Will Lawyer | Business Estate & Tax Attorneys, P.C.

Orinda Will Attorney

Perhaps you have spent a good portion of your life working hard to accumulate wealth and other assets. Now, understandably, you want to pass your life’s work onto your loved ones, friends or the charitable causes you support. To ensure your assets are passed to those persons or organizations after you pass on, you will need to execute a will. A will designates who receives your estate’s assets. A will lets you identify who will administer your estate and even who will take care of your minor children after your death.

Why You Need a Lawyer to Write a Will

While you are legally entitled to write your own will, you should strongly consider having an Orinda estate lawyer help you with the will drafting process. Here’s why:

An attorney can help you determine if you need a full estate plan including handling the drafting process.

An attorney can ensure your will includes any necessary trusts as well as a living will, powers of attorney and health care proxies.

A lawyer can help your estate avoid paying unnecessary taxes and other estate administration costs by meticulously drafting your will and estate plan.

A lawyer can help guide you through the complexities of estate and probate law.

An attorney can ensure that your estate plan is properly implemented and carried out once you have passed away.

A lawyer can provide an objective perspective as you consider your estate planning choices. A lawyer can also help you with any difficult conversations you may need to have with loved ones about your intentions and wishes.

An attorney can follow up with you when you experience significant life changes and ensure that your will and estate plan are kept up-to-date.

What Should Be Included in Your Will

Topics that should typically be addressed in your will include:

Who you wish to serve as executor (or alternate executor) of your will. If you don’t nominate an executor, or if your named executor or alternate executor refuses to serve or is found unfit to serve, the court will appoint an administrator for your estate.

Whether your estate will be moved into a trust or distributed among beneficiaries.

A listing of any significant assets that you wish to leave to specific loved ones, friends or organizations. Significant assets should include vehicles, business interests, investments, jewelry or art.

The beneficiaries of your estate, including the specific assets that each beneficiary will inherit.

Who will inherit the residuary estate, or those assets that are not specifically bequeathed in your will.

Who you wish to have serve as a guardian for your children if there is no other parent to care for them.

How to Execute a Will in California

A will is primarily used to designate which persons or entities will receive certain assets once you are gone. When drafting your will, you should identify the assets you own and ownership documentation, including:

Real estate deeds
Vehicle titles
Banking account statements
Brokerage account statements
Stock and bond certificates

Retirement account statements
Other investment account statements (such as annuities)
Listings of valuable personal property, such as art or jewelry

You should also gather information about your debts. Among the debts that may affect ownership of assets you may wish to leave in your will are the following:

Mortgages
Home equity lines of credit
Car loans
Boat loans

Student loans
Consumer debt (such as credit card debt)
Hospital and other medical bills

You should also consider who will be named as beneficiaries in your will. Make sure that your beneficiaries are correctly identified including the following information:

Full names
Dates of birth
Complete addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses
Social Security numbers (if available)

You should also ensure that you have full contact information for any person you appoint as an executor of your will and contact information for any person you designate as a temporary guardian for your children.

Tips for Talking to Your Beneficiaries About Your Estate Plan

Unfortunately, some people will have their will prepared by an estate planning attorney and then file it away after executing it. As a result, the beneficiaries and executors named in your will may never be informed about the person’s intentions and wishes. This vacuum of information can lead to disputes and even litigation that wastes your estate’s resources and delays your loved ones’ inheritance. The following tips may help you prepare for important estate-related discussions with your beneficiaries and family members:

Initiate the conversation during a calm, positive environment. Do not wait until a catastrophic or emergency event. Your loved ones may not feel emotionally or psychologically prepared to discuss intense subjects such as your passing and your estate planning.
Make sure your loved ones understand that you are looking to have conversations about your estate planning. This will ensure your intentions are clear and the proper plans have been put into place.
Try to empower your family by explaining that estate planning allows your family to have some control over future events.
Share your intentions if it is the case that your estate plan treats similarly situated beneficiaries differently. For example, if your children are receiving different inheritances, you may wish to consider having conversations individually with each beneficiary.
Ensure that your nominated executor or other close family members have the names of your lawyer, accountant, banker, financial advisor and other professional advisors. Also, be sure those persons know where to find your financial documents and how to access each of your financial and banking accounts, including brokerage accounts, savings accounts, annuities and retirement funds.

FAQs About Wills in California

Business Estate and Tax Attorneys, P.C., has responded to the following questions our clients have raised about the process of creating a will in California. Our answers may be helpful to your situation.

A will can only be executed by an individual over the age of 18. If the maker of a will, also called a testator, handwrites the will, it only needs to be signed and dated by the testator – this is called a holographic will. If the will is typed by the testator or otherwise prepared by someone other than the testator, the testator will need to sign the will or acknowledge his/her signature in front of two witnesses, who then must sign the will as witnesses at the same time the testator either signs the will or acknowledges his or her signature.

As a general rule, a witness should not also be named as a beneficiary in the will, as any gift to a witness may be deemed to have been made under duress. Further, under some circumstances, a witness can lose a bequest if it has a greater value than what the witness would have received under intestacy laws.

California law does not require you to notarize your will. Some states require wills to be notarized in order to be considered “self-proving.” Provided your will is correctly signed and witnessed, you do not need to have it notarized under California law.

You may revoke or change your will at any time. Changing your will can be accomplished by executing a new will that expressly revokes and supersedes any prior wills you executed. Alternatively, you can execute a document called a codicil, which alters certain provisions of your existing will or revokes an existing will. You can also revoke a will with a physical act, such as defacing, destroying or throwing out the original copy of your executed will, done with the purpose of revoking it.

If you die without a will, your estate will pass to your heirs according to California’s intestacy laws. Intestacy laws pass your assets to your closest living relatives, usually your children, or if you do not have children, spreading out from there to siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles. If the court cannot find any living relatives, the state will be allowed to take your property under a process called escheat.

Talk to an Orinda Will Attorney Now

If you are considering drafting a will to specify how you want your assets and estate to pass after you have died, you need an experienced lawyer to help you make sure your will reflects your wishes and it is validly executed and enforceable.

Contact a will attorney in Orinda at Business Estate & Tax Attorneys, P.C., today. You can schedule a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your estate planning needs and options and to learn more about how our firm can help you prepare your will.

Monday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Monday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tuesday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Thursday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday	9:00 am - 5:00 pm