San Mateo Estate Planning Attorneys

What is it?
Trust and estate law is essentially a two part process of drafting your estate plan then administering that plan upon your death. That process provides a way to help people reflect on their legacy, on what they’ve accomplished, what they’ve acquired, who’s important to them, and how that all fits into their big picture. It allows individuals to control how their assets are passed down, and increase restrictions for beneficiaries to provide for their health and education and keep them safe from themselves, i.e. prevent them from buying a Lamborghini at the age of 18. True story. 

It safeguards assets while a client is alive, and manages the allocation of those assets according to their wishes following their passing. What sort of assets? Everything you own including real property, business interests, investments, insurance proceeds, retirement accounts, personal property, etc.

It can be unsettling to imagine a time in the future when you’re unable to care for yourself or a member of your family. However, if you don’t plan for this, the outcome can be far more unsettling because the decisions of how to manage your assets will no longer be up to you or the people you love most. Without an estate plan, your asset distribution will likely be subject to the default government plan, which consists of long, time consuming, public, costly, and bureaucratic judicial processes.

An experienced trust and estate lawyer can make navigating this difficult topic less stressful. The attorneys of Laughlin Legal can help protect you, your family, your estate and your legacy by creating a plan that will allow your estate to be distributed in the way that you choose to the people you choose, efficiently and cost-effectively.

What estate planning services do you offer?
Our experienced estate planning attorneys will work directly with you to create a custom, comprehensive, unambiguous estate plan package that’s strong against challenges. It will consider every asset you own, allow you to manage your estate easily throughout your life, allow you to appoint individuals whom you trust to step in to manage your estate in times of need, provide for your needs, provide for the needs of your loved ones, honor your wishes, minimize taxes, and avoid living probate (conservatorship) and death probate.

Here’s what we’ll provide beginning with the centerpiece of an estate plan – your living trust or will.

• Drafting of revocable living trust and irrevocable trust intended to avoid costly and time-consuming probate, preserve wealth, minimize taxes, ensure proper distribution of your estate, and provide for minor children.

• Preparation of last will and testament to accompany your trusts.

• Preparation of critical supplemental documents such as a general transfer and assignment, nomination of guardians for minor children, certification of trust, and status of property agreement.

• Special Needs Trust (SNT) intended to ensure that any disabled loved one who inherits from you is not disqualified from public benefits.

• Incapacity Planning: If you become incapacitated through an accident or health condition, a Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA) allows you to name someone to handle your financial affairs and an Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD) allows you to name someone to handle your health care and make medical decisions on your behalf consistent with your personal beliefs and wishes.

• Trust funding: Adding your valuable assets to your trust, including the preparation and recording of real property deeds to transfer your real estate to your trust.

• Disinheritance: Preventing specific individuals from inheriting your assets by intentionally disinheriting and excluding them from your estate.

• Substance abuse planning: Structuring of trusts to promote recovery and to support a beneficiary struggling with substance abuse and dependence, while simultaneously protecting trust assets by restricting a substance-dependent beneficiary from gaining immediate and complete access to trust assets.

• Review of your estate plan in the event of a change in circumstances.

• Revisions and changes to your estate plan through amendments and restatements.

• Gifting strategies.

There’s a lot to think about and a lot to talk about, too. We make it easy by offering a zero-cost estate planning consultation. We hope you’ll take advantage and make an appointment with us right away so we can get to know you a bit and answer all your questions. Our estate planning consultations are remote so you can enjoy a virtual consultation from the comfort of your own home without having to come into our office. You have the option of being welcomed into our office to execute your estate planning documents, but if you prefer, we would be happy to send documents directly to you for an out-of-office execution.

We charge a flat fee for our estate planning clients because these documents are too consequential to be rushing through. We prefer that you take your time and get it right for the people you love most.