Top-Rated Estate Planning Attorney Orange County, California
Top-rated Orange County Estate Planning Attorney providing services to clients all throughout Southern California. Get legal advice from our experienced attorneys.
Masson & Fatini is a premium Orange County Estate Planning law firm with over 20 years of experience. We provide services to clients all throughout Southern California including Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties. It is our goal to provide the highest level of quality to our clients.
Our extensive Orange County estate planning services are custom-tailored to the particular needs of each estate. Additionally, we work with clients who require revisions and updates to their estate plans. Whether you need advanced estate planning, creation of a will or living trust, amendments to your current will or living trust or assistance as a successor trustee in California, we can help.
Please contact our estate planning attorneys in Orange County, CA if you would like to arrange an appointment or have further questions.
What is an Estate?
An “estate” consists of all of the “things” a person owns at the time of their death. An example of this is real estate, such as homes and commercial buildings, bank accounts, life insurance policies, retirement plan proceeds, interest in general and limited partnerships, royalties, stock options, patents. Your estate additionally includes your personal property, such as furniture and furnishings, clothing, artwork, tools, and documents – – generally anything that you can touch.
What is Estate Planning?
Death is inevitable, and when faced with this reality, you will likely want to control how your home, savings, photos, personal items, etc., are given to the people or organization that you intend. Estate planning is an advance strategy that provides instructions naming the assets you want to give, the time you want them given, and the individual or organization to whom will receive those assets after your death. Estate planning law additionally provides:
- Instruction for your care should you become disabled
- Determines a manager to handle distribution of inheritance
- Names a guardian for your minor children
- Provides instruction for your funeral or memorial services
- Includes life insurance to your family at your death
- Ensures that your home, land or commercial buildings will be transferred to the individual(s) you would like swiftly and without complex legal complications
- In the case of an extended injury or illness, includes a provision for long-term care insurance to help pay for your care
- Helps minimize estate taxes
- Reduces or eliminates unnecessary legal fees and court costs
- Helps carry out your wishes for your personal effects
The Importance of Estate Planning
Without an estate plan, your family’s legacy is at risk. One need only listen to a few of the horror stories told by relatives of those who pass on intestate, or tales of the treacheries visited upon one relative by another to understand how vitally important it is the achievements of a lifetime be preserved.
The process of estate planning is just unfamiliar enough to the average person that it is likely to escape their full attention until it is far too late. Retaining an estate planning attorney Orange County for drafting a will, taking stock of what is owned and what is owed, and making certain all the principals involved in an estate are notified and properly instructed about their role and responsibilities is absolutely vital to a successful outcome. As uncomfortable as it might be, and as much as most relatives and close family members would prefer to avoid morbid discussions, the facts are plain for anyone to see. An unprotected estate is likely to be plundered and those the decedent wanted protected are likely to find themselves alone and dispossessed.
Estate planning is a process of education. It is an estate planning lawyer apprising a family of the laws regarding probate and wills, how a trust attorney Orange County can help preserve a family’s property, and the kinds of disputes likely to arise before and during the probate process. Any legal context is a pretense for litigation, and fighting is practically guaranteed to be the one thing that nobody wants. The estate of an affluent family can become a brutal battleground if no steps are taken to ensure all the details are addressed.
Orange County Estate Planning Law
What an estate planning lawyer in Orange County does is help you face that educational process. As zealous advocates for the estate and its beneficiaries, our most important responsibility is to see to it that all parties are made aware of the facts and the law. This is how we make certain the wishes of the decedent are carried out within the boundaries of the law, and that his or her beneficiaries are protected from start to finish. Anything less would be an abrogation of our duty as officers of the court, and as advocates for the estate and family.
Think about the alternative. You’ve lost a relative. You’re facing probate for their estate. You have no idea what your relative owns. You have no records of where his or her property might be. You’re facing tax issues in at least two jurisdictions. You may find yourself in charge of property you don’t even own yet. There might be a will. Then again, there might not.
Did your deceased relative hire an estate planning attorney? Do they have an accountant? If so, you might be able to find some information, but unless you have an appropriate role in the estate, the attorney may not be authorized to discuss it with you. Just getting access to the appropriate records could be a Herculean task. There’s no reason to attempt this alone, and there certainly isn’t any reason to attempt it without qualified legal advice.
Masson & Fatini Estate Planning Attorneys in Orange County also provides experienced legal counsel for the following:
Your Trusted Estate Planning Lawyers
Protect yourself and your loved ones through thoughtful planning. Our estate planning attorney Orange County legal team is here to help.
You can contact our office at 949-852-8121 for estate, tax planning, and family law matters. Our top rated estate planning law firm also provides legal advice for elder law, business litigation and trust administration.
Remember, estate planning is not just the preparation of a last will and testament or trust administration. It also includes the preparation of financial, tax, and business planning. The Estate Planning Attorneys in Orange County, CA at Masson & Fatini, LLP, have extensive experience with all aspects of California Estate Planning Law and can assist you with sound advice and services, regardless of what stage you are at in the process.
We represented clients from all major industries including real estate, intellectual property, retail, professional services, manufacturing, entertainment, government contracts, medical and construction. Check out our Yelp page and Avvo lawyer profile to learn more about Attorney Richard Masson and his area of expertise.
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