California Living Trust Avoids Probate & Estate Taxes

Skilled California Lawyers Prepare Fully Customized Living Trusts

A living trust is the most important part of every estate plan prepared by an attorney. During your life, your assets are described in trust documents and held in the name of your trust, but you can use, sell, or dispose of them as you wish. After you pass away, the people you choose will receive your property without the delay and cost of probate. In addition, assets that go to your spouse will not be subject to estate taxes until after your spouse also passes away.

San Diego Law Firm includes a fully customized living trust in every estate plan. Your living trust will fit your tax, marital status, and personal situation perfectly, so that you receive the fullest legal benefits possible. For more detailed information about types of living trusts, please see our Will and Estate Plan Dictionary. From our San Diego, California law offices, we handle specialized trusts, living trusts, wills, and and estate planning throughout California, including Riverside, Imperial, Los Angeles, and all southern California.

Benefits of a Living Trust

The many benefits of a living trust include:

1. Avoiding probate.

With a living trust, you can eliminate the entire probate process. Probate can tie up your assets for 18 months or longer, and its fees and costs be as much as 8% of your estate. A living trust can pass your property directly to your heirs, such as your spouse and children.

2. Reducing or eliminating death taxes.

3. Providing a higher income tax cost basis for appreciated property such as real estate and stocks. This reduces income tax liability when your surviving spouse or heirs sell the property. Joint ownership does not provide this benefit.

4. Protecting your family and your business from loss if you no longer manage your own affairs. A living trust can allow the trustee you select to gradually assume authority without a judicial determination of incompetency.

5. Maintaining control. With a living trust, you can provide income for your spouse, but keep the principal balance for your children or other heirs after your spouse's death, unless your spouse has exhausted his or her own assets. This can be very useful when there are children from a former marriage.

6. Keeping your affairs private. Wills are a matter of public record, but trusts are private.

Trust Administration Services

When both spouses to a living trust have passed away, the trust needs final administration. This means the remaining property is inventoried, creditors and taxes owing are paid, and the remaining assets are distributed to the designated beneficiaries. If the trust had assets of significant value, this task may be more than family members can easily handle. San Diego Law Firm offers final trust administration services; the cost depends on the work to be done. Please call for more information.

How to Contact Us

For more information or an appointment, please call San Diego Law Firm at 619-794-0243, or, if you prefer, send us an e-mail at and an attorney from our office will contact you. Please note that making a phone call or sending an e-mail does not create an attorney-client relationship; this requires a written agreement. Please do not e-mail any confidential information to us until an agreement is signed; at that point, we can exchange confidential information freely.