Living Trust Attorney in Orange County, California

A revocable living trust is a legal document that holds your property during your life and tells a trustee how to manage and distribute it when you become incapacitated or die. Property that is properly titled in the trust usually passes to your family without probate court. Vinh Doan Law Office, APC has completed more than 1,500 living trusts for families in Garden Grove, Orange County and across California and Texas, in English and Vietnamese.

How a living trust works

You create the trust and usually serve as its first trustee, so you keep full control. You can change or cancel it at any time while you are alive and competent. You name a successor trustee who steps in if you become unable to manage your affairs or after you die. That person follows your instructions, pays debts and taxes, and gives the property to your beneficiaries, with no court involved for property held in the trust.

Three roles matter: the trustor (you, who creates the trust), the trustee (who manages it) and the beneficiaries (who receive the property).

What a living trust does and does not do

It can:

• Avoid probate for the property it holds. Probate in California is public, can take a year or more, and carries statutory attorney and executor fees.
• Manage your property if you become incapacitated, without a court conservatorship.
• Keep your affairs private, because a trust is not filed with the court.
• Control timing, for example holding a child's inheritance until certain ages or for a lifetime protective trust.
• Name who takes over if your first choice cannot serve.

It does not:

• Reduce your income taxes during your life. A revocable trust is taxed as you are.
• Protect your property from your own creditors.
• Work for anything left out. A trust only controls property titled in its name.

Funding the trust

Funding means moving ownership of your property into the trust. This is the step people most often miss, and it is why a signed trust can still fail. We prepare the deeds for your real estate and give you written instructions for your bank, brokerage and other accounts. Retirement accounts and life insurance are usually handled by changing the beneficiary designation, not by retitling. Any property that is left out can still require probate, which is why a pour-over will is part of the plan.

Living trust or will?

A will must go through probate. A trust usually does not. For California homeowners the difference is significant: probate fees are based on the gross value of the property, so a $1,000,000 estate carries a $23,000 attorney fee and a $23,000 executor fee under the statute, plus court costs, before any extra fees. Most families we work with choose a living trust with a pour-over will. Learn about wills.

What it costs and how long it takes

The fee depends on your family and your property, so we quote it after the overview discussion. After you finish the questionnaire and we review it together, drafting and signing usually take a few weeks. Contact us to ask for a quote.

When the trust becomes active

When the trustor dies, the trust becomes irrevocable and the successor trustee takes over. We guide trustees through every step. Read about trust administration.