Upland Estate Planning Lawyers
Upland Estate Planning Attorney Helping Clients Achieve Their Objectives for Over 25 Years
Upland Estate Planning Attorney Helping Clients Achieve Their Objectives for Over 25 YearsEffective estate planning is essential to protecting your family and your wealth, now and in the future. Scot Moga has been an estate planning lawyer in Upland, CA for over 25 Years and can help you manage your assets while alive, protect your assets in the event you fall ill, and provide for the care of your family after you are gone. We serve clients mostly throughout the San Bernardino & Riverside Counties, and often work with family members in Orange County, Los Angeles and throughout the state of California. As an Upland estate planning lawyer for 2+ decades, Scot has helped literally thousands of clients throughout Southern California draft or modify estate plans.
Comprehensive Estate Planning Tools and Services
Our Upland, CA estate planning attorney works closely with clients to identify goals, plan for contingencies, and create a comprehensive estate plan. This often involves a variety of tools, legal knowledge and instruments designed to minimize estate taxes, bypass probate, set aside assets, and control who will be your beneficiaries; for example:
- A will to name beneficiaries, establish a guardian for minor children, and govern the distribution of your assets
- Durable powers of attorney for financial affairs
- An advanced health care directive regarding health care provisions and end-of-life measures
- Long-term care and nursing home planning
- Business succession planning to pass a family-owned business to the next generation
- Business entity formation
- Joint tenancy ownership and re-titling of property to ensure assets pass directly to beneficiaries
- Revocable trusts and pour-over wills
- Irrevocable trusts, including disclaimer trusts, marital trusts, qualified domestic trusts (QDOTs), life insurance trusts, grantor retained interest trusts, minors’ trusts, Crummey trusts, spendthrift trusts, and charitable trusts
- Special needs trusts for a disabled child or vulnerable adult
How Much Does an Estate Plan Cost?
A comprehensive estate plan can cost anywhere from an average of approximately $2,500, up to much more depending on a number of different circumstances. Estate plans increase in cost as the complexity increases. If a client has several properties to be held in trust, a business, complex investments, retirement accounts, asset protection and tax avoidance measures, these can all escalate the cost of an estate plan. All assets must be accounted for, defined and then expressed how they are to be disbursed at death.
What Happens if I Don’t Have an Estate Plan?
If you don’t have an estate plan and you own real property, your property must go through probate in California by law after death. This is called “death intestate”. Probate can be very expensive, stressful and time consuming for your heirs. A “Will” is not enough to prevent probate and a comprehensive estate plan will help you plan for how your real estate, investments, cash and personal property will be distributed after death. Typically, a Living Trust is the best legal solution to ensure that your real property flows through to designated heirs upon death without probate. Essentially, you move your property into the trust, recorded with the county, while you are alive and you designate beneficiaries to receive the property after death. Upon death, a Trustee that you’ve designated then distributes the property to your chosen beneficiaries while circumventing the probate process.
Knowledgeable Revocable & Irrevocable Trusts & Wills Attorney in Upland
A will is the most basic and fundamental estate planning tool, no matter if an estate is large or small. It addresses how your assets will be distributed at your death, and also names the individual who will handle the administration of your estate. Your may also designate a guardian for your minor children if you have no surviving spouse.
For many people, however, drafting a will is only the first step to creating a strong estate plan. Revocable and irrevocable trusts often provide for probate avoidance, significant asset protection and tax savings when used appropriately. Our estate planning attorneys in Upland understand how to maximize the advantages of a proper estate plan for the benefit of our clients.
Do I Need An Estate Planning Attorney?
The term “Estate Plan” is a catch-all term for a comprehensive strategy that comprises several types of legal documents. An estate plan integrates documents that protect your assets, and ensure that your preferences for medical care are carried out when you can’t make decisions on your own. An estate plan can be a wide variety of documents based on your unique situation, and the more assets you have and the more specific your instructions and desires, the more complex your estate plan solution may be. Without an experienced estate planning law firm to assist, your plan may have errors or incomplete & poorly executed documents. This can result in heirs contesting your will, or legal battles over your estate after death.
Consult With Our Experienced Estate Planning Lawyers in Upland – Serving the Inland Empire
Moga Law Firm is committed to assisting families who seek to protect their assets and the security of their loved ones. Scot Moga is an experienced Upland estate planning lawyer serving the entire Inland Empire who can help answer your questions and put you on the right path, please call 909-931-2444 or contact us online. We look forward to discussing your estate planning objectives and offering legal solutions that help you achieve your goals. Se habla español.
