Estate Planning

An Estate Plan Is A Journey, Not A Destination

Traditional estate planning is transaction-based — but at LifePath Law, APC, we believe estate planning is also about the journey, not just the destination. Our firm in Sacramento guides you through a path to your family’s security and peace of mind, helping you through every step of the journey. It is our goal to help you design a plan that not only looks after your loved ones, but one that does so in a way to preserve relationships and foster harmony during stressful times.

While we are able to offer stand-alone services, we feel that simply doesn’t do you justice. We want to talk through your needs and counsel you so you can meaningfully participate in the planning and execution of your estate.

We also offer a unique estate planning maintenance and update program, where a dedicated member of our team will update your documents annually for changes in your relationships or finances, and once every four years for changes in the law. This ensures that your estate plan will do what you want it to whenever you need it.

Helping You With Every Aspect Of Your Estate

Our firm’s primary concern is ensuring everything in your estate is in place and complete. We want the administration of your estate to be as painless as possible, putting an emphasis on your family’s protection and security. Our services often include:

  • Trust-based estate plans, including any ancillary documents, such as pour over wills and powers of attorney
  • Disability and incapacity planning
  • Remarriage protection and blended family planning
  • Business succession planning
  • Generation-skipping and bloodline protection
  • Noncitizen estate planning
  • Conservatorships and guardianships
  • Educational workshops

Together, we can meet your most important estate planning goals — from avoiding the costs of probate in California to ensuring your loved ones are taken care of after your passing. No matter what you want your estate plan to accomplish, we are here to help.

Familiar With The Complexities Of Blended Families

One of the biggest concerns in estate planning is what happens when you divorce and remarry. You may have children from a previous marriage, children from your current marriage, stepchildren and ex-spouses whom you want to include or not include in your plan. We are sensitive to the needs of blended families and are able to offer tailored estate planning solutions that protect the wishes of everyone involved.

Speak to an experienced estate lawyer today by calling 916-231-0688 for a complimentary phone consultation, or reach out online for more information on our services. We look forward to working with you to meet your and your family’s estate planning goals.

Taking The Worry Out Of Guardianships And Conservatorships

At LifePath Law, APC, we understand things don’t always work out as planned. Our No. 1 priority is to help you thoroughly plan so that you won’t need a guardianship or conservatorship for you or a loved one. But in the event when you do need one — a trusted estate planning and probate lawyer can make the process as painless as possible.

In California, conservatorships allow a trusted “conservator” to make financial and medical decisions on behalf of an incapacitated loved one. Guardianships are similar but are put in place for minors under the age of 18, and they are often used to care for a child and watch over their life insurance or trust fund until they are old enough to access it. Our attorneys are familiar with both guardianships and conservatorships and can help you establish one that best looks after your loved one’s security.

Making Sure Your Loved Ones Are Cared For

As you go to set up your guardianship or conservatorship, the most important thing you need to consider is whom you want to trust as the guardian or conservator. Far too often, the one trusted with this role will abuse their fiduciary duties, and you will need to take further action in court to resolve the situation.

LifePath Law, APC, helps you make the decisions you need to keep you and your family secure in the long run. We want you to make the best decisions for your needs, so you can stay out of probate court. Call our office in Sacramento at 916-231-0688 for a free initial phone consultation, or reach out online for more information on our guardianship and conservatorship services.

Planning For The Succession Of Your Business

You may have spent the majority of your life building or expanding your family business. After you pass away, what will happen to your business’s legacy? LifePath Law, APC, works with a wide variety of California entrepreneurs and business owners to ensure the decisions involving their family business go as they want them to. We have counseled clients throughout the Sacramento area in all the matters relating to their businesses and their estates such as:

  • Providing liquidity for owners
  • Providing retirement income for owners
  • Determining who receives ownership
  • Minimizing taxes on transfer of ownership
  • Providing for business continuity
  • Providing fairly for all family members

Family business succession planning is an intricate area of estate law and requires counsel from an attorney familiar in this area. With so much on the line, we offer more than just one-time representation — we counsel you throughout your estate planning journey, ensuring the needs of your family and your business are accounted for no matter when your estate plan needs to be executed.

Ensuring Everyone Gets Their Fair Share

If you have multiple children or are part of a blended family, the issue of business continuity may be substantial. You may not want to split ownership between your children, because one or more of them may not want an active role in the business.

We explore the various options available to you, including selling all or part of your ownership to increase the liquidity of your estate and allow for a more fair distribution of your assets.

Your business may be at the center of your estate plan; don’t trust its fate in the hands of just any estate planning lawyer. Call 916-231-0688 today for a complimentary phone consultation, or send us an email for more information on our services.

Making Your Wishes Clearly Known

There are many types of estate plans, and a trust-based plan is one created by an attorney to have the title of your assets held in your revocable or living trust while you are alive. The trust will generally include documents such as:

  • Revocable trust
  • Pour over will
  • Power of attorney
  • Advanced health care directive
  • Ancillary documents

Your assets include your real and personal property, bank accounts, automobiles, collectibles and other accounts you transfer your ownership of to your trust.

This type of legal planning ahead of time makes it easier for the transfer of those assets named in your trust to be directly distributed to the persons you designate upon your death.

After your death, the property you have listed and properly transferred into your trust will be passed along appropriately outside of the probate court.

Your Choices Will Be Honored When You Die

With a help of a lawyer, you can name whoever you wish to receive your assets. Many people keep their beneficiaries to their spouse and children. If you do not have a spouse or child you may name your parents, siblings or cousins.

Others designate their favorite California charity or nonprofit organization as beneficiaries to receive the bounty of their estate.

Saving Your Family From Costly Probate Expenses

With a trust you can avoid California probate court. This allows your assets to be directly distributed to those beneficiaries you named in your trust.

It is important to be sure that all of your assets transferred and owned by your trust are properly owned in the trust. Our firm can do that for you. We offer the services of formal funding, maintenance and update program for your trust.

At LifePath Law, APC, we create trust-based estate plans for clients in the Sacramento, Rocklin, Roseville and Granite Bay. Call us at 916-231-0688 for a complimentary phone consultation, or please email us.

Formal Funding, Maintenance And Update Programs

The provisions of your trust apply only to those assets properly “funded” or transferred to your trust. Through our Formal Funding Program, our dedicated funding coordinator works with you and your various financial institutions to coordinate the initial funding of your trust through not only preparing all of the necessary transfer documents, but also obtaining verification of such transfers.

During the maintenance phase of our Formal Funding Program, we offer services such as:

  • Annual review of your assets in trust
  • Transferring assets to your trust that you acquire throughout the years

Our Maintenance And Update Program

Your estate plan should change with any changes in your finances and life so that the plan that is administered at the time of your mental incapacity or death will most closely reflect your situation at that time instead of the circumstances in existence at the time you originally created your plan.

Regularly updating your estate plan for changes in the law is also important because a trust is administered based on what the trust document itself says, and the state and federal statutes and case law in effect at the time of the trust’s administration, which could be many years after the trust is created.

Our unique Formal Maintenance & Update Program allows us to bridge this gap in service from the time you create your trust until the time you need it to work: during your mental incapacity and at your death.

Our Formal Maintenance & Update Program includes:

  • Annual review of your assets in trust
  • Transferring assets to your trust that you acquire throughout the years
  • Conference calls with our funding coordinator to address funding questions
  • Annual review of dispositive terms of your trust and ancillary documents
  • Annual update for changes in your life affecting your estate plan
  • Annual review of changes in the law affecting your trust and ancillary documents
  • Regular update for changes in law to various parts of your estate plan, including your trust, ancillary and supplemental documents
  • Conference calls with attorney to address any questions or concerns regarding your estate plan
  • Educational workshops offered throughout the year

Our services are unique and unlike those offered at any other estate planning firm in the region. Call 916-231-0688 today for a complimentary phone consultation, or reach out online to see if our services are a fit for you.

Contact Us Today

We at LifePath Law, APC, believe in providing services in a way that clients can easily understand and meaningfully participate in designing and maintaining their estate plan for their loved ones, as well as be assured that their plan will be administered according to their wishes.