Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

If an attorney prepared your living trust, I suggest that you go back to that attorney for updates ... if the trust needs a simple amendment, he or she can probably prepare it most cost effectively.

And, yes, you do need both a will and a trust. A trust avoids probate (and the costs associated with it). A will must go through probate, but the will takes care of items you might have forgotten to transfer into your trust. If everything that can be transferred to your trust has been transferred to it, then the will simply would not be submitted to probate (but if you've forgotten something, it's an important document to have).

The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation.

Amending your living trust depends on whether it is a revocable or irrevocable trust.

If it is a revocable trust, review your trust document to see if there are any specific methods requirements for modifying the trust. Usually, it will require you to create an amending document which will have to be witnessed and notarized.

If it is an irrevocable trust, then you cannot change the trust unless the settlor and the beneficiaries agree to it. This again will require the creation for a legal agreement between all the parties.

The cost depends entirely on how complicated the changes are and what type of trust because irrevocable trust will require more time. If you would like, my firm can review your documents and provide you with a quote.

Also, the difference between a will and a trust is that in a trust your trust property does not go through probate. A will is a legal document that dictates what happens to your property when you die. It will describe all of your property and the persons or organization who you will give your property to when you die.

A trust is a three-party agreement involving a trustor, trustee and beneficiary. The trustee is given instructions of how to manage the property that the trustor transferred to the trust for the benefit of the beneficiary. The trust instructions will be maintain until such time as certain terms in the trust is reached (example: death of the beneficiary).

Do you need both? It depends, if all your property is already under the trust, then no. However it is likely that some of your property is not under the trust. If you want to leave specific instructions how the rest of your property not covered under the trust is distributed, then creating a will is a must. Without a will, property not covered under the trust will be distributed based on California's default rules of distribution.