Estate Planning That Keeps Your Family Out of Court

Estate Planning in California

Probate on a $1M California estate costs a family about $46,000 and 12–18 months. A complete plan is a flat $4,100. This page is how you make sure you’re on the right side of that number.

Ventura County families come to me after the same three moments: someone died without a plan, someone became incapacitated and no one could act, or they finally sat down and realized they had built something worth protecting. I practice estate planning — wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and advance directives — and have done so in Ventura County since 2010.

Documents in a complete California estate plan

A complete estate plan includes four pieces: a revocable living trust, a pour-over will, a durable financial power of attorney, and an advance health care directive. These pieces work together, and a gap in any one of them is a gap your family discovers at the worst possible time. The trust only works if it is funded — your house deeded into it, your accounts retitled or pointed at it. That funding step is where most plans quietly fail, and it is included in every plan I build.

How it works

1. Talk to Eric — a free 30-minute call, by phone or Zoom.
2. I build your plan and move your home and accounts into it — flat fee, quoted in writing before any work starts.
3. Your family stays out of probate — everything is where it belongs, and if the day comes, their whole job is one phone call.

Where families come in

Planning: living trusts and wills

The core of the practice. I build the four documents above as one plan, for a flat fee you will have in writing before any work starts. I also do the part most plans skip: recording the deed, retitling the accounts, and fixing the beneficiary forms so the trust actually controls what you own. Start with how a living trust works or why funding is the part that matters.

Trust administration: when you are the successor trustee

Someone died and left a trust, and now you are in charge of it. California law gives you notice deadlines, accounting duties to beneficiaries, and personal liability if you get them wrong. I take that work off your plate, or coach you through the parts you want to handle yourself. Start with what trust administration involves or your first 90 days as trustee.

Probate: when there was no trust

Probate is the public court process for assets that were never planned around. In Ventura County it typically takes twelve to eighteen months, and the fees are set by statute and come off the top of the estate. I handle full probates and the shortcuts that avoid them: the small-estate procedures for estates under $208,850, the AB 2016 simplified petition for a primary residence under $750,000, and the Heggstad petition when a house was left out of an existing trust. Start with how California probate works.

What it costs

A complete trust-based estate plan is a flat $4,100 for a married couple, $3,700 for one person — the trust, the will, the incapacity documents, and the deed that moves your California home into the trust. You will have the number in writing before anything starts, and it does not change. For comparison, probate on a $1,000,000 California estate — a house and some savings — costs your family about $46,000 in statutory fees, calculated on the gross value; a mortgage does not reduce the fee. More detail: what an estate plan costs in California and how my fees work.

Where I work

My office is in Port Hueneme, and most of my clients are in Ventura County — Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, and the surrounding communities. I also serve Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties, and California families statewide by phone or Zoom. See every community I serve.

Why families work with me

I have practiced estate planning in Ventura County since 2010 (California Bar #273702). You work with me directly — no associates, no hand-offs — and everything is explained in plain English. Families have left 188 Google reviews, averaging 4.9 out of 5. More about me: About Eric Ridley. Not sure whether the plan you already have still works? Take the seven-question trust health check.

Estate Planning FAQs

I already have a will. Is that enough?

A will alone still goes through probate. Every asset titled in your name at death — your house, bank accounts, investment accounts — has to pass through the court before your heirs can touch it. A living trust moves those assets outside the probate process entirely.

How much does estate planning cost in Ventura County?

I charge a flat fee, agreed in writing before we start, not hourly. A complete trust-based plan is $4,100 for a married couple or $3,700 for one person, including the deed that moves your home into the trust, and takes about four weeks. For comparison, probate on a $1,000,000 California estate costs your family about $46,000 in statutory fees before other costs.

Can I use an online service instead?

You can generate the documents. What online services cannot do is make sure your assets are actually titled into the trust: deeds re-recorded at the county recorder, bank accounts re-registered, and beneficiary designations updated. Most stop at the signing, which is where the work that matters begins.

How often should I update my plan?

Every three years, and sooner after any major change such as marriage, divorce, a new child, a death in the family, or a significant shift in what you own. I include a three-year review in every plan. Laws change too: AB 2016, effective April 2025, altered how a decedent’s primary residence can transfer.

Written by Eric D. Ridley, Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law. Serving Ventura County since 2010.

Plan-specific guides: Living Trust vs. Will · Prop 19 Planning · Trust Funding · Guardianship of Minor Children · Plain-English Glossary

The full guide library

Every published article on this site is organized into a topic library. Each library opens with a plain-English overview and links every guide on that topic.

• California probate guides — when probate is required, how the process runs, and what it costs.
• Trustee and beneficiary guides — what to do when you become successor trustee and what beneficiaries can ask for.
• Living trust and will guides — what a will does, how a living trust works, and what a complete plan includes.
• Trust funding guides — retitling assets into a trust, changing or revoking a trust, and why DIY trusts fail.
• Estate and inheritance tax guides — the federal estate tax, step-up in basis, capital gains, and Prop 19 for 2026.
• Inheriting a house guides — the mortgage, reassessment, title transfer, and sibling buyouts.
• Retirement and beneficiary-asset guides — IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, POD accounts, and the inherited-IRA 10-year rule.
• Family-situation guides — blended families, minor children, special needs, pet trusts, and disputes.
• Incapacity and POA guides — durable powers of attorney, health care directives, and planning for incapacity.