Estate Planning Attorney in Anaheim, CA
An estate plan answers three questions: who receives what you own, who manages your affairs if you can’t, and who raises your children if they are still young. For some Anaheim families, those questions come with added layers, such as a home in Anaheim Hills, a business the family depends on, children from more than one marriage, or parents who share your home. The Soto Law Group helps Anaheim residents put clear, current plans in place under California law.
Families who never make a plan leave those choices to the state. California’s intestacy rules pick the heirs, and if minor children are left behind, the Orange County Superior Court picks their guardian.
Learn more about our estate planning services.
The Core Documents in an Anaheim Estate Plan
- Revocable living trust: holds your home, accounts and other major assets and passes them to your family without a probate case.
- Pour-over will: directs anything left outside the trust into it, and is where you nominate a guardian for minor children.
- Durable power of attorney: lets a person you choose pay bills, manage accounts and deal with property if you become unable to.
- Advance health care directive and HIPAA authorization: record your medical wishes, name who speaks for you, and allow your doctors to share information with that person.
- Child protection plans and guardian nominations: choose the people you trust to raise your children and leave them written guidance.
- Special needs trusts: set money aside for a family member with a disability while protecting their eligibility for public benefits.
- Asset protection planning: strategies that can help shield what you have built from future creditors and lawsuits.
Keeping Your Anaheim Hills Home Out of Probate
A home left in your name alone often has to go through probate before your family can sell it or change the title. Probate fees in California are set by statute as a percentage of the estate’s gross value, and the mortgage isn’t subtracted, so the cost can be significant even when there is little equity. A living trust avoids that, but only if the deed actually puts the house in the trust’s name. Whether your home is in Anaheim Hills or the Platinum Triangle, we check how it is titled and walk you through funding the trust.
Blended Families and Second Marriages
If you or your spouse has children from an earlier relationship, leaving everything outright to the surviving spouse can produce results no one intended. The survivor is free to change their own plan later, and the children from the first marriage may receive nothing. A trust can support your spouse for life and still protect the share you want your own children to have. Because California is a community property state, your plan should also be clear about which assets belong to the marriage and which belong to one of you alone.
When Several Generations Share One Home
If your parents live with you, or an adult child and grandchildren have moved in, your plan should say what happens to the house and the people living in it. A trust can settle in advance who may stay, who covers property taxes and upkeep, and whether the home is kept or sold. Under Proposition 19, a child who inherits a parent’s home generally faces a property tax reassessment unless the child moves in and makes it their primary residence, and even then the tax protection has a cap. If an aging parent in your household may soon need help with decisions, a power of attorney and health care directive signed while they are still able may prevent a conservatorship later.
Passing On a Family Business
If you own a business in Anaheim, whether it is a storefront downtown or a company in the Platinum Triangle, your estate plan should cover who runs it if you are incapacitated, who owns it after you die, and how family members who don’t work in it are treated fairly. Our business succession planning ties those answers to your trust and to any agreements you have with co-owners.
Frequently Asked Questions About Estate Planning in Anaheim
Is a will enough to keep my Anaheim home out of probate?
Not by itself. A will says who receives the house, but the executor generally still has to open a case in the Orange County Superior Court before the house can be sold or transferred. With a funded living trust, your successor trustee can handle the house privately instead.
Can my spouse stay in the house if it eventually goes to my children?
Yes. A trust can give your surviving spouse the right to live in the home for life, or for a set time, and then pass it to your children, including children from an earlier marriage.
How can I provide for a family member with special needs?
A special needs trust can hold that person’s inheritance without affecting their eligibility for needs-based public benefits. The trustee then uses the money for needs those benefits don’t cover.
Why Work With The Soto Law Group
Attorney Romelia “DeDe” Soto, the firm’s owner, has more than 20 years of legal experience and works with planning clients personally. Since our team also settles trusts and estates, we write each plan with the people who will carry it out in mind.
Related Services in Anaheim
Estate Planning in Other Locations
Directions to Our Office From Anaheim
Begin Your Anaheim Estate Plan
To get started, call our Newport Beach office at (949) 945-0059 or contact us online, and we will find a time to meet.