Questions about estate planning, trusts and probate in California

Start with the basics you can check yourself. Look up the attorney on the State Bar of California website to confirm the license and any discipline history. Ask who will actually prepare your documents and who you will talk to when you call. Ask the attorney to explain, in plain language, what your plan needs and why. Ask for the scope, timing and fee in writing before you sign. And ask whether the firm can also help your family later with trust administration or probate. At Bezaire & Leathers, Evelyn M. Leathers has been licensed in California since 2006 (State Bar profile (opens in a new tab)), and the first consultation is free.

Yes. Your first consultation is free. You can meet at our office in Irvine or by video. We use the time to understand your situation, explain your options, and tell you the scope, timing and fee for the work before you decide.

Yes. We offer virtual consultations. Evelyn also travels to meet clients in Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire, and we can arrange meeting space in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

It depends on what your plan needs, such as whether you need a trust, how many properties are involved, and whether a special needs trust is part of it. We explain the fee and what it covers at your free consultation, and you get it in a written fee agreement before any work starts.

What you tell an attorney in a consultation is protected by our duty of confidentiality. The website form and email are different: until we have checked for conflicts of interest and agreed to represent you, information sent that way will not be treated as confidential. That is why our form asks only for names and the type of matter, and why we ask you to save the details for your consultation.

Not everyone does. A living trust is worth considering if you own a home or other real estate in California, want your affairs kept private, have a blended family or minor children, or own property in another state. Property held in a funded living trust can pass to your family without probate court. If you own little and your wishes are simple, a will may be enough. We look at what you own and tell you which fits. More on our wills and trusts page.

A will takes effect at death and generally goes through probate court, which is public. A revocable living trust works as soon as it is signed and funded, lets a successor trustee step in if you become unable to manage your affairs, and can pass property to your family without probate. A plan can use both: the trust for your major property and a pour-over will to catch anything left outside it.

California's intestacy rules decide who inherits, which may not match what you wanted. Property in your name alone may have to go through probate court, and the court appoints someone to handle the estate. If you have minor children, the court also decides who raises them. A will or a trust lets you make these choices yourself.

Review it every few years, and after any big change: marriage or divorce, a new child or grandchild, buying or selling a home, a move, or the death of someone you named in your plan. Check your beneficiary forms at the same time, because they pass outside your will.

Find the trust and any amendments, secure the property, keep records from day one, and do not distribute anything yet. Within 60 days of the death, the trustee must serve a formal notification on every beneficiary and every heir (Probate Code section 16061.7 (opens in a new tab)). The trust will also need its own tax ID number. Our step-by-step checklist covers the first months, and we can help with each step. See trust administration.

After the trustee serves the required notification, a person who receives it has 120 days to bring a contest of the trust, or 60 days after receiving a copy of the trust's terms during that 120-day period, whichever is later (Probate Code section 16061.8 (opens in a new tab)). This is one reason the notice should be complete and served on time.

California does not require one, but probate is a court process with filings, notices, deadlines and hearings, and mistakes cause delays. In Orange County, probate cases are heard at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, where probate examiners review each petition and post written notes about anything missing before the hearing. A probate attorney prepares the filings, answers those notes and appears at the hearings. See probate.

Every estate is different, but a probate cannot close before the creditor period ends: the later of four months after the court first issues letters, or 60 days after notice is mailed to a creditor (Probate Code section 9100 (opens in a new tab)). Court calendars, property sales and tax filings add time. We give you an estimated timeline for your estate at the start.

For ordinary probate work, California law sets the attorney's fee as a percentage of the value of the estate, on a sliding scale (Probate Code section 10810 (opens in a new tab)). The court may allow more for extraordinary services (section 10811 (opens in a new tab)). These fees are paid from the estate as the court allows, not set by the firm, so there is no online payment button for them. We explain the expected fees at your consultation.

A special needs trust holds money for a person with a disability so it can pay for extras without counting as the person's own money for needs-based benefits such as SSI and Medi-Cal. Families use one when they want to leave money to a child, grandchild or other relative with a disability. A first-party trust holds the person's own money and must include a Medi-Cal payback provision. A third-party trust holds family money and has no payback requirement. See special needs trusts.

No document can promise that benefits will continue. A trust drafted for California and federal rules, managed by a trustee who follows those rules, is designed to keep the trust's money from counting against needs-based benefits. How the trustee spends the money matters, and we explain those rules to the trustee.

A conservatorship is a court case in which a judge appoints someone to manage the care or the finances of an adult who cannot manage them. A durable power of attorney, an advance health care directive and a living trust, signed while the person can still make decisions, let someone they chose step in without a court case. See conservatorships.

A power of attorney is a document you sign while you are able to, naming someone you trust to act for you. A conservatorship is a court appointment made after someone can no longer manage, with court oversight and reports. The first is chosen by you; the second is decided by a judge.

Yes. Current clients can pay an invoice, or make a trust deposit the firm has requested, on our payment page. The easiest way is the link in your bill or payment request, which already shows the amount and where the payment goes. Probate and conservatorship fees are not paid on that page, because the court sets or approves them.