California Estate Planning Attorney

California Estate Planning Attorney Committed to Ensuring Clients’ Wishes Are Fulfilled in California

Your estate plan is essentially a roadmap for your loved ones to follow after you are no longer able to provide direction as to how you wish your assets to be distributed, and how you wish to be cared for if you become unable to make decisions independently. Regardless of your economic status, it is important to remember that every single individual has an estate—meaning that you need an estate plan in order to minimize taxes, expenses and future conflict for your loved ones.

Our experienced California estate planning attorney understands how vital it is to ensure that your estate plan is both clear and complete. He has nearly four decades’ worth of experience in helping clients in all facets of creating an estate planning strategy, including the drafting of a last will and testament, executing an advance health care directive and protecting your assets through innovative trust strategies designed to reduce the future financial and emotional burden on your loved ones.

It is never too early to begin crafting a plan for what will happen if you unexpectedly die or suffer from an illness or disability—and no estate is too small. At the Law Offices of Darrell C. Harriman, I make it my priority to help you form an estate plan that will help ensure that your family is protected and your wishes are carried out. I represent clients throughout the California area, and am equipped to provide skilled legal advice to clients with estates of all sizes.

Necessary Considerations in Any All-Inclusive Estate Plan

Although the basics of an estate plan involve clearly stating what you want to happen to your possessions after you die, a truly complete estate plan can and should accomplish much more than simple direction regarding asset distribution. Estate planning will also serve to accomplish the following:

• Provide for a guardianship for your minor children and dependents,
• Create a plan for how any funds inherited by minor children will be managed in order to provide full financial support for your children,
• Protect loved ones who may be financially irresponsible or otherwise unable to manage an inheritance,

• Address life insurance and disability insurance needs to ensure your loved ones are provided for,
• Include an advance health care directive that will give comprehensive instructions for how you wish to be medically cared for if you become incapacitated,
• Address how your retirement accounts will be distributed,
• Create a business succession plan if you own your own business, which will provide instructions for how the business will be continued after your retirement, disability or death,
• Minimize federal estate taxes,
• Create trust structures to avoid the time and expense of probate.

It is also important to remember that as life continues to change, many of these estate planning considerations will need to be addressed on an ongoing basis throughout your life. Any comprehensive estate plan will need to be updated throughout life in order to reflect changes to the family structure, financial circumstances and even state and federal estate planning laws.

Seasoned Estate Planning Attorney Protects Clients’ Wealth in California, California

At the Law Offices of Darrell C. Harriman, I understand how important it is to ensure that your family and loved ones are protected after you die. Estate planning is something that is important to begin as soon as possible in order to avoid adverse consequences should something happen to you unexpectedly. I know that you need a plan that will address all potential contingencies, and that estate planning is much more than simply determining what will happen with your assets after you die.

While all good estate plans contain a will to direct asset distribution, I will also put a plan in place for protecting your family if you become disabled or incapacitated. I will also take steps to help your estate avoid the probate process, which is usually required for all assets that are titled in your name alone, and can be expensive and time consuming.