At Live Oak Estate Planning, we provide the following legal services.
Estate Planning
Estate planning encompasses both planning for the distribution of your assets after your death and planning for your potential incapacity. Without an estate plan, the state of California has made a plan for you. If you want a say in who will care for your children, who will receive which of your assets, or how to be cared for in the event of incapacity, then you need an estate plan.
Special Needs Planning
We help parents plan for children with special needs by building a fortress of protection around them that will last a lifetime, because they will need you and your support much longer than others.
Trust Administration
When someone dies with assets in a trust, the trust must be administered according to the rules laid out in the trust document. The successor trustee is typically the person responsible for administering the trust after the death of the trust creator. Regardless of the specifics of the trust, there are generally four categories of tasks to be performed by the successor trustee:
Probate
If someone dies without a trust, the court supervised probate process is used to identify the deceased person’s heirs, property, and valid debts. If there is a will, the court will usually appoint the executor named in the will and the assets will pass to the named beneficiaries. If there is no will, the court will appoint a family member or other interested person as executor and the assets will pass according to the California Probate Code.