OUR PRACTICE

CALIFORNIA ESTATE PLANNING?

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW ?

If you are convinced that action is required now, you should retain a competent California estate planning attorney to help you with the following:

You should decide who should make medical decisions for you if you can’t and record this in a document that hospitals and doctors accept. Also you should specify your wishes as to what medical treatments you want and what you don’t want.
Prepare a Prior Medical Decisions Document (PMDD). (This document is sometimes called a Living Will or a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.)
You should decide who should make financial decisions for you if you can’t.
Prepare a Durable Power of Attorney for Assets (DPA).
You should decide who you want for guardians of your children.
Prepare a Will.
You should decide whom gets your assets on your death.
Prepare a Trust (or a Will).

The above is known as an estate planning package. A competent estate planning attorney will include all of these items in an integrated estate planning document. Once the document is prepared you should let your spouse and your successor trustees know where it is kept.

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