Easy Pasadena Estate Planning Tips

Many people have estate planning all wrong. Concerns about the morbid nature of the process and the feeling that they have all the time in the world ultimately keep many individuals and families from doing this very important legal activity until it is too late. The truth is that estate planning can be something that benefits you in both life and death as well as something you might actually enjoy putting together. The bottom line is this: putting together a comprehensive estate plan is the best way to ensure that what you have goes where you want it and that your loved ones are appropriately taken care of. The Law Offices of Christopher B. Johnson can help.

With that logic in mind, let’s take a look at some easy Pasadena estate planning tips you can get started on today:

• Take Inventory: Do you know the whole scope of your estate? Start by writing everything down and thinking about what you have and where you want it to go.
• Get organized: Credit cards, bank accounts, retirement accounts and a pre-existing estate plan are all things you might have opened at one point but do you have everything organized in case something were to happen to you? Don’t put the stress of searching and organization on your loved ones, get everything together today. This is something that will help in the future and also help you currently. Think of it as a spring cleaning for your estate.
• Have conversations: Inheritance and obligations (i.e. health care decisions, taking care of young children, etc.) should not necessarily come as a surprise to the people around you so having an ongoing dialogue with the people that are listed in your will, trust and healthcare directive is important to do before the time comes.
• Look into your coverage at work: A lot of people have built-in estate planning options at work that they should take full advantage of. During your enrollment period, make sure you have designated a beneficiary for any life insurance that may be offered and also look at other offerings such as disability contributions. These things are two examples of items that make great financial sense and are already part of your work benefits and may require little or no personal contributions.
• Get in touch with an attorney: Whether it is your first time or there have been changes to your life that need to be accounted for, working with an experienced estate planning attorney can make this process easy and ensure that you are putting the estate plan that works for you.

At the Law Offices of Christopher B. Johnson, I am here to help guide you through this important process and answer all of your questions and concerns. Every estate plan is unique and my 20+ years of experience will make you feel confident that you in good hands. Give me a call today to schedule your initial consultation—I look forward to working with you!

Instruments to Assist with Estate Planning in Pasadena

The government categorizes financial instruments into two types: equity, which represents an asset, or debt-based, which represents a loan against assets. Both affect your estate. Proper estate planning in Pasadena can mean the difference between your controlling your assets and the courts intervening and managing your estate against your wishes. Although the estate planning process can be intimidating, these tools may help:

1. A last will and testament. This instrument specifies who should receive assets from your estate after death and clarifies other essential requests for the next generation. If you do not have a will, the state will decide who receives assets and how they are distributed.
2. Financial power of attorney. If you cannot manage your estate, granting someone financial power of attorney enables that person (whom you can choose) to oversee your assets.
3. Health care power of attorney. This document, which allows someone to make healthcare decisions if you cannot, is not necessarily a “financial” instrument. Many individuals designate the same person as financial and health care power of attorney, but others prefer the balance of two different appointees.
4. Revocable Living Trust. This is a legal contract similar to a will. The estate appoints someone to manage a trust on the beneficiary’s behalf. Creating a living trust generally will prevent your estate from having to go through a timely and costly probate process.
5. Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT). This estate tool can be helpful if you own assets that have appreciated over time and if you want to donate to a good cause. The trust first pays you, and then it pays the charity or charities you’ve designated with what’s left over (hence the idea that this is a “remainder” trust). The CRT can help you avoid paying taxes on capital gains and enjoy an income tax deduction.
6. Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT). This irrevocable trust can help seniors who may soon need Medicaid benefits from having to use up their own assets before qualifying for government assistance. Adult children can be designated as trustees, who then pay out to their parents (the beneficiaries).

An attorney who understands the complexities of California estate planning law can advise you regarding what instruments might be appropriate. Call our team for insight and a free consultation about your options.

How Having A Large Family Complicates Estate Planning

Having a large family is certainly a blessing but it is also something you should be aware can serve to complicate your estate plan. At the Law Offices of Christopher B. Johnson, we have seen just about every type of family there is during my 18 years as a Pasadena estate planning attorney so we know how important it is to find an estate plan that works for you.

The more assets you have the more complicated an estate plan typically is. The same holds true for family members. Whether it is step-siblings or kids or you need to plan for taking care of grandchildren or extended relatives, this can all be done it just takes a little extra planning. Here are some additional things to think about when it comes to planning your estate for a large family:

• Do you want to divide everything equally?
• Do certain family members need their inheritance managed by a third party rather than just given to them?
• Who will control the estate and make important decisions when you are gone?
• How to plan for potential conflicts among family members?
• If there are underage children, who will look after them and how do you want to manage their inheritance?

What Happens Where There is No Estate Planning

Before we get into what an estate planning attorney does, let’s simply look at what would happen if you did not engage in any estate planning. When you die, your assets would come under the control of a probate court. That court will decide how your assets will be distributed, and parties wishing to receive your assets will have to take part in the court proceedings (and potentially hire an attorney). This can result in delay and expense, and avoidable taxes might eat up some of the estate. Second of all, without proper estate planning, your estate may not have any significant assets in it to begin with at the end of your life, leaving your beneficiaries without support.

Estate Planning Provides Security For All Involved

An estate planning attorney can help you avoid the above situation playing out by working with you to create and implement estate planning strategies that you can count on to be legally valid and enforceable and which take into account all applicable state and federal laws and other matters, not to mention incorporating growth strategies to maximize your estate.

DIY estate planning kits generally consist of downloadable forms (which are often free elsewhere) but which provide no legal guidance specific to your family’s situation or any assurance that the paperwork has been properly completed. Furthermore, a kit cannot provide the kind of holistic legal guidance that an estate planning attorney can: your estate may involve issues relating to local and state real property laws, intellectual property laws, state and federal taxation, and specific provisions of insurance and retirement plans. An experienced estate planning attorney will guide your estate planning to make sure that all issues are appropriately accounted for, and that your estate planning tools will be enforceable down the line.

Estate Planning Attorneys Know What Works and What Doesn’t

An experienced estate planning attorney works with individuals and families every day to help them plan for their future. While it’s true that every family is different, there are commonalities between families with regard to their goals and financial scenarios, and an experienced estate planning attorney can tell you based on experience what works and what you might avoid in your estate planning.

There are numerous types of estate planning instruments, each with their own intricacies and implications, and an experienced estate planning attorney will walk you through each of them in search of the ones that best grow and protect your assets for the particular financial scenario and goals that you have.

See What a Pasadena Estate Planning Attorney Can Do For You

Christopher B. Johnson is an estate planning attorney in Pasadena, CA who has helped thousands of individuals and families over the past 18 years in creating and reaching their estate planning objectives. Schedule a consultation with him today to discuss your estate planning goals.