Estate Planning Living Trust
An Estate Planning Living Trust is the legal tool for financial planning that outlines the way in which your assets will be managed according to your wishes during your life. It also plans out how they will continue to be managed if you become incapacitated. Additionally, how and to whom they will be distributed to after you die. When you prepare your Living Trust, you will identify your beneficiaries as well as the person who will manage your assets if you are unable to and who will also carry out your wishes after your death.
What’s included in a Trust Package / Estate Planning?
Will
A California Last Will and Testament is a legal estate planning document used for the purpose of distributing an individual’s property, whether personal or real, upon their death to those they name as beneficiaries. A Will is different than a Living Trust in that a Will only provides instructions for the distribution of real and personal property upon your death. It does not provide instructions should you become incapacitated or incapable of making decisions regarding your medical care. Another extremely important benefit is that it can allow you to name someone as the legal guardian of your children and/or handle any property left to minor children. Please keep in mind that if you own estate assets in excess of $166,250 and you only have a Will, a probate will still be necessary.
Durable Power of Attorney
A Durable Power of Attorney gives someone the authority to act on another person’s behalf to handle financial and business transactions. Typically the person that has the Durable Power of Attorney over another will typically be called upon to do such things as pay monthly bills, prepare taxes, settle claims, operate business interest or hire household help. For many, a Durable Power of Attorney comes into effect when parents or other family members become physically or mentally incapable of managing their own affairs, and a family member or trust aid takes over.
Healthcare Directive
A California Advance Healthcare Directive allows an individual to choose an agent to make medical decisions on their behalf and select end-of-life treatment options. An advance directive combines a medical power of attorney and a living will. It is recommended to be completed by elderly individuals and those seeking high-risk medical procedures. Why is it important? The document allows loved ones to make medical decisions on a person’s behalf. It also outlines their preferred life-saving treatment options. It is a combination of a medical power of attorney and a living will.
Receiving medical treatment, especially when dealing with serious illness or end-of-life situations, often comes with many different decisions to make. Do you want to be kept alive no matter what, even if you’re suffering? Should you undergo a risky surgery? If you do pass away, do you prefer a burial or a cremation? Advance directives help to erase ambiguity in situations where doctors can’t ask patients how they wish to be treated.
Trust Amendment
A Trust is the original trust document together with all amendments. Amendments, amongst other things, add and subtract beneficiaries and change inheritances to existing beneficiaries.
Unless a trust is expressly made irrevocable by the trust instrument, the trust is revocable by the settlor. This means at any time during the settlor’s lifetime they can change their mind, revise or add their wishes.
There are plenty of reasons for amending a trust. The most frequent reason to amend a living trust is the sale of trust property. Other events that require a change might be a marriage, a birth of a child. Similarly, it could be due to a change of value or ownership of an asset. Or, simply a change of heart by the settlor. Trusts also might have to be amended if the settlor moves to another state. Another reason might be a name change of the grantor. Or, the death of the spouse or of a major beneficiary.
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