Probate Living Trust

I’m going to speak a little bit about probate and living trust. There is a lot of confusion people have, they don’t really understand the difference.

If you have a will, or do not have a living trust, your estate will have to be probated. One of your heirs will have to file petition with the court, and the court will supervise the distribution of your assets in an orderly fashion. And this normally takes about a year. There are fees involved, and the executor gets paid and the attorney gets paid the same amount as the executor. The fees are set by statute and cannot be negotiated. If you elect to go the other way and obtain a living trust, it does away with the necessity with having to probate your estate. Your assets will pass to your survivor trustee and be distributed according to the provisions of your living trust. You will save the filing fees to the probate court, you will save the attorney fees, and you will save the fees that would have to be paid to the executor. If you have any question please don’t hesitate to give me a call, I don’t charge for my telephone calls. I’m at (510) 797-7990.