Every Californian's Guide To Estate Planning: Wills, Trust & Everything Else

by Liza W. Hanks Attorney

Overview

Finally, an Estate Planning Guide for Californians

Every Californian’s Guide to Estate Planning helps you understand the basics of leaving money and property to loved ones and charities, and naming a guardian for children—with a special focus on issues unique to California, like:

• how community property rules affect inheritance and taxes
• how to minimize capital gains for those inheriting high value real estate
• legal and tax rules that apply to non-citizens and U.S. permanent residents
• important issues for international guardians, trustees, and executors
• how to understand the impact of “Prop 19,” and make sure your heirs don’t lose a low (“Prop 13”) property tax rate, and
• how to avoid California’s slow and expensive probate system through options such as transfer-on-death deeds.

With Downloadable Worksheets

Includes access to essential worksheets that help you get started on writing a will, preparing a trust, choosing a guardian, leaving money to kids, naming beneficiaries, choosing agents for your health care directive and power of attorney for finances, doing a personal inventory, and more. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781413331455
Publisher:	NOLO
Publication date:	01/30/2024
Edition description:	Fourth Edition
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	157,903
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Liza Hanks is an attorney, writer, and speaker with a passion for making legal concepts clear and accessible to everyone. She doesn’t think estate planning is or should be boring. After working with hundreds of families over 17 years, she knows that at its core, estate planning is about giving to the people and organizations that you love most. When done right, Liza knows that estate planning can be life affirming, positive and even… interesting.
Liza is a partner at GCA Law Partners LLP in Mountain View, California, where she practices estate planning, trust administration, and probate law. She is a certified specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization and taught Estate Planning and Taxation at Santa Clara UniversityLaw School as an adjunct lecturer. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School, a former magazine editor, and the mother of two children (neither of whom has any interest in becoming an attorney). She has been featured in numerous national publications including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. She’s also the author of The Trustee's Legal Companion (with Attorney Carol Elias Zolla). Visit Liza’s blog and podcast at www.lizahanks.com. Visit Liza’s Estate Planning Blog for Nolo, Ask Liza: Everyday Estate Planning, at http://blog.nolo.com/estateplanning/

Table of Contents

Intro: What's So Special About California? Chapter 1. Do You Need a Will or a Trust? Chapter 2. If a Will Is Right for You Chapter 3. If a Living Trust Is Right for You Chapter 4. Estate Planning for Minor Children Chapter 5. Leaving Money to Minor Children Chapter 6. Estate Planning Across Borders Chapter 7. Yours, Mine, and Ours: Estate Planning for Blended Families Chapter 8. Estate Planning and Property Tax: What You Need to Know About Proposition 13 Chapter 9. Death and Taxes: Estate, Inheritance, and Income Tax Chapter 10. Planning With Retirement Accounts Chapter 11. Powers of Attorney: Planning for Incapacity Chapter 12. Life Changes: So Will Your Plan Appendix (Estate Planning Worksheets)

Interviews

Facts about California:

California has more immigrants than any other state, about 10 million, or one in four of the foreign-born population nationwide. In 2015, 27% of California's population was foreign born, more than twice the U.S. percentage. Of these, almost half are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Only 23.4% of Californians live in traditional , nuclear family households. The majority of Californian families are non-traditional: same sex, blended, or headed by single parents.

California property tax rates go up dramatically upon sale to a new owner but with appropriate planning, parents can pass their low tax rates to their children.

California is the largest state in the country, with 37.2 million people (Texas is second with 25 million).

California has the world's 6th largest economy, ahead of France and Brazil.