time and effort to fully understanding your assets, your personal goals, and the concerns you have for passing assets on to your loved ones; then we design a customized plan just for you. In our extensive practice we also provide trust administration, probate representation, tax planning, asset protection strategies, and much more.
Address:
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Phone:
(818) 594-0500
Website:
http://cunninghamlegal.com/
Our Social Pages:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
With a combined 68 years of experience, CunninghamLegal’s attorneys are experts in the areas of estate planning, trust administration, Medi-Cal and VA Benefits planning, Business Law, probate, disability/special needs planning, asset protection, and much more.
Address:
5950 Canoga Ave Suite 240
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Phone:
(818) 594-0500
Website:
http://cunninghamlegal.com/