Give the gift of a hassle-free inheritance
We offer the following types of affordable estate planning protection.
Will Package
Includes Will, Healthcare Directive, and Financial Power of Attorney.
$250 for individual or $399 for couple
Revocable Trust
Help your estate avoid probate related delays and expenses
$300 for individual or $400 for couple
Healthcare Directive
Inform others of your healthcare decisions and designate whether life support is desired if you become terminally ill.
Starting at $125
Compare our estate planning services
Choose who cares for minor children and who gets your property
Help your loved ones avoid court costs and delays with probate when you die
Informs others of your healthcare decisions and who can decide for you
Decide who can handle your financial affairs if you are incapacitated
Common questions about estate plans
If you die without a will you will not be able to choose who receives your assets. Instead, your closest relatives or heirs inherit your wealth according to intestate succession laws.
Intestate succession laws control which surviving family members of the decedent inherit their assets after probate when the person did not leave a will. The statutory laws identify the decedent’s relatives that should inherit the money. Who inherits what depends on which relatives are still alive when the person dies. Generally speaking,
- When a decedent is married and has children, the spouse receives part of the estate and the children receive the rest.
- If the decedent is unmarried at the time of death and had children, the laws dived the estate equally among the children.
- When a decedent is unmarried and childless, the person’s parents inherit the estate. If the decedent’s parents are not living, the person’s siblings inherit equal portions of the estate.
- If the person does not have a surviving spouse, children, parents, or siblings, then the person’s grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins can inherit.
Keep in mind, there are many other variations of how intestate laws work. You can read more about California’s intestate succession laws here.
The biggest benefit of having a trust is that it avoids probate.
In California, estates with real property or estates valued over $166,250 usually have to be settled through some type of formal court probate process. This process is very costly and can take from 5 to 7 months to complete.
With a trust, administration of a trust after the death of the trustee is relatively simple and inexpensive.
Another benefit of having a trust is to manage the property if a person becomes incapacitated. A revocable living trust allows your successor trustee to take over whenever you become incapacitated. There is generally no interruption in the management of your property, and there is no requirement for a court-appointed conservator.
Probate is a legal proceeding required to settle a deceased person’s estate, paying all debts of the decedent, and distributing the property to the heirs and beneficiaries.
When a Living Trust holds the title to some of the decedent’s property, however, that property can pass to the beneficiaries without going through probate.
A court probate of a will, depending on the size of the estate, can be expensive and time-consuming. The probate process varies dramatically between states, but can be completely avoided with proper estate planning.
A living trust is a legal document established during a person’s lifetime which specifies how their property will be managed before and after their death, as well as provides a plan for how those assets, and the income earned by the trust, are distributed after his or her death.
Once the trust is established, all the assets of the person who created the trust ought to be transferred into the trust. Joint living trusts are also possible. They simply combine the assets of a husband and wife into one single trust, governed by one single trust document.
Trusts are usually “revocable”, which means that the person establishing the trust can make changes to the trust at any time as long as they are competent to do so. If the person establishing the trust should become incapacitated or disabled, the trust is in place to manage his or her financial affairs, and the successor trustee can then take over the management of the trust.
In most situations, the person establishing the trust is the Trustee – the person who manages the trust. The trust also names a successor trustee. A living trust is not subject to probate.
You should have an estate plan if:
- You are the parent of a minor or disabled child.
- You have property that you care about.
- You care about your health care treatment.
Our flat fees cover all document preparation as specifically outlined in our Contract For Services. Our flat fees always include a courtesy allocated amount of communication via email. This allocation should adequately cover most client’s email needs. Our business strategy in offering competitive pricing is based on our volume of document preparation. We understand that clients will have questions, and we want our clients to be informed about their legal process. When approaching us with questions, clients should try to be thoughtful, and consider including multiple questions within each email. We do recognize that some customers have special needs. Therefore, to provide a cost-effective solution for everyone, if a client exceeds the allotted number of emails offered for their particular type of legal proceeding, emails that exceed a client’s allotment will be charged.
Customers can typically expect a swift response, even after hours and on the weekends, although we do not “guarantee” a specific after-hours email response time. This program allows complete customer control over their overall legal fees. In addition, it has allowed us to keep our fees at “rock bottom” prices for those extremely price-conscious consumers; while maintaining flexibility and convenience for those customers who want to pay for that extra service.
A People’s Choice has been in the legal document preparation business for over 40+ years. Unlike many other companies who hide in internet obscurity, we provide our toll-free and local telephone numbers as well as our address on our website. We are not attorneys, and we do not provide legal advice; however, we do provide exceptionally high quality legal document preparation services unsurpassed by any other company on the internet, and we take pride in our long-term reputation.
