How to avoid Probate Court in California

Read this post for simple tasks to help you avoid probate court in California. 

You’ve worked ridiculously hard to achieve your dreams and plan sensibly for the future. Furthermore, you’re almost certainly overwhelmed by the various inputs coming into your world. We’re all busier than ever, facing interruptions from social media, from our work, from family obligations and beyond. While it’s perfectly fine to spend some time reacting to events and cleaning up from our commitments, we also need to spend time handling our important affairs.

It’s easy to handle Urgent, Important things (like a phone call from your boss or doctor). And it’s easy, too, to get distracted by the Non Important business of life. Our lives are filled with distractions, like a viral YouTube clip or the second season of Stranger Things. When we fail to handle the Not Urgent But Important work of our lives, the consequences are less than ideal.

One of the things I hear most from people is that they will get to their planning “at some point”. It’s not high on their to-do list and it just keeps getting pushed farther down. Without proper planning, if something happened to you, your estate will have to go through probate court. So how and why should you avoid probate court in California? 

What is probate?

When you pass on, probate is the legal process by which the court system authenticates your will. If you have one, the court appoints someone known as a “personal representative” to handle the business of your estate. This person settles your affairs by paying your bills, filing taxes for your estate, and transferring what’s left to your family, charities that you love, and other beneficiaries.

Why should you avoid it?

Three big reasons:

1. It’s a public process, so it exposes intimate details about you, your finances, your business and your family;
2. It can consume lots of time (months or longer), annoying and tiring out your family and possibly generating fights or even court action;
3. It can cost a pretty penny and eat up as much as 15 percent (or more) of your estate’s value.

How can you avoid probate?

First off, appreciate that only assets that are in your name or that can be payable to your estate will be probated. One useful strategy is to create and fund something called a revocable living trust to allow the assets in this trust to bypass the probate process. This makes life simpler for everyone involved with handling your estate.

If you’re interested in learning more about strategies and tactics you can leverage to simplify this planning – and in crossing off one critical task off your to-do list once and for all – reach out to one of our probate lawyers. Please call (805) 518-9633 or email us to set up a Family Planning Assessment.