If you live in the United States (and especially in California) and own a house, you will likely need a Living Trust.
If you do not have a Living Trust, when you pass away your assets will need to go through a probate process in order for your heirs to receive them. In California, this probate process has been taking well over a year and after COVID-19, it is closer to two years. For real estate in California, there is another method to avoid probate which is a Transfer on Death Deed (TOD). However, at this time, the TOD has notable limitations. Married couples usually hold their real estate in joint tenancy or community property and this form of ownership takes precedence over a TOD. Also, if there is a minor receiving the real property, a court appointed custodian over the minor is necessary. Finally, because this is a new form of title transfer in California, the title companies will only issue title policies after waiting three years from the date the beneficiary gets the property under a TOD.
In California, the probate process is very expensive. Pursuant to section 10810 of the California Probate Code, both the attorney and the executor of a probate estate are EACH entitled to be compensated for ordinary services in accordance with a statutory fee schedule which is 4% of the first $100,000 of the GROSS estate, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, 1% of the next $9,000,000, and one-half % of the next $15,000,000. For estates larger than $25,000,000, the court will determine the fee for the portion that exceeds $25,000,000.
If you know the value of your Gross estate (without deducting any loans), you may enter it in the California Probate Fees tab and the approximate statutory fee the executor in California (and attorney) is entitled to will appear. Note, if you have both an executor and an attorney your estate will be charged TWICE this fee.
To avoid this expensive fee and the long time it takes to clear the probate process, you can put your assets in a Living Trust. While you are alive this trust is entirely revocable and can be changed at any time. So, if you decide you want to change the beneficiaries or revoke the trust entirely, you can do this by simply executing a simple document.
A trust is by far the best way of getting your assets to your heirs and beneficiaries in the shortest possible time at minimum expense. It’s a fact that most people don’t use a trust simply because they are not aware of its true purpose and effect.
Our Living Trust Set
Our Living Trust comes in an engraved leather-bound case and includes the following documents. For married couples, the husband and wife each get their own individual documents.
1. Formal Declaration of Trust Document
2. Certification of Trust for recording
3. Statutory Form Advance Health Care Directive (Husband and Wife each get their own)
4. General Durable Power of Attorney (Husband and Wife each get their own)
5. Medical Information Disclosure Authorization Form (Husband and Wife each get their own)
6. Pour Over Will (Husband and Wife each get their own)
7. Schedule of Assets Transferred to Trust
8. Grant Deed to change title of real property to the Trust
9. Preliminary Change of Ownership form required by county assessor for the real property
10. Letters to banks, stock brokers, etc. requesting change of title of accounts to the Trust
The Costs for Your Living Trust
For the complete Living Trust set, including all documents, binder, the signing, notarization and recording of one grant deed to transfer a residence to the Trust, I charge a total of $3,950. This includes my meeting with both the client and the witnesses to oversee signing the documents. To record the deed to transfer the house to the Living Trust, the County Recorder will charge a recording fee of approximately $300.00 depending upon the number of pages of the deed. If the client has additional real properties to put into the trust, there will be an additional fee of $650 for each additional real property placed into the trust. We require a down payment of $500.00 (applied to the total fee) at the time we begin work on creating the trust documents.
Making Your Living Trust
Under the Contact tab simply fill in your name, email address and whether you are married or single and press send. We will send you a confidential form by email to fill out and return to us. Once we have confirmed that we can create your Living Trust we will send you an invoice for the $500.00 down payment which you can pay online by credit card or mail in a check.
We will notify you by email when the Living Trust and related documents are completed and ready for signature and will ask you a date, place and time that we can come over with the completed documents to have them signed by you and the two witnesses. For your protection, all precautions including mask, and social distancing (if required) will be observed during the signing process.
After the documents are signed, you will pay the balance (by check or credit card) and we will provide you the original documents and will mail the grant deed to the county recorder to transfer your real property to your Living Trust.
This will complete your Living Trust. Of course, we provide you our contact information should you have any questions thereafter.