Essential Estate Planning Documents
May 19, 2022
NOELLE MINTO, ESQ.My name is Noelle Minto and I’m here to tell you what every single person in the state of California needs to have as an essential set of estate planning documents, regardless of wealth. First and foremost, powers of attorney need to be executed for every individual over the age of 18. This is because if you are disabled, or in any way incapacitated because of an injury or illness, you are not going to have the benefit of someone being your legal advocate that others need to listen to. That includes the banks and medical professionals who might be trying to assist you. Powers of Attorneys are typically called, in California, a Durable Power of Attorney, which is also known as the Financial Power of Attorney or Advanced Healthcare Directive.
These are essential documents. If you do not have them, and you cannot speak for yourself and need someone’s help in transacting a financial transfer, paying a mortgage, etcetera, they’re going to have to go into court and ask to be appointed as your conservator. If that occurs, you are looking at at least $3,000 to $5,000 and could increase if you need it on an emergency basis, which requires two sets of paperwork. I would also advise against this because typically, no matter whether we try and expedite the matter in court and have it approved on a temporary or interim basis, in an emergency, their timeline is not going to be the same as your timeline. It could take weeks or even months to be appointed on a temporary basis. Estate planning documents, regardless of wealth, should always be obtained right away upon the age of 18, even if you’re just appointing your parent to be your agent.
In addition to having a Durable Power of Attorney, even if you do not have an amount of money that justifies doing a revocable trust, you should at least have a Will. Having a Will allows you to direct who you want to be in charge of your Estate, sometimes referred to as an Administrator, and where you would like your items to go. If you do not do that, then the Probate Code establishes how your assets should be divided. Now, a Will will not keep you out of court because you will have to Probate that Will, which is why as soon as you have enough assets to be concerned with, you need to do a Living Trust.
There are several other documents that can be obtained and they’re based on every individual circumstance but at a very minimum, these Powers of Attorney and a Will or a Trust with a Pour-Over Will should be executed by every individual.
Testimonials
John Schroeder was brought on to work on my case with Samantha and they updated/collaborated with Noelle. Noelle, Samantha and John are all patient, direct and very personable. Their knowledge and professionalism are exceptional. NM Law was successful in achieving a Settlement Agreement under difficult circumstances amongst people with little trust in one another. Thankfully we did not have to bear the cost of going to trial, however, I have complete confidence that NM Law would have prevailed if we had.
I highly recommend NM Law. I look forward to working with them again, but this time to plan my estate.
I want to thank you and your staff for the courtesy extended to us during our family's pending emergency deadline.
Mr. O'Grady spoke to my brother and gave us his best recommendation regarding my father's estate.
It is really hard to speak, and even harder to "plan" generational wealth with a parent in terms of assets, intentions, and mortality, but it is a necessary conversation to have, if only to lessen the unfairness of life that eventually catches up to all of us.
Our family tried to bring justice to my father's death within this probate process and found no justice, this system must be changed, so that a fairness is inherit within this system and not just a scam—lots of hard lessons to be learned from a broken probate process.
In either case, thank you again for giving our family the attention and direction we sought. The adage is true, not all lawyers are the same. Looking forward to working with your office in the near future, as we don't want to repeat this experience with our Mom.
Gracias,
Abraham
We highly recommend NM Law for your estate planning needs.
I highly recommend NM Law.
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