Once your lawyer has produced draft documents to your specifications, the final step is to go in to the estate planning lawyer's office to have all of them signed. Because of the formalities involved, we have a strong preference for having our clients come to our office in Los Angeles so that we can oversee the entire process. Doing so allows us to have one final review with the client and to make any last-minute modifications to the documents before having them executed. It also allows us to make sure that the proper legal procedure is being followed as the documents are being signed.

If Coming to the Office is Not Convenient

On some occasions, where a client is not able to come to our office, we may arrange to visit the client and their home. This allows us to oversee the execution of the documents, but makes it difficult to make any last-minute changes. Additional witnesses may also need to be called to the client's home.

Finally, in instances where a client lives too far from our offices in Los Angeles County, California, we will prepare a detailed memo about how the documents should be signed. 

Post-Meeting Steps

After the meeting to sign the documents, you will be given an overview of the steps to ensure the effectiveness of your estate planning documents. These include:

1. The lawyer will take care of the process of recording any real property deeds to transfer them to your trust.
2. If you've created a revocable living trust, this means making sure that you properly re-title your assets in the name of the trust. The lawyer will likely have taken care of this with respect to any real estate that you own, but it is often up to the client to ensure that this is done with respect to financial accounts (the lawyer is often available for guidance).
3. Ensuring that the beneficiary designations on your life insurance policies and retirement accounts are updated in coordination with your estate planning documents.
4. Making your family aware of where you keep those estate planning documents in case something happens. However, in our experience, it may not be advisable to share the contents of your estate planning documents, as you may amend them and therefore set false expectations of the beneficiaries you've named in them.

That's pretty much it! After that, you should probably contact your estate planning lawyer every 2-3 years or whenever there's a major life event such as the birth of a new child or the death of a family member. It's also a good idea to contact your estate planning lawyer if there's a substantial change in your net worth.

Who Gets Your Assets if You Die Without an Estate Plan?

Whether you like it or not, everybody in California needs an estate plan. If you've failed to prepare actual estate planning documents, then it means that you are relying on the body of California law to dictate who will receive your property. Here's an overview of how some of your assets will get distributed:

1. Joint Tenancy assets automatically pass to the other joint tenants when you pass away.
2. Community property with right of survivorship is a special way of owning assets available to married couples and registered domestic partners. When one of the spouses or partners passes away, the other one automatically becomes the owner.
3. Assets with beneficiary designations automatically go to the beneficiaries that you've named on those accounts. A couple of common examples include life insurance and retirement accounts.
4. Assets held in a trust get distributed based on the terms of the trust document.

Intestate Succession?

If you die owning assets that are not subject to immediate transfer when you pass away and you have no Will in place, those assets are distributed according to the laws of "intestate succession." Under this statutory framework, these assets get distributed to your "heirs" (this is the legal term for people who would inherit from you if you had no Will and is generally comprised of your closest family members).

Probate

With a few exceptions, assets that are subject to the laws of intestate succession generally have to be "probated." Probate is a court-supervised process to make sure that your debts are paid off and your assets get distributed to your heirs. It can be a very expensive and time consuming proposition. For many Californians, avoiding the arduous process of probate is their primary goal in preparing an estate plan.

Before we can start talking about how to begin the process of preparing your estate planning documents, you need to get an idea for what estate planning is.

Estate Planning Overview

At its core estate planning is a process where you develop a plan for how your assets (e.g., real estate, bank accounts, etc.) will be used while you're alive and after you pass away. Often this is where "Wills" and "Living Trusts" come into the picture. An estate plan also includes documents such as an Advance Health Care Directive that make sure someone is in place to make health care decisions for you if you become incapacitated (i.e., you're no longer able to communicate your wishes). Finally, planning for any minor children you may have is another major component of an estate plan. The end product of this process is generally a set of estate planning documents that specifies your wishes.

Considerations

Developing an effective estate plan involves analyzing various moving parts and how they all interact with each other, and frequently having an estate planning lawyer guide you makes a lot of sense. Here's just a brief list of things you might need to think about:

1. Who will be in charge of making sure your assets get distributed to your family or loved ones?
2. Who will take care of any minor children you may have?
3. If you own a business, what will happen to it if you suddenly pass away?
4. How can you minimize the impact of income, estate, and property taxes as a result of your death?
5. How can you put a process in place so that your assets get distributed to your beneficiaries over time?
6. If you suddenly became incapacitated and couldn't communicate your wishes any more, who would make medical or financial decisions for you?

Carrying Out the Estate Plan

As with any plan that is put in place, the eventuality is that it must be carried out. This latter phase is often referred to as estate or trust (if you've set up a trust during your lifetime) administration. During this stage, the Executor or Trustee is tasked with carrying out the wishes that you've specified in your estate planning documents.