living trust lawyer
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.
A Special Kind of Box You Pass Along
Think of a Living Trust as a kind of legal “box” you create with the help of a lawyer. Into this box you place all your assets, and during your lifetime you are both the “trustee” or controller of the box, and the “beneficiary” of everything the box contains. If you’re married, both you and your spouse are typically equally trustees and beneficiaries.
When you die, a “successor trustee” named by you simply and efficiently gets handed the box. Often that’s a family member, but it could be a professional. The job of that trustee is to dole out the assets from the box to the new beneficiaries you named during your lifetime.
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