ESTATE & TAX PLANNING

Estate planning, tax planning, business planning, and protecting/preserving assets/wealth involve thinking about control and flexibility, weighing potential pros and cons, and making calculated choices.

A lot of estate planners have websites that go on and on about different types of “fancy” irrevocable trusts, “Domestic Asset Protection Trusts,” and why you need an LLC in Alaska or Wyoming and a trust in the Cook Islands. If you’d like, the Internet can confirm this for you in a few minutes. That is all well and good; these tools may, in appropriate instances, be appropriate. And we can talk about them, in context with broader estate planning objectives. However, in most instances, these techniques are unnecessary (and overvalued or misused).

But did you know that, under the California Probate Code, California Code of Civil Procedure, and California Civil Code, there are procedures and mechanisms for creditors to attack, “lien,” and divert a part of a trust beneficiary’s trust inheritance, even if the beneficiary had no part in creating the trust and even if it is a Discretionary Spendthrift Trust? (See Section 15306.5 of the California Probate Code.) 

Still, the fundamental “rock” to a comprehensive California estate plan is a revocable living trust.

Estate planning lends itself very well to metaphors. Here is one truism fundamental to the estate planning process: “Don’t let the tax tail wag the estate planning dog.” While various types of taxes may very well play a role in your estate plan (i.e., working to reduce the value of your federal taxable estate), there may be numerous other factors, too. You may or may not add to that list another common belief (which may or may not be appropriate for you): "Protect assets from creditors at all costs.” Depending on your personal circumstances and goals, perhaps business and life insurance policies may be appropriate and enough? When you meet with Camarillo estate planning attorney Ryan J. Casson at his Camarillo office (or on Zoom, etc.), he will explore with you each of these factors. Ryan ensures that the process is personalized to every client, whether from Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Santa Barbara, or Los Angeles or even further in California.

Whether your estate is more modest or of a high net worth, Ryan will work to help you think through the various potential pros and cons, from discussing who will be trustee and executor to deciding how estate tax is to be minimized, if at all. The estate planning process involves a “control/flexibility calculus,” whereby you must decide how you weigh the potential pros and cons to best achieve your objectives.

Ryan very much enjoys explaining estate planing and tax concepts and he has no doubt that, after meeting with him, you will begin to identify your roadmap for your legacy and experience peace of mind.

The estate planning process puts you in the driver’s seat; you create the roadmap and the roads.

Common estate planning documents

  • A Will must be probated but maximizes the likelihood your property will pass to whom you would like it to. Often, a Will is a backup plan that ensures that, in the even that an asset does go through probate, it will “pour over” into your trust (if you direct it to).

  • The authority for a certain individual to manage your property and finances on your behalf.

  • The authority for a certain individual to make health care decisions for you, if/when you become incapacitated.

  • Some trusts are created as probate avoidance trusts and/or to ensure that a particular beneficiary’s inheritance continues in trust until certain events occur or remains in the family via a dynasty trust. Other trusts have estate tax or other planning objectives.

  • If appropriate: irrevocable trusts; LLCs; limited partnerships; powers of appointment; disclaimers; life insurance; charitable trusts/gifting; asset freezing or discounting; loans and promissory notes; California Private Retirement Plans, etc. Special needs planning as well.

Your estate plan is more than a mere pile of documents (and, most of the time, your documents can be kept in a home fireproof file cabinet or at your bank). With your personalized estate plan, you are building your legacy; build it your way, but the right way (for you). Camarillo estate planning attorney Ryan J. Casson will listen to your concerns and objectives, discuss potential options, and create a holistic, comprehensive plan that works for you, no matter your net worth. Ryan does not not offer “cookie cutter” estate plans, as an estate plan is not a “product”; rather, an estate plan is the product of conscious thought as to your objectives and the potential pros and cons that you and your family may experience in working to bring about those goals and establish your legacy.

To maximize the chance that your property will be protected and preserved as you want it to be, a comprehensive, deliberate plan that employs multiple puzzle pieces and furthers more than one purpose may be necessary.

In California, it’s true that we’re in the West; the creditor, divorce, and lawsuit (“CDL”) world, though, remains the “Wild West” and, it is in that world that traditional trust concepts may mean different things to different folks, including creditors and courts.

Again, estate planning is a calculus. And for you, for example, perhaps that means prohibiting your children from being trustees of their trust inheritances, as you want to try to protect from their own potential divorces and creditors their inheritances. Someone else might think, on the other hand, “I trust them. Let them get it outright and free of trust.” Camarillo estate planning attorney Ryan J. Casson can help you think about these things.

Ryan believes in a “team approach” to estate planning and tax planning and is happy to (and may need to) work with your CPA, financial advisor, and your other professional advisors.

Some of the topics, documents, and potential issues that Camarillo estate planning attorney Ryan J. Casson can discuss with you and help you navigate include:

  • Incapacity

  • Prop. 19 (property tax reassessment issues)

  • Estate, gift, and generational tax (transfer tax planning)

  • Planning with IRAs, 401(k)s, and other retirement assets (the SECURE Act)

  • How to title and own your property in all its forms (funding)

  • Minimizing potential, future exposure to a beneficiary’s creditors, divorces, or lawsuits, combined with other planning tools and objectives (including exemption planning)

  • Spendthrifts

  • Business entity formation, planning, and transitioning

  • Whether your beneficiaries inherit “in trust” or “outright”

  • Irrevocable trusts: qualified personal residence trusts; life insurance trusts; beneficiary deemed owner’s trusts; power of appointment trusts, charitable trusts, and more.

  • MediCal/Medicaid eligibility and elder law issues

  • Life insurance

  • Powers of appointment and withdrawal rights

  • Charitable goals

  • Guardians for minor children

  • Special needs planning

It’s Never Too Soon to Begin Discussing Potential Options. Life Happens! Don’t Let the State or the IRS Build Your Legacy for You!

Even if you think you have an estate plan in place, changed circumstances or laws may require updates to better align with your goals and objectives.