Carlsbad Estate Administration Lawyer

Losing a loved one is an already emotional and complicated time. Trying to organize the estate of someone who did not have a plan while you’re grieving can be even harder. There are a multitude of details that go into protecting your assets and organizing your estate if anything were to ever happen to you.

Because of everything that must be included in estate administration, having an experienced estate planning attorney can help you with the process. By hiring a probate attorney and organizing your assets, you’ll make your life and those of your loved ones easier.

Paul V.L. Campo Attorney at Law: Your Carlsbad Estate Planning Attorney

With over three decades of experience serving the San Diego County and North County areas, our team at Paul V.L. Campo Attorney at Law has proudly assisted countless families with estate planning and asset protection. Trust administration and the overall probate process in California are complicated and can be extremely difficult to attempt by yourself.

With the help of our dedicated attorneys, we can guide you through the different legal aspects of estate administration, help you create trusts, protect your assets, assign power of attorney, and more. We’ll ensure your wishes are carried out just as you would like, and you can have peace of mind knowing your family is going to be taken care of.

What Is Estate Administration and Planning?

When a person passes away, their estate, debts, and assets all have to be taken care of. Estate planning is an essential legal process that anyone with assets, family members, or loved ones should complete. The goal of estate administration is to create a plan for when an estate owner passes away. These plans include what happens to the owner’s home, where their assets need to go, how their money is going to be handled and distributed, and more.

Because California has a complicated probate process, it’s crucial to have an estate plan in case anything happens to you. Otherwise, it’s possible that the state can take over the probate process, and your assets may not go where you want them to.

Why Do You Need an Estate Administration Attorney?

Estate planning attorneys, or probate attorneys, can assist you with making plans for your estate and assets. They can help you through all of the legal aspects regarding both planning and implementing a person’s wishes for their estate.

Estate Planning

During the planning process, you need to:

• Identify Assets
  When making plans for your estate, one of the first things you’ll need to do is think about your assets and what you want to do with them. Your assets can involve anything from an expensive painting in your home to your retirement account. An estate administration attorney can help you with identifying your most important assets and creating plans for how you want to distribute them later. A lawyer can also help with handling your different accounts, stocks, business interests, and other financial and material items.
• Appraise Estates
  Estate appraisal is often done both before and after someone passes away. When an estate owner initially creates a will, they usually have their probate attorney appraise their current estate for what it’s worth. Your attorney from Paul V.L. Campo, Attorney at Law,can help you organize your estate and appraise itto make sure it’s valued at what it should be.
• Create a Living Trust
  A living trust is a legal document created by an estate owner and their probate attorney. The document identifies a person’s assets, how they want them distributed, as well as their final wishes. Living trusts are created with the help of estate administration lawyers so they can implement a person’s wishes when it’s time. The living trust is also legally binding, and it provides the court with evidence of what an estate owner wanted to do with their assets.

Estate Implementation

The implementing phase happens upon the person’s death:

• Pay Bills and Debts Owed
  When a person passes away, there are still debts that may need to be collected on their behalf. A federal estate tax must be paid, as well as any estate administration fees. If the person who passed away had any outstanding debts, their attorney notifies the accounts of their passing and pays whatever is owed through the estate that was left.
• Distribute Assets
  Your estate administration attorney can assist in distributing any assets that were identified to them after your passing. Whether it’s helping to pass on your home to your child or distributing your savings account to the listed beneficiaries, your lawyer follows the plans you created together and makes sure your plans are taken care of properly.
• Implement Any Final Wishes
  Using your living trust or any other legal documents that you created together, your probate attorney can implement your final wishes. They can also assist beneficiaries through the probate process, as they have all of the information regarding the deceased’s estate. Once your lawyer has followed through with your wishes and everything is settled, your estate is closed.

How Much Does It Cost for a Lawyer to Settle an Estate in California?

Most estate planning lawyers make an agreement with their clients to take a certain percentage of the estate before it is closed. In California, for the first $100,000 of the gross estate amount, 4% is commonly taken to settle. With each $100,000, the percentage decreases by one. Because every estate and the person who owns it are unique, the amount required for estate settlement in California is likely to vary.

Estate Planning and Asset Protection in Carlsbad, California

When it comes to your estate, there is a multitude of aspects to be taken care of before and after you pass away. At Paul V.L. Campo, Attorney at Law, our team understands how difficult and stressful estate planning can be. That’s why we offer legal services to assist with the complicated estate administration process for families across California. To begin planning for your future or for any questions about the estate planning process, feel free to contact our team.