Estate Planning in California.

A standard California estate plan from Robert P. Bergman includes a revocable living trust to hold your assets and direct their distribution, pour-over wills that catch anything not transferred into the trust, durable powers of attorney for finances so someone you trust can manage your affairs if you cannot, advance health care directives that name your health care decision maker and record your treatment preferences, HIPAA authorizations, a certification of trust, a general assignment of property to the trust, and the California real estate transfers that fund the trust. Plans for families with minor children also include guardian nominations. Plans with a special needs beneficiary, business interests, or significant California real estate often include additional sub-trusts and entity coordination.

A standard California estate plan from the Law Offices of Robert P. Bergman is priced as a fixed fee based on the family situation and the asset structure. Plans involving sub-trusts (special needs, dynasty, irrevocable life insurance trusts) or business interests are priced separately based on complexity. Robert P. Bergman quotes a fixed fee at the initial Consultation or Preliminary Planning Session after reviewing your assets and goals. No surprises later.

Most California families with a home use a living trust because California probate is slow, public, and expensive. The statutory probate fees alone for a $1 million California estate are roughly $46,000. A fully funded living trust avoids those fees and the 9 to 18 month timeline entirely. A will alone leaves California assets to probate. Some smaller estates can use the small-estate procedures under Probate Code Section 13100, but for most Silicon Valley families, the home value alone puts them above the threshold.

A revocable trust can be amended, restated, or terminated at any time during the settlor’s life. The settlor keeps control of the assets and uses them as if they were not in the trust at all (for tax purposes the trust is transparent). Most California estate planning uses revocable trusts. An irrevocable trust cannot be changed once funded, except through specific court procedures (see the trust modification page). Irrevocable trusts are used for advanced tax planning, asset protection, and special needs planning where the rigidity is the point.

Most plans are signed within three to six weeks of the first meeting. The timeline has five steps: an initial Consultation or Preliminary Planning Session (15 to 30 minutes), the Plan Design Meeting (60 to 90 minutes), drafting (one to two weeks), draft review through a secure online portal, and the signing appointment (60 to 90 minutes). After signing, the funding step transfers your assets into the trust. Robert P. Bergman walks you through funding step by step.

Without a plan, California intestacy rules in Probate Code Sections 6400 to 6414 distribute your estate. A surviving spouse takes all the community property and a share of the separate property; the rest passes to children, then parents, then siblings. Without a will, the court appoints an administrator (often the surviving spouse or an adult child). Without guardian nominations, the court chooses the guardian for your minor children using its own factors. The estate also goes through full probate with the statutory fees. None of this is what most families would have chosen if they had been asked.

Review your plan whenever a major life event happens: marriage, divorce, birth or adoption, death of a spouse or beneficiary, significant change in assets, move into or out of California, or a beneficiary’s significant change in circumstances (a new disability, a substance issue, a marriage). Review the plan even without an event every five years to catch changes in California law (Prop 19 in 2020, the Uniform Trust Decanting Act in 2018, the 2026 Medi-Cal asset limit reinstatement). Most plan updates are amendments rather than full restatements; the cost is modest.

A trust avoids probate only for assets that are actually held in the trust. Funding is the step where you retitle your home from your individual name to the trust, change the registration of your brokerage account to the trust, and update beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance to direct those benefits into the trust at death. A trust without funding is just a piece of paper. When funding is incomplete and an asset is left out, a Heggstad petition can sometimes confirm trust ownership after death, but planning the funding correctly the first time avoids the petition cost. Robert P. Bergman walks every client through the funding step.

For California families with a home, a special needs concern, a blended family, business interests, or any expectation of conflict among beneficiaries, the answer is no. Online services produce a generic document. They do not handle Prop 19 planning, Medi-Cal preservation, retirement account beneficiary coordination, or the funding step that determines whether the trust actually works. The most common reason people end up filing Heggstad petitions or in full probate is that the original plan was a template that was never customized or funded. A specialist drafted plan costs more up front and often saves the family far more later.

Yes. California treats unmarried partners as legal strangers under intestacy law, which means an unmarried partner without a will or trust receives nothing automatically. Estate planning for unmarried partners often relies more heavily on trusts and beneficiary designations than for married couples. Blended families add the issue of providing for both a current spouse and children from a prior relationship; common tools include QTIP trusts and lifetime trusts for the surviving spouse. Robert P. Bergman handles both situations regularly.