Estate Planning with the Law Offices of Bruno Flores

Our mission is to guide you through a process that seems overwhelming and is often difficult to think about, yet is very necessary in today's legal environment. We try to make the process as painless and straightforward as possible, so you know your affairs are in order.

Through our counsel, advice and direction, we can help you to determine an estate plan that suits your needs. We are here to answer your questions, relieve your anxieties, and provide you with guidance through the legal maze of options and uncertainties that accompany estate planning. 

We know how important it is to listen to and understand your needs while also providing legal guidance. No two people are the same, so we want to ensure that you are getting the estate plan that suits your needs and your family. Whether you have just a few assets that you want to make sure are protected or an extensive array of assets with a very specific plan in mind, we are here to help you create it. 

We will discuss your plan upfront, communicate about what is important to you, and be straightforward about any and all legal fees. This means we will talk to you about a plan and fees that suit your needs and give you the cost of all services provided to you before you hire us – no surprises.

Setting up a trust or other estate planning documents should not be scary or unsatisfying, financially or emotionally. That's why we're here - to help you rest easy knowing that your family, your assets, and your estate are taken care of according to your wishes.

Practice Areas        

Estate Planning
Estate Planning involves the creation of wills, trusts, and other documents that, among other things, help ensure your estate is distributed according to your terms, help avoid probate issues, and minimize estate taxes. These may include, but are not limited to:

• Revocable Living Trust
• Irrevocable Living Trust
• Last Will and Testament
• Pour Over Will
• Statutory Power of Attorney
• Durable Power of Attorney
• Living Will/Advance Health Care Directive
• Medical Authorization Release Form - as required by HIPAA laws
• Certificate of Trust
• Assignment of Personal Property
• Deed Transfers 
• Personal Property Memorandum
• Community Property Agreement
• Guardianship Nominations - to protect your children by ensuring that those you want will care for your children if you are unable (and those you do not want will be prevented)

Trust Administration
Trust administration involves all of the administrative procedures that may be necessary once a trust has been created. This may be administration required during or after the lifetime of the person who created a revocable trust and may include trust amendments or restatements, transfers of assets, distributions of assets within an estate, to ensure timely distributions, to avoid disputes, or other necessary administrative procedures that may be required within a certain time period after a death has occurred. 

FAQS

What is a trust?
Although there are a variety of different types of trust, the 'trust' most often being referred to is known as a Revocable Living Trust. This type of trust is one created by you (and your spouse if desired and depending upon the state you live in) during your lifetime, and can be changed, updated or terminated by you during your lifetime. This means you can set it up, change it as many times as you like, or get rid of it - whatever you choose. It becomes irrevocable - meaning you can no longer update, change or terminate it - after you are deceased. 

Think of a trust like a big shoebox that belongs to you and holds all of your valuables (metaphorically). You control your 'box' and you can swap it out for a bigger or smaller box, decide who controls the box and/or who gets the stuff that is in the box while you are alive and/or after you are deceased. You have full control of the box and what goes in and out of it. You can put your house in the box (well, lets say the title to your house for visual ease), your jewelry, your cars, you favorite paintings, etc. While there are some rules and limitations, you get to decide what box you hold, who controls it if you can't, what is inside of your box and who gets what you have put inside your box when you are gone. 

Do I really need a trust?
Yes. For the most part, a trust is recommended. There are a number of reasons why most people probably want to set up a trust (without realizing it), but we'll describe a few of the most important and most commonly applicable.

To Avoid Probate: The probate court in California is difficult, expensive and time-consuming. For anyone with real property (meaning a house or land) worth over $20,000 OR total assets worth over $100,000 (meaning the value of everything you own), probate is required. While there are a few exceptions based on how property is titled, assets are not always titled as you may think or want in order to avoid probate.  

This applies to married couples in particular, who often own their home as joint tenants or community property with right of survivorship. While this type of ownership helps avoid probate when the first spouse passes, it does NOT avoid probate when the second passes or if both pass at the same time. It also does nothing to reduce taxes.  

Furthermore, probate fees are statutorily set (meaning they are predetermined by the total amount of your estate), which are expensive and do NOT include additional costs for attorneys fees or estate taxes.

To Ensure Assets are Distributed According to Your Wishes: Many people believe that if they have a Will, they have ensured that their assets will be passed along according to the wishes in their will. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. A trust, on the other hand, can more effectively ensure assets are transferred to whom you wish, when you wish, in the manner you wish. 

To Ensure Your Assets Are Controlled By Someone You Trust: A trust allows for you to transfer your assets into one place so that you can make sure your estate is controlled by a person or persons you trust in case you are no longer able to control them yourself, and allows you to do so privately. While a Will does allow you to appoint an executor, this does not keep the court, attorneys, creditors, and other interested parties from becoming involved in the public probate process and having some input in the control of your assets. 

To Avoid Estate Taxes: Many people believe that trusts, or estate planning in general, are only for the rich. This is not necessarily true. Depending on what the current estate tax is and what your total assets are, this may or may not be important. 

In 2011 Congress passed a law setting the estate tax exemption at $5 million for an individual and $10 million for a married couple for the next 2 years. This means that an individual with total assets under $5 million (or married couple under $10 million) will not have estate taxes due upon their death. This is very good news for most people whose total net worth will not exceed these amounts, savings their loved ones from paying exorbitant estate taxes upon their death. On the downside, anyone whose assets are above these limits will have estate taxes due in the amount of 35% of anything over the exemption amount.

BEWARE - you may not think this estate tax does not apply to you because your total assets are much less than $5-10 million; however, as mentioned above, this new estate tax exemption only applies for two years. This means that at the end of 2012, Congress could lower the exemption to any possible amount (at which point you may find your estate is included and an estate tax will be due upon your death). While a Will cannot help you where estate taxes are concerned, a trust can. Certain types of trusts can help you utilize the estate tax exemption better and lower or eliminate estate taxes owed by your loved ones after you are deceased.

 

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Our goal is to put HUMANITY back into the law. We want our clients to know that they are a person to us, that their problems are real to us, and that their concerns are our concerns. We see too many law firms treat people like a number, like a faceless set of facts, and they tend to see their personal issues as a group problem.

At our offices, we know you by name, we know what matters to you and we do everything in our power to help you through these very difficult financial times. I, Bruno Flores, vow to keep my client's individual goals and desires first and foremost, and to work towards the goal that we have outlined to follow.

Feel free to come and visit us, and you will see that we are all HUMAN at our office.

"The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it."
Epicurus

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