Living Trust
The Legacy, APC Process
The Legacy, APC process always begins with an initial consultation. The initial consultation is a conversation between you and us about your circumstances, needs, and goals. It usually lasts about an hour and a half, although that can vary.
What happens after the initial consultation depends on what services you need:
Estate Planning
1. Initial Consultation
2. Drafting: Our next step after the initial consultation is to begin drafting the documents needed to put your estate plan into effect. We may contact you during this time to ask for additional information if we need it.
3. Execution: Once we have drafted your estate-planning documents, we’ll call you back in so that we can walk you through the process of signing them. The signing process normally takes about an hour and half to complete.
4. Periodic Review: After you’ve prepared your estate plan, we recommend that you bring it in for us to review periodically. Normally, this should be every two years, but you should also have your plan reviewed after major life events, such as a marriage, divorce, birth or adoption, or death in the family.
Probate Services
1. Initial Consultation
2. Going to Court: Probate is a judicial procedure, and that means going to court. During this phase, we will file petitions, motions, and reports with a judge and appear before the judge in probate hearings. This phase can vary dramatically in length depending on several factors. It could take three months; it could take a year or more.
2. Conclusion: At the end of the probate process, we will help the personal representative transfer the probate property to its new owners and formally close the estate in court.
Trust Administration
1. Initial Consultation
2. Administering the Trust: Trust administration is like a private version of probate. Ultimately, the trustee will distribute your loved one’s property to its new owners. Depending on the terms of the trust, that may take three to six months or it could take years. In the meantime, we help the trustee understand his or her role in managing the trust property.
3. Closing the Trust: Every California trust must come to an end. When it does, the property that still remains in the trust must be distributed to the appropriate beneficiaries. We help the trustee determine who should get what and how to legally complete those transfers and terminate the trust.