Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If I want to protect my free and clear titled residentail property is it best to setup a Qualified personal residential Trust?

What are the pros and cons and how much does it cost to set one up?

Can you setup one yourself without an attorney?


Asked on 8/30/11, 2:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

The question is protect it from what? Lots of people seem to think you can avoid having your assets taken to satisfy a judgment just by putting them in one kind of trust or another. It's just not that simple. How can anyone really think the government would create a whole body of laws, and establish an entire civil judicial system, to make it possible to sue people for breaches of contracts, negligence, etc., and then with a wink and a nod make it easy for defendants to avoid ever paying on judgments just by doing some paperwork? It doesn't work that way. Now if you mean protect it from estate taxes and probate, that's a whole other story. As we all know, the government DOES set up a whole tax structure and then with a bunch of winks and nods let's you out of paying the taxes if you do certain things. However, in that case, you really should consult with an estate planning attorney and come up with a cost-effective and unified estate plan, rather than running off and putting one asset in a trust without a coherent estate plan.

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Answered on 8/30/11, 2:30 pm


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