Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

The process will differ a bit for everyone. My practice is to generally discuss with the client what changes are desired, and then to review the existing trust document to see how to best make the changes. Sometimes, a simple amendment can be prepared. Sometimes, the entire trust needs to be "restated," because the changes require too many changes to the trust document.

The new document (amendment or restatement) is then signed in the same manner as the original trust.

The cost depends on how much work is involved. Amending one paragraph is much less expensive than making extensive changes throughout the document. You will need to personally discuss this question with a lawyer, who can get a better sense of what is involved.

Amendments are an easy place to make mistakes, as they can easily create ambiguities when the amendment and the original trust document are read together. I do not recommend that people try to amend their trust on their own.

I also am happy to discuss this with you at your convenience, if you desire.

I agree with Mr. Perry that doing a trust amendment on your own is very dangerous. The cost to fix the mistakes after you are gone, which would require court involvement, is far more than the cost to have an attorney draft the amendment or restatement for you.