Estate Planning Attorneys | Wills | Living Trust

Long Beach | Downey | Irvine, California

Estate Planning, Wills and Trust Attorneys

Estate planning is an important process for each person and family. If you don’t understand it, you are in good hands with Velasco Law Group. “Estate planning” consists of the preparation of wills, trusts and other documents to create a well thought out estate plan that achieves each client’s goals.

Careful estate planning has many important benefits.

Proper estate planning allows you to:

Transfer your property in accordance with your wishes
Minimize exposure to estate taxes, thus allowing you to pass more of your property and wealth to your family
Reduce or even eliminate probate costs
Care for a domestic partner or significant other, if you are not married
Define your wishes regarding key medical and end-of-life treatment
Provide for the welfare of a special needs child, an elderly parent or other beneficiaries who would benefit from a trust structured to meet their needs

Wills, Trusts and Other Estate Planning Documents

We utilize a variety of estate planning documents and legal strategies that are meant to address the specific needs of our clients. We understand that every estate, regardless of its size, is important. We dedicate considerable time to designing customized plans. When we draft an estate plan, it includes the following:

Wills – A validly executed Will is essential to distribute your assets to your intended beneficiaries. Without a validly executed Will, your property may be distributed in accordance with the rules of intestate succession, rather than the way you desire.

Trusts – Irrevocable Trusts and Revocable Living Trusts may be utilized to reduce probate costs and avoid or minimize estate taxes. In addition to the basic Revocable Family Trust, we draft a wide range of irrevocable trust instruments, including Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts and Charitable Remainder Trusts.

Durable Powers of Attorney for financial and personal affairs –

Durable Powers of Attorney are used to ensure that your chosen agents will have the ability to make financial decisions for you in the event of your incapacity. These include the power to access your accounts, pay your bills and manage your financial affairs, file your tax returns and otherwise deal with your personal matters at a time when you are unable to do so.

Advance Health Care Directives and HIPAA Authorizations –

Advance Health Care Directives allow your agents to make important health care and end-of life decisions for you when your doctor determines that you are no longer capable of making those decisions for yourself. It is also imperative that you sign the proper authorizations (e.g. HIPAA authorizations). Privacy laws prohibit your doctors and other health care providers from communicating with your loved ones about your health care matters or otherwise sharing your private medical information during a time of incapacity. HIPAA authorizations allow medical professionals (such as doctors, nurses and emergency responders) to discuss your condition and treatment with your authorized agents. Visit our Health Care Directives section to learn more.

After these documents have been properly executed and notarized, we will present them to you in a personalized estate planning portfolio for safekeeping. Your portfolio will also contain additional information to assist you in transferring your specific assets to your living trust to your executors and successor trustees, to ensure a smooth administration at the appropriate time.

We have written several different articles about estate planning which can be found in our blog page HERE

Tips: On how to avoid probate read our blog HERE