San Fernando Valley Probate & Estate Administration Law Blog

When sitting down to consider your estate planning options in Woodland Hills, you might want to keep the idea of managing your assets through a trust towards the front of your mind. This will hopefully ensure their wise management for the benefit of your beneficiaries (or yourself, should you become incapacitated). One question then looms: Who should you choose to be your trustee? You can always go with a bank or legal firm, yet such a decision will likely cost more than having a family member or trusted friend fill the role. It is for this reason why many choose to keep their trustees in the family. Yet when doing so, some say it might be wiser to name a team of co-trustees. 

Why would you name cotrustees? The most obvious advantage is that it eliminates ideas of favoritism. Spreading the responsibility of managing your assets between your children or between them and your spouse allows all of them to have a say in how those assets are utilized. The California Probate Code ensures such, as it says in Section 15620 that any powers vested in cotrustees can only be exercised by unanimous action. 

California residents may at some point end up having to deal with either writing a will of their own, or handling someone else's will. In these situations, it's good to know the difference between the different types of wills. In this segment, we take a look at living wills and last wills.

According to the Free Dictionary, a living will is also known as an advance directive. This will comes into play while a person is still alive. It is written by the person in question while in their right mind. In a living will, a person determines what shall be done in the case of permanent unconsciousness, comatose states, or a state of permanent illness. For example, if someone does not want to be on continued life support after being declared vegetative, a living will is where they would put the instructions for dealing with that situation.

Estate planning can be complicated in any situation, but familes that have been blended through marriage and divorce can create additional obstacles to overcome. If you are attempting to build an estate plan in California with a blended family, you may have run across some confusing issues. We at the Law Offices of Alice A. Salvo are experienced in handling this or any other type of planning and can assist you as you create the perfect plan for your family.

According to Forbes.com, one of the biggest problems that parents in blended families face is the question of where their money and property will go after they pass away. This can include much more than a house, vehicles and savings accounts. Experts say that many people also need to determine where their insurance policies, retirement accounts, stocks, bonds and other funds will be designated once they are gone. While you may be happy to let your spouse have complete control over the assets once you pass, there may be some situations in which you are more comfortable with another person or entity being in charge. 

Taking on the role of being a trustee to an instrument or account created by a family member, friend or colleague in Woodland Hills is a large responsibility, and certainly one that should not be taken lightly. You may do well to consider the matter for a time before actually accepting the role. While some (including even possibly the settlor) may question your apprehension in immediately assuming the responsibility, your prudence may ultimately help ensure that the trust is handled properly. The question, however, is whether or not the law automatically assigns you this responsibility.

The guidelines and requirements for assuming the role of a trustee can be found in Section 15600 of the California Trust Code. In this section, it states that in order to accept a trust (and, by extension, the job of trustee), you must either sign a written acceptance of the responsibility or the trust instrument itself. Even if, however, you do not sign anything designating yourself as the trustee, it is assumed that you have accepted such a role if you knowingly begin to exercise the powers assigned to the trustee in the trust instrument.