San Mateo California Estate Planning Law Blog

When a person in California creates an estate plan, one document they might consider executing is a trust. A trust is overseen by a trustee. However, after a trust is created, the trustee must uphold his or her fiduciary duty. The failure to do so could lead to trust litigation. The following post will provide a brief overview of how a trust is created, and what a trustee's fiduciary duty entails.

The creation of a trust is relatively straightforward, even if the terms of the trust itself are complex. In a trust, a person, the grantor, transfers legal ownership of the assets placed in a trust to the trustee. The trustee must manage these assets in a way that benefits the trust beneficiaries. Of course, with the wide variety of revocable and irrevocable trusts out there, the actual language of the trust sometimes needs to be quite complex in order for the trust to serve the purpose the grantor wants it to.

When it comes to dividing property in a divorce, there is a lot at stake. Couples in California will have to make decisions that could affect them for many years to come, such as what to do with the family home or how to divide retirement accounts. So, it pays to have an understanding of how California law addresses the issue of property division.

First, it is important to understand that California is considered to be a "community property" state when it comes to property division. Basically, this means that each party has an interest in assets obtained while married, since the marriage created a single community. With that in mind, spouses should note the difference between community property and separate property.

Creating a will that serves your purposes is not always a simple task. Conventional wisdom indicates that all legal adults should create a will, but a surprisingly high number of people simply never get around to it, even those with very high net worth or complicated assets. If you have a will already, this is an important step, but it is wise to carefully scrutinize your will for any weaknesses that may lead to challenges or conflicts later on.

If you have not reviewed the provisions of your will within the last four years, or since experiencing significant life events, your will is possibly more vulnerable to complications than you realize. Do not pass by this opportunity to protect the clarity of your wishes and ensure that your rights and preferences remain secure with proper attention to detail.

If it is possible to do something by ourselves, we often like to take care of the matter on our own terms. However, this is not always possible. Take estate planning for example. Due to life complexities, it can be difficult for San Mateo residents to navigate the estate planning process. This is because estate planning could include the execution of a wide variety of complicated documents.

Why is it important to get help drafting an estate plan? The biggest reason to get legal assistance during the estate planning process is because mistakes can be made if the process is not handled by a professional. And even if the mistake is fixable, it can be rather expensive to fix. That alone proves why it could be extremely beneficial to have help when drafting an estate plan.