A Plan That’s Actually Finished
Five meetings, then the step most attorneys skip: your house and accounts actually in the trust.
If you already have a binder on a shelf and no real idea whether it would actually work, you’re not the exception. You’re the norm. Most estate plans don’t fail in the drafting. They fail after the signing: the trust never gets funded, the deed never gets recorded, and the binder goes on a shelf looking finished when it isn’t.
The end state is simple: every account has a destination, and if the day comes, your family’s whole job is one phone call. I built this process so that’s what you actually get. Three steps. Five meetings inside them. Nothing skipped, including the part most attorneys hand back to you: I move your home into the trust, and you get a map for re-registering every account before I close your file.
Step 1 · Talk
The Conversation
An unhurried first meeting by Zoom or phone to understand your family, your assets, and the moments you are actually planning for. Family in other cities can join the same call. No documents are drafted in this room. Thirty minutes, no fee, and I’ll tell you whether you even need a trust. If you don’t, I’ll say so.
Step 2 · Build
Asset Review
A full inventory of what is actually there to plan around: accounts, real property, beneficiaries, insurance, business interests. Your plan only works if it is built on what you actually own, so we document all of it before anything gets designed.
The Design
An in-depth conversation and planning session where we make all of your plan decisions. We repeat this meeting until you’re satisfied that your plan will reflect your family, your values, your vision, and your life. This is also where you get the flat fee, quoted up front and in writing: $4,900. That covers the trust, the will, the incapacity documents, up to two deeds transferring California real estate into the trust, a notary who comes to your home to sign, even nights and weekends, and the funding work tracked to completion. The fee doesn’t change.
Final Review
We reconfirm each decision in your estate plan. Then we will map out exactly how every asset you own will be protected by your trust, one asset at a time.
The Signing
The documents executed, the people named, the language witnessed. A notary comes to your home, even nights and weekends, so you sign in the comfort of your own home. This is the meeting most attorneys treat as the finish line, and where, for most of them, the work ends. For most families, the signing lands about five weeks after that first call.
Curious how the process works? The checkup also shows you what a finished plan looks like, so you can compare.
Step 3 · Finish, where most plans fail
An unfunded trust doesn’t just underperform. It fails. The house still goes through probate: roughly $46,000 in fees on a $1M home and a year or more in court, for a plan you already paid for. Finishing the funding is the difference between a binder and a working plan.
Proper Funding
We get the assets into the trust. I record the deed that moves your house in, and you get a map for re-registering each account and lining up each beneficiary designation. A plan that is not funded is a binder. You paid for the trust, and probate on a Ventura or Los Angeles County house still costs your family about $46,000. This is the work that most attorneys hand back to the client and most clients never finish. Here the deed is included, and so is the map for everything else.
The Standing Review
Every three years, while we work together, we sit again: to update for new assets, new beneficiaries, new law, and the moments life has actually delivered. A plan is finished when it would still work today.
What you get at the end
Every account has a destination. The deed is recorded, the house is in the trust, and the person you chose, not a judge, takes the wheel if you can’t drive. If the day comes, your family’s whole job is one phone call, to a lawyer who already knows them.
The first call is free, thirty minutes, and unhurried. I’ll tell you whether you need me, what a working plan looks like for your family, and what it would cost, before you decide anything. Talk to Eric
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the whole process take?
For most families, about five weeks from the first call to signing. Simple situations move faster; if there’s real estate in another state, a business to work around, or travel to coordinate, it can run a little longer. The funding step, moving your home and accounts into the trust, continues after signing until everything is actually retitled, because that’s the part that makes the plan work.
What happens if I already have a trust?
We start by reading what you have. Often the document itself is fine but was never funded, the house was never deeded in, so the fix is finishing the funding, not starting over. When the trust is out of date or was built wrong, I restate it (a full rewrite that keeps your trust’s original name and date) for the same flat fee as a new trust. Either way, you’ll know which situation you’re in before you decide anything.
Do you move my house and accounts into the trust?
The house, yes. I prepare and record the deed that moves your California home into the trust. For your bank and brokerage accounts, you get a map for re-registering each one and lining up each beneficiary designation, and I confirm each transfer before I close your file. Funding is the step most attorneys hand back to the client. Here the deed is included and the rest is tracked to completion, because an unfunded trust sends your family to probate anyway.
Want a straight read on where you stand?
Talk to Eric. A free call, no pitch. He’ll tell you where you’re exposed, what it would cost to fix, and what you can skip.
Talk to Eric