Wills and Trusts Attorney for Los Angeles and Orange County

Own a home in Los Angeles or Orange County with no living trust? Your family is on track for probate: nine to eighteen months in court and statutory fees calculated on the gross value of what you own, mortgage included. Fred Yadegar drafts wills and trusts, reviews the documents you already have, and goes to court when a trustee or executor will not do the job.

Who needs a plan

Estate planning is not just for the wealthy. In Southern California it is for anyone with a house. Once a home is worth more than the $750,000 limit for the simplified succession petition (Prob. Code §13150), the estate goes through full probate, and the fee schedule in §10810 does not care what you still owe the bank.

Minor children, a second marriage, or a beneficiary who cannot manage money each add reasons of their own.

Will, living trust, or probate

A will says who gets what and who is in charge. It does not keep your estate out of court. A will alone still goes through probate, which in Los Angeles County typically runs 9 to 18 months. The attorney and the executor are each entitled to a statutory fee: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, and 1% of the next $9 million (Prob. Code §10810), calculated on the gross value of the estate. On a $1,000,000 home that is $23,000 for the attorney, and the executor can claim the same.

A funded revocable living trust avoids probate for everything titled in it. You stay in control while you are alive, and when you die your successor trustee distributes the assets privately, without a judge. Die with no will and no trust, and the intestacy rules decide who inherits (Prob. Code §6400 et seq.), through the same court process. Already dealing with that? See probate for properties without a will or trust.

The full document set

A complete plan is more than a trust. Fred prepares:

• A revocable living trust that holds your home and other titled assets
• A pour-over will for anything left outside the trust, which also names guardians for minor children
• A durable power of attorney for finances, in case you are incapacitated
• An Advance Health Care Directive naming your health care agent (Prob. Code §4600 et seq.)
• A HIPAA authorization so that agent can talk to your doctors
• A deed transferring your home into the trust, recorded with the county

A trust with nothing in it avoids nothing; creating wills and trusts explains how funding works.

When to update what you have

Your plan should change when your life does. Review it after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, a new property, or a move. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance override whatever your trust says, so those forms need checking too. If you are not sure your documents still work, start with a document review.

When someone will not follow the plan

Trustees and executors have legal duties: loyalty, impartiality, keeping beneficiaries informed, and accounting at least once a year (Prob. Code §16060 to §16062). When a trustee stalls, self-deals, or refuses to share information, beneficiaries can petition the court under §17200 to compel an accounting, instruct the trustee, or remove them. A contest of the trust itself runs on a 120-day clock after the trustee’s notice goes out (§16061.8). Fred handles enforcing trusts and wills in the Los Angeles and Orange County probate courts, and he defends trustees against unfair claims.

How Fred works

You meet with Fred, not a paralegal you never see again. He asks about your family, your property, and what worries you, then tells you which documents you need and which you do not. He explains your options and the flat-fee or other pricing before you commit to anything.