Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: living wills / trusts

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Re: living wills / trusts

Are you talking about a living will or a living trust? You need to know what the difference is, because they are like apples and oranges.

A living will pertains to directives regarding medical treatment, so it is only effective while that person is living. It wouldn't do much good after death except perhaps to give burial instructions and such, so I don't know why you are interested in it.

If you are talking about a living trust (which is a substitute for a will), that is a different story. That person might have left something to you in a living trust.

Just out of curiosity, how do you know that the person had a living trust and left trust assets to you?

One way to begin doing research is to find out if that person owned property. Recording of title is the one publicly accessible information that could provide some information regarding the trust, i.e. name of the trust, trustees of the trust, date trust was executed. So I would start from there. After that person died, there had to be a transfer of that property. If the property is in a trust, then you will be able to find out who the successor trustee was by looking for a document called "Affidavit- Death of Trustee".