Hi, this is attorney Marc Herbert with the question of the week, which is what happens if I die without a will? Look, the bottom line is, if you don’t write up your own will, your own trust some type of estate plan, You’re going to end up with California’s default state plan, which is known as probate court. Depending on your assets, you know the type of assets you’re entitled to. Those assets, the value of those assets, a big portion of your estate could end up in court where California system is going to basically control who inherits how much and when. So if you create your own estate plan with a trust and a will, you control all of that? And you can do it in a very quick, inexpensive and efficient way for you.
But if you don’t do that, then you got California’s plan, which is slow, expensive, very stressful for your loved ones. You know, if you have property in different states, you’re going to have to do multiple probate in those multiple states. Right now in California, the rule of thumb is whatever goes into probate court, 7% of it magically disappears. Oftentimes more than that. So when I sit down with somebody and their family to talk about going through the probate process, usually it takes about two years. Right now, usually it takes about $25,000 or more, depending on the value of assets. In fact, this morning, we just closed a case where the costs were going to be about $35,000. We were able to knock it down to about 15,000, which gives an extra 20,000 to the heirs. But you can’t always do that. And that was kind of difficult to set up. I was happy to do that, though, because that’s a lot more money for the heirs. So the bottom line is, if you don’t create your plan, California has got a plan for you.
It’s not really good for you or your heirs. It’s pretty good for California. They collect a lot of money in probate court. But at Herbert Law office, we offer a free consultation to discuss exactly how to avoid probate court and unnecessary taxes. We talk about your family structure, your assets structure, state law, federal law, and then we talk about your options based on the options that you choose.
We build a comprehensive, customized plan that helps you avoid court and taxes. And then those fees to my office are based on the options you choose. Once you see all the options available, if you would like to schedule a free consultation with my office, just give us a call at 6612739007.
