Alpert Law offers estate planning services. Services include preparing a Will, Trust, beneficiary designation, powers of appointment, powers of attorney, durable financial power of attorney and the durable healthcare power of attorney. We will educate you about the difference, advantages, disadvantages of creating a Living Trust, a Will or simply Power of Attorney.

Estate planning involves protecting your assets, providing directives for health care, and ensuring that your property and assets are distributed according to your wishes. Our estate planning services include creation of the following:

• Wills
• Living wills
• Trusts
• Irrevocable trusts, such as life insurance trusts and charitable remainder trusts
• Qualified personal residence trusts
• Healthcare directives
• Business succession planning
• Durable powers of attorney
• Pet trusts

If you have been named trustee, it can be to your benefit to seek legal advice, as the trust will have to be administered in compliance with its own terms and with California state law. Our firm can help you through this process and ensure that your responsibilities are met. 

No matter what size your estate is, it is important that you know your rights and the rights of your heirs to your assets in the event of your death. Deciding how to distribute your assets is an essential part of your estate plan. The ramification of not having an estate plan will cause a great deal of emotional turmoil and unnecessary feuding between possible heirs through California's probate laws. California default laws do not necessarily consider your testamentary wishes for distribution of your assets when you pass. In order to avoid any confusion and to be sure that your wishes are carried through, a well-specified estate plan is critical. Your estate plan will designate to whom you wish your assets to be distributed. 

If a Trust is created, assets do not have to pass through the probate process. However, the probate process may be required when the decedent did not have a Trust, or for those assets which were not included in the Trust. The probate process involves transferring property and assets, paying the debts of the estate, and notifying beneficiaries. Will contests, Trust contests, or fiduciary challenges regarding the estate are litigated or settled through the Probate court. Our firm represents executors of estates in the probate process, as well as clients involved in probate litigation.

You will be able to pass on all or most of your estate/assets according to your specific wishes - if you plan ahead. If you do not plan ahead, the Probate courts, in accordance with California law, may decide how to distribute your life's work.