How do I properly amend a revocable trust in California?

The failures are almost always mechanical rather than legal. Someone writes changes in ink on the original trust — crossing out a name, penciling in a new percentage — which is not an amendment and mostly succeeds in casting doubt on the entire document. Someone signs an amendment that was never delivered where delivery was required. Someone amends a joint trust alone after a spouse has died, when the document allowed changes only to part of it. Someone amends "Article Four, Paragraph 2" of a trust that was restated years ago, so the cross-reference points at language that no longer exists. And someone changes who inherits the house without noticing the house was never retitled into the trust in the first place. Prob. Code § 15800 confirms that while you are competent and hold the power to revoke, the rights belong to you rather than to your remainder beneficiaries, so you do not owe your children notice. That also means nobody is checking your work. Sign in front of a notary even when the trust does not demand it, keep the signed original with the trust, and never write on the original.