Estate Planning and Probate Litigation

The process by which property is passed from a decedent to their heirs is called probate and the method for determining who shall inherit the assets entails the Court enforcing a written document designating heirs called a will.

To avoid some of the costs of probate, it is encouraged to create a legal document called a trust in which instructions for distributions after death are contained and which transfers assets after one's death without court involvement (and formal probate) but which achieves intended post death distribution as effectively as a will.

If one dies without a will or a trust already written then the Court will apply statutory rules as to who will inherit what assets. If there is a surviving spouse and children, then usually the spouse will inherit all community property and separate property of the deceased person will be divided between the spouse and the living children. Dying without an effective will or trust is termed dying intestate. The process of analyzing the assets and family needs of a person and drafting appropriate wills, trusts and related documents is called estate planning.

While the law will determine who will inherit from you even if there is no will or trust in place, most people wish to create their own plan as to what will happen to their property and family upon their death. Planning for one's own death may be unpleasant. However, the cost of poor estate planning can be very high, both in terms of not providing structures to most effectively care for children or the elderly surviving spouse and in having to pay large estate taxes that perhaps could have been minimized with correct estate planning.