858.792.5988

Serving San Diego for over 35 Years

Clients, Colleagues, and Friends,

I retired on Dec. 31, 2019, and officially closed my office, after 42 years of practicing law. I thank you all for your confidence in me and your friendship over the years. My colleague David Dufek who has shared the suite with me for the past two years is taking over my practice and will have all client files. Not only will David be taking over the practice, he remains in the suite and is taking over my fax and phone lines. You are free to leave your files with David or pick them up. David's practice like mine includes will, trusts, and probate, as well as personal injury work. He also does landlord - tenant work and debtor - creditor matters including bankruptcy.

I wish you all the best.

Alex

What Does My Trust Say? (Part 2)

NOTE: This is part 2 of a two-part article on trusts. Read part 1.

“What does my trust say?”  If you’re like most people, you were surprised by the stack of documents at your estate planning signing meeting.  The estate planning process, including the revocable living trust, has a lot of information to take in during a few meetings.

In part one of “What does my trust say?” we discussed the trust creation, family acknowledgement, trust funding, and the appointment of trustees.  Below, we continue.

Disability planning

Your trust will include disability planning.  This means that there are instructions as to when will be deemed “disabled” authorizing your disability trustees to take over management of your financial affairs and day to day business on your behalf.  This is the most important lifetime benefit of your trust.

Distribution provisions

After you die, your financial assets are distributed pursuant to the distribution provisions in your trust.  There are likely sub-trusts for your surviving spouse/partner.  And upon your spouse’s/partner’s death, sub-trusts for your children (or other beneficiaries.)

Trust funding

Part of the estate planning process is trust funding.  Funding refers to the process through which the title of your assets is transferred from your name into the name of your trust.  For example, the bank account was in the name of “James L Smith.”  It is then re-titled into “The James L. Smith Revocable Trust, dated June 3, 2010.”

Trustee powers

Many trusts will have pages and pages of what the trustees powers are.  I try to keep my documents more comprehensible and simply refer to the powers available to a trustee under the California Probate Code.  These are extensive and should cover almost every conceivable situation.

If you have questions about what’s in your revocable living trust, please feel free to call our estate planning law office at (858) 792-5988.  We’d be happy to assist you.