To get a living trust, you need to decide what property the trust will hold, choose your beneficiaries and successor trustee, create and sign the trust document, and then transfer the appropriate assets into the trust.
For many California families, the last step is especially important. Creating a trust agreement without properly funding it may leave assets outside the trust and potentially subject to the probate process. A living trust can sound more complicated than it needs to be, but there are important decisions involved.
You need to consider who should receive your property, who will manage the trust if you become incapacitated or die, and how assets such as real estate and bank accounts should be handled. Working with Pleasanton estate planning lawyers can help you create a plan based on your family, finances, and long-term wishes rather than relying on generic legal forms.
Decide What You Want Your Living Trust to Accomplish
At Hall Law Group, we generally start by looking at what you actually need from your estate plan. For many people, a revocable trust is intended to make the transfer of property easier after death and reduce the amount of property that has to pass through probate court. It can also provide a structure for managing trust assets if you become unable to manage them yourself.
California Courts explains that a living trust allows you to designate a successor trustee who can eventually manage assets for the beneficiaries you name. When you die, assets that have been placed in the trust can generally pass to those beneficiaries without going through probate court.
That doesn’t mean every family needs exactly the same trust. Your estate planning needs can change based on whether you own real property, have minor children, own a business, have significant investments, or have more complicated tax concerns.
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Choose Your Trustee, Successor Trustee, and Beneficiaries
Creating the living trust document means deciding who will have certain responsibilities. With revocable living trusts, the person creating the trust will often maintain control over the property during their lifetime. You’ll also choose a successor trustee who can step in according to the terms of the trust, such as after your death or incapacity.
At Hall Law Group, we help clients think through this choice carefully. Your successor trustee may eventually have substantial responsibilities involving real estate, financial accounts, distributions to a family member, and other trust assets. Picking someone simply because they’re the oldest child or closest relative isn’t always the best answer.
You’ll also identify your beneficiaries and determine how and when they should receive property. This can become especially important when planning for minor children, beneficiaries with special needs, or someone who may benefit from receiving assets gradually instead of all at once.
Create a Trust That Fits With Your Broader Estate Plan
A living trust shouldn’t exist in isolation. Hall Law Group looks at how the trust works alongside the rest of a client’s estate plan because one document rarely addresses every situation.
Depending on your needs, related documents and planning tools may include:
- Pour-over will: A pour-over will can direct certain assets remaining outside the trust into the trust after death, although those assets may still require probate.
- Durable power of attorney: This document can authorize another person to handle specified financial and legal matters if you cannot act for yourself.
- Advance health care directive: This allows you to document health care wishes and appoint someone to make health care decisions when necessary.
- Beneficiary designations: Life insurance and retirement accounts may pass according to beneficiary designations rather than the instructions in your trust.
The details matter here. Retirement benefits, life insurance, joint ownership, and payable-on-death arrangements don’t necessarily work the same way as property titled directly in a trust. California Courts similarly notes that the way property is owned, including joint tenancy and beneficiary arrangements, can affect how it transfers after death.
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Fund Your Revocable Living Trust
Signing the trust agreement is a major step, but you aren’t necessarily finished. Hall Law Group also helps clients address trust funding, meaning the process of transferring appropriate assets into the trust.
Hall Law Group states that, when appropriate, its attorneys prepare and record deeds transferring clients’ real property into their trusts and provide instructions for funding the rest of the estate plan.
This part is easy to overlook, and it can cause real problems later. California Courts specifically explain that assets should be put into the trust for them to pass to trust beneficiaries without probate. Simply keeping a signed trust document in a drawer doesn’t automatically change ownership of every asset you have.
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Understand What a Living Trust Can and Cannot Do
Living trusts are useful, but they aren’t a magic fix for every estate planning concern. Hall Law Group helps clients understand where a revocable living trust fits and where another strategy may be needed.
For example, a standard revocable trust is different from an irrevocable trust or specialized asset protection trusts. Tax planning may also require additional strategies for people with substantial estates. And while avoiding probate is a common reason to establish a trust, some assets may already transfer outside probate through beneficiary designations, joint tenancy, or other mechanisms.
Probate itself is the legal process used to transfer or inherit certain property after an owner dies. California Courts notes that whether court involvement is necessary depends in part on the amount and type of property involved. That’s why it makes sense to evaluate your entire financial picture rather than assuming every asset should be handled in exactly the same way.
Get Help Creating Your Living Trust
You can find templates and legal forms online, but a living trust is ultimately supposed to reflect your life, not someone else’s. Hall Law Group can help you determine what belongs in your trust, select the right people to carry out your wishes, coordinate the trust with your other estate planning documents, and properly address funding.
If you’ve been putting off creating an estate plan because you’re not sure where to begin, start with a conversation. Contact Hall Law Group to discuss your property, family, and goals and find out what kind of living trust makes sense for you.
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