Personalized Trusts Solve Many Orange County Estate Planning Dilemmas
Estate planning difficulties in Orange County? Talk to an attorney at the Law Office of Rebecca Sommer about creating a tailored trust.
Putting together your estate plan is never easy. You might feel like you left someone out or left them behind, or you could be worried about how your legacy will be protected and carried on after you are gone. These are understandable concerns, especially from Orange County residents who have seen a parent or loved one pass on and witnessed the transfer of their wealth and property to the next generation.
Sometimes, everything goes well, their estate plan goes off without a hitch, everyone is satisfied, and the only struggle is figuring out how to mourn. Sometimes, however, things do not go so well. Ever seen a family tear itself apart over an ambiguous inheritance? Did you end up having to pay more on a loved one's inheritance than you received due to taxes? Watched an inheritance disappear into an addict’s habit?
All kinds of problems can arise when trying to set up an estate plan, and even more when putting it into action. That is why it is so essential for Orange County residents to work with skilled estate planning lawyers like those at the Law Office Of Rebecca Sommer, in Anaheim. With our lawyers’ help, you can set up a personalized plan with a trust explicitly designed to tackle the problems you are facing. Read on to discover three examples of trusts in action, or reach out now to start working on yours.
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Why Is It So Important To Ask An Orange County Lawyer About A Personalized Estate Plan?
These days, it is easy to open your computer, or even your phone, and find what passes for an estate plan online. These blanket “one-sized-fits-all” or easy-to-fill-in and sign (sometimes without even printing!) documents seduce the busiest of us and appeal to anyone who wants to spend as little time as possible thinking about death and what we leave behind. Indeed, they help us avoid difficult questions, which we often flee deep into the distractions of Orange County to escape from.
Such solutions are, unfortunately, a trap. While they might fit some people’s needs and solve the most superficial concerns of others, they cannot help in situations with any complexity. Additionally, when multiple problems, constraints, and objectives start to interact, they fall apart completely. Or worse, cause active harm in the form of conflict among family members after you depart.
To keep such problems from coming up in the first place and to make sure what you leave behind is the legacy you intend, you cannot take such shortcuts. Working with skilled and experienced estate planning lawyers is crucial. Both to ensure you understand your situation and to obtain solutions that actually fit it. Below are three examples of dilemmas you might be facing which can be at least partially resolved with a trust set up by an estate planning attorney.
1. Problem: Protecting Your Legacy
With a standard will, once you have passed on the money, property, and other assets you leave behind, there are no guarantees or protections upon how it will be spent. One of your children might save it for a grandchild’s college fund, while another’s new boyfriend may smoke through it in a year.
Instead, you should consider placing your assets into a trust before you die or building a trust to receive them when you do. Setting up such a living trust with the help of an attorney allows you to place conditions and protections on the legacy you leave behind.
If you want to set aside money for specific objectives, keep it from being spent under certain conditions, or simply reduce the rate at which it is distributed, a trust will allow you to do so.
2. Constraint: A Relative With Special Needs
Another dilemma faced by many families in Orange County is figuring out how best to help relatives who are on disability or receiving government benefits. Unfortunately, if you just leave behind a lump sum in their name, it could endanger their government benefits and long-term care.Setting up a trust, instead, removes that risk. Because it is a distinct entity of its own, neither the trust nor the assets you place in it are owned by those it benefits. This means that you can set up a special needs trust to pay for elements of a loved one’s care, comfort, or emergency needs without endangering their financial situation.
3. Objective: Minimize Taxes And Probate Costs
For many of the wealthier families and growing fortunes of Orange County, a key objective of any estate planning effort can (and should) be to reduce the financial cost of the process on their legacy. Between government taxes and the costs of the very public probate process, there are many reasons to wish to dodge both.Fortunately, with the right trust, you can do just that. Trusts can allow you to protect your assets from probate entirely, and with the right configuration, they can reduce the tax burden on your estate and those you leave it to. With a background in financial services and tax optimization, Orange County estate planning attorney Rebecca Sommer can help you understand the dangers and how to set up trusts to counter them.
Call For A Free Assessment Of Your Needs | (657) 571-1241
Take Control Over Your Legacy By Calling A Trust And Estates Lawyer Near You
The Law Office Of Rebecca Sommer | Orange County trust and estate planning lawyer who can help you protect your wishes and your legacy.
If you are concerned about your legacy, if something about what you are planning to leave behind (or those you plan to leave it to) fills you with dread or anxiety, you should not bury your head in the sand. Both answers and solutions are out there, not in faceless online forms, but with kind and patient estate planning attorneys.
Here at the Law Office Of Rebecca Sommer, we always start by listening to your problem and situation before offering guidance and explanations so that if you decide to set up a trust, it will be because you are certain it is the right solution for you.
To set up a consultation, just call (657) 571-1241 or reach out online to discuss your dilemmas. Together, we will find the right personalized solution for your situation.
