Given the fast pace of modern life, many people are so preoccupied with the present that they fail to plan for the future. However, a little planning ahead of time can save your loved ones time, money, and stress.
If you die intestate (without a will), your estate must go through a complex, expensive, and long legal process known as probate. When your loved ones are already grieving, the additional stress of probate can feel like too much to bear.
Unlock Legal helps professionals protect their families, finances, and futures. Our estate planning attorneys offer comprehensive services, including planning and creating wills, trusts, and powers of attorney.
If you’re looking for an estate planning attorney near Tustin, CA, contact us to get started.
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An estate plan isn’t only about who gets what. It’s a comprehensive strategy to safeguard your assets, protect your best interests, and ensure your wishes for medical care are respected.
These are some of Unlock Legal’s key estate planning services:
When many people start looking for an estate planning attorney in California, they imagine they’re simply hiring a lawyer to create a will. For some, a will is the only necessary estate planning document. But for many others, it’s just the beginning.
Your will is a legal document that specifies how you want your assets to be distributed after death. It also allows you to outline certain other wishes. For example, if you have minor children, your will might specify who you want to serve as their guardian if both you and the child’s other parent are unable to.
Some people try to save money by searching for “free estate planning attorney” and using an automated online service to create their wills. This might seem like a more cost-effective option, but it may lead to problems down the line.
Many of these wills are worded vaguely enough to be used in any state, and their imprecise language can make it difficult to determine your intent. Online wills are based on generic templates, so they likely won’t cover every aspect of your estate.
When you work with an estate planning attorney in Irvine to create your will, you can reduce the risk of misinterpretation and related family disputes.
You should periodically review and update your will, and doing so is especially important after major life events like these:
It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that once you’ve created a will, there’s no need to revisit it. However, life circumstances change, and your estate plan should change along with them.
A trust is a legal entity that is established to “hold” your assets. Depending on your situation, setting up a trust may help you bypass probate, limit the impact and scope of your taxes, or both. While there are many different kinds of trusts, they fall into two primary categories:
Trusts can also grant your family privacy. When your estate plan only includes a will, your assets must go through probate, and probate is a matter of public record. When assets are transferred from a trust to your beneficiaries, that transfer can be done privately.
In some cases, a trust can also protect your beneficiaries. For example, if you owe money at the time of your death, your creditors may make claims against your estate.
If those claims are successful, some or all of your assets may go to your creditors instead of to your beneficiaries. However, in many cases, creditors may not make claims against assets held in irrevocable trusts.
Creating a trust is more complex than drafting and signing a legal document. Most trusts require at least some level of ongoing administration, and your trust administrator may be responsible for tasks like these:
Your trust administrator has a fiduciary duty to you, meaning they’re obligated to act in your best interests. You should choose your administrator carefully.
Administering a trust can be challenging, especially for someone who hasn’t done it before. The Unlock Legal team provides support and guidance for trust administrators to help them ensure they carry out the terms of the trust while remaining compliant with state and federal law.
If your estate is valued above a certain threshold, you may be liable for estate taxes. The threshold is adjusted each year, and in 2025, it’s set at $13.99 million.
That $13.99 million value is a gift and estate tax exemption. This means that if the total of your estate’s value and the value of monetary gifts made in your lifetime exceeds $13.99 million, you’ll be taxed.
Depending on your circumstances, you may not be able to eliminate estate taxes entirely. However, an estate planning attorney in Orange County may be able to help you develop a plan to transfer your wealth while minimizing what you owe in taxes.
These are some of the strategies we often use with our clients:
Sometimes, donating money to a favorite charity can be financially advantageous to you, too. Donating to charity may lower your estate’s total value and help you avoid having to pay estate tax.
Charitable remainder trusts are another way to lower the taxable value of your estate. Once you have created a charitable remainder trust, it pays you (or another designated beneficiary) regular income for a set time period. Once that period has passed, the remaining assets in the trust go to a charity of your choice.
Our team’s extensive knowledge of tax law can help you take advantage of a range of different deductions. For example, the unlimited marital deduction lets you transfer any amount of assets to your spouse (as long as they’re a U.S. citizen) without incurring gift or estate tax.
Planning ahead can also help you reduce your estate’s total taxable value. As of 2025, you can give as many recipients as you wish up to $19,000 per year. These gifts will not count toward the $13.99 million gift and estate tax exemption.
Charitable remainder trusts aren’t the only trusts that may help lower estate taxes. You may consider incorporating trusts like these into your planning:
It’s important to note that only irrevocable trusts provide tax benefits. Revocable trusts may be useful in some circumstances, but they won’t help you reduce your taxable estate.
Estate planning is the legal process of defining how your assets are to be preserved, managed, and distributed while you’re alive and after death. It also may include instructions for handling healthcare decisions if you become incapacitated.
When creating your estate plan, your attorney might suggest taking advantage of a number of different tools. These are some of the most commonly used:
Wills: Express your wishes for asset distribution and guardianship of children or pets
Trusts: Create a legal entity that manages, protects, and possibly distributes assets
Powers of Attorney: Give a trusted person the authority to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated
Healthcare Directives: Specify medical treatments you do or don’t consent to if you’re incapacitated
Not all estate plans include all of these tools. When we help you craft a customized estate plan, we hope to help you reach these four core goals:
Creating clear, detailed estate planning documents can help reduce the risk of disputes down the line, as can using strategies to keep your estate out of probate.
In many cases, these same strategies also avoid unnecessary taxes. For example, if you put some of your assets into a charitable remainder trust, they won’t have to go through probate. Because they aren’t part of your estate, they also aren’t subject to estate tax.
Many of our estate planning clients want to make sure their hard-earned money goes toward supporting their loved ones. There are a number of ways you can do this through your estate plan:
If you aren’t sure which strategies would work best for your estate plan, no need to worry — our team can discuss your concerns and help you make a decision.
Usually, when someone dies and leaves a will, the will must go through the probate process. This is where the will’s validity is confirmed. The process is complex and costly, even when it goes smoothly. However, anyone may challenge the will, and challenges can lead to heated, stressful family disputes.
Dying without a will doesn’t mean your family can escape probate. If you die intestate, your assets must be distributed according to California’s rules of intestate succession. The probate court is in charge of this process.
Certain kinds of trusts and other estate planning tools may allow your family to avoid the probate process entirely. For example, if you put your assets into a living trust, the trust is technically the owner, not you. As a result, your assets (or at least the assets in the trust) can be distributed while bypassing probate entirely.
For most people, the idea of becoming incapacitated is deeply unsettling. What happens if you can’t make decisions? When your estate plan includes a power of attorney, you’ll already have a plan in place if this happens.
A power of attorney allows a specific person you trust to make important decisions for you if you are unable to do so. For example, if you fall into a coma but have a financial power of attorney already in place, your trusted person could pay your mortgage and file your taxes.
At Unlock Legal, we strive to provide our clients with unparalleled legal services. These are some of the key groups we serve:
If you want to learn more, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a free consultation.
If you’re looking for an attorney to help secure your legacy, don’t just search for “estate planning attorney near me” and select the first option that comes up.
When you take the time to research your options and select someone who meets your needs, you’ll be much more likely to end up with a highly personalized, comprehensive estate plan. Here are a few reasons to consider Unlock Legal:
Still not set on an estate planning attorney? Free consultations give you the opportunity to get to know us and decide whether we’re the right firm for you. Get in touch to schedule one today.
The first step in creating a customized estate plan is finding the best estate planning attorney for you. At Unlock Legal, we strive to be that attorney for all of our clients. We’ve been representing California professionals since 1997, and we hope we’ll be able to serve you, too.
If you have questions or want to set up a free consultation with us, call us or send us an email today.
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We will never share your information to any third party.
See our Privacy Policy.
