Life has been good to you, and you’ve manage to accumulate many assets along the way. Your estate now consists of stock investments, real property and various items of value. Now you want to make sure that what you own is going to make it into the hands of your heirs after you’re gone. The best way to ensure this happens is through proper estate planning, and an Estate Planning Lawyer in Irvine, CA helps you achieve just that.
Perhaps the most basic document involved in estate planning is a will. It’s paperwork wherein you name who you want to inherit your goods, and how. You state that you are of sound mind and body, and that this is your ultimate decision for how your propery is to be dispersed after your passing. Working with an Estate Planning Lawyer in Irvine, CA helps you make a final will and testament that is solid and is not easily challenged in court. It may be that there are relatives who feel that they deserve items from your estate, but you decided to give them to others, and the spurned relatives decide to take the will to court. Making an ironclad will makes it all but impossible for spurned relatives to win out in court.
When you have assets you want to pass to certain heirs at a certain time in their life, you can set up a revocable or irrevocable trust. Both types of trusts are overseen by a trustee who ensures that the heir receives the gift at the point that you designate. In the case of a revocable trust, you are able to access the assets within the estate and use them as you wish. Putting assets into an irrevocable trust means that the assets are out of reach by all except the designated heir at the point of time you decide, such as coming into a majority or going to college.
Estate planning gives you peace of mind when it comes to how your goods are handled after you pass. Talk to a lawyer about what makes the most sense for your personal estate.
