Free California Estate Planning Guides
Want a quick read on where you stand? The checkup takes two minutes and tells you whether your plan has gaps.
The plain-English answer to the question you were about to Google: free, by email, no follow-up calls unless you ask.
Every guide here is the plain-English version of a question families actually bring us: what probate really costs, what a trust will and will not do, what to do in the first month after a death. Pick the ones that fit your situation, tell us where to send them, and they arrive by email. Free, no follow-up calls unless you ask for one.
Interactive tools
The Free 44-Point Trust Checkup
Upload your living trust and get a plain-English report graded against a 44-point checklist. About two minutes, and your document is never stored.
Answer a few questions about the estate and find out whether it needs full probate or qualifies for a simplified transfer.
Also free: the Probate Fee Calculator, the statutory cost of a California probate at any estate size.
Before anything happens
A Clear Explanation of Wills and Trusts
What a will really does, what a trust really does, and who honestly doesn't need one. The plain-English starting point for a California estate plan.
The 7 Estate Planning Mistakes That Destroy California Families
The seven mistakes that cause most probate-court damage, what each costs, and how to shut them down.
Gift, loan, or advance? Label the help in writing before it becomes an inheritance fight.
The Blended Family Estate Plan
California's defaults were written for first marriages. Pick who's protected on purpose.
If you died on Tuesday, who lawfully signs payroll on Friday? The short list that keeps the doors open.
You can leave someone out. The difference between clean and a courtroom is doing it the way the law recognizes.
Estate fights are rarely about money. They're about surprise. One honest conversation prevents most of them.
The New Parent Guardianship Kit
Who raises your kids if you can't? Name them properly, in the right document, before the court picks for you.
Leaving Money to a Child on Benefits
An outright inheritance can cut off SSI and Medi-Cal. How special needs trusts keep the benefits and the money.
Estate Planning for Unmarried Couples
California gives your partner nothing by default. The documents that protect each other on purpose.
The legal moves to make at the first signs of decline, while every option is still open.
After a death
The First 30 Days After a Death
Almost nothing has to happen this week. What actually needs doing, in order, and what to leave alone.
The Heggstad Rescue: When an Asset Never Made It Into the Trust
When a house or account never made it into the trust, a court petition can finish the job without probate.
The Successor Trustee's First 90 Days
You're the trustee now. The notices, deadlines, and first moves, in the order they're due.
How to Administer a California Special Needs Trust
You're the trustee now. What the trust can safely pay for, what quietly costs SSI dollars, and the one thing you never do.
Under $208,850, California lets you skip probate with an affidavit. The forms, the waiting periods, the steps.
Selling a House in a Trust or Estate
Who signs, what escrow needs, and the tax clock that starts at death. The playbook for both situations.
What Probate Actually Costs in California
Statutory fees on the gross estate, the timeline, and the math that makes trusts pay for themselves.
Do You Get Paid? Executor and Trustee Compensation
Yes, you're entitled to be paid. How much, and whether to take it, is a tax question worth thinking through.
The plan you already have
Amendment or Restatement? The Right Way to Change Your Trust
Patch small, rebuild big. How to tell which change your trust actually needs.
The Beneficiary Designation Audit
The form you signed the day you opened the account outranks your will. Check every one in an afternoon.
The Estate Plan Review Scorecard
Grade your plan against ten questions in ten minutes. Find out if it still does what you paid for.
The Capacity Window: Trust Changes After a Dementia Diagnosis
What your family can still change after a dementia diagnosis, and how to make it stick.
New to California: Does Your Old Estate Plan Still Work?
Your out-of-state documents are probably valid here and probably wrong here. What community property changes.
The 12 Defects We Find in Online Trusts
The specific failures we see in DIY and online trusts, and how to check yours for each one.
The mandatory split that saved estate tax in 2005 may be costing your family capital gains today.
An unfunded trust is an expensive stack of paper. Every asset type, and exactly how each gets retitled.
What a Trust Won't Protect You From
Living trusts are oversold. What yours actually does, what it doesn't, and what fills each gap.
Money, tax & property
The 10-year rule turned inherited IRAs into a tax planning problem. Map your withdrawals before the deadline maps them for you.
Does Your Rental Really Need an LLC?
The honest math on LLCs for California landlords, and what actually protects most families.
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