living trust attorney near me

CunninghamLegal

4165 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Suite 145 

Westlake Village, CA 91362

(805) 342-0970

Have a daughter who’s in a shaky marriage and could someday face divorce? Twenty years from now, when you’re gone, will her ex have some kind of claim on the money you’d like to leave her?

Unclear? You need a good California Estate Planning Attorney, right now.

What Happens If I Have no Estate Plan?

Here’s what happens if you have no Estate Plan and Living Trust: people you love will likely have to go to what’s called “probate court” to fight over their rights—not just to your house, but your bank accounts, your investments, and maybe even guardianship of your minor children and other dependents.

If you’re still alive, but incapacitated, they may be forced to stand by your bedside and fight over who will take control of all those parts of your life, and about who will make health and end-of-life decisions for you as well.

When any of your loved ones go to court for any of these reasons, it usually ends up costing a lot of money. Really a lot of money. Often along with months, even years, of everyone’s time.

Not to mention that somewhere along the road, even the closest family relationships may be destroyed.

Can My Children Make an Estate Plan for Me After I Die?

After you get very sick or you die, it’s too late to make an Estate Plan. Your children cannot create a plan after you are gone or incapacitated. Far too often, our office gets calls from children asking what to do if their parents made a plan but didn’t sign it—or left no documents at all. Sadly, we have to tell them they’re probably headed to court.

Only you can make an Estate Plan and create your Living Trust, and only when you are alive and coherent. Without the carefully designed, fully signed and witnessed documents in a complete Estate Plan, your wishes, which you assumed “everyone understood” will likely carry no legal weight.

You need to do this, and you need to do it now.

living trust lawyer