First meeting with lawyer , free consultation

[stingray_on]

We live in Ca. and have only one child 12 yrs old. Our goal is to make sure if we both die that a trust is set up (for the day-to-day cost of raising her and money put aside for college education) by my wife mom who is around 65 yrs old. I am 52 and my wife is 43 .

Right off the bat, she (lawyer)recommended an A-B trust for us. I wanted an after death trust because that was our main concern is that our daughter is taken care of in the event of our death. She said that she doesnot recommend after death trust b/c it goes to probate. I checked that out and is true.
I asked the upside and downside to an A-B trust and she said some banks dont refinance property in trust and you have to pay to take it out and put it back in. In doing some research on the A-B it states that is complicated when one spouse dies to transfer assets and these trust are for people that have over 3 million in assets used for tax purposes. We are not even close. If you include both of our insurance policies in the event we both die and our house, etc, we are lucking if we hit 1.5 million for both of us.

I wonder paying 2100 dollars really necessary for us? Any suggestions or recommendtions.

 

[seniorjudge]

We live in Ca. and have only one child 12 yrs old. Our goal is to make sure if we both die that a trust is set up (for the day-to-day cost of raising her and money put aside for college education) by my wife mom who is around 65 yrs old. I am 52 and my wife is 43 .

Right off the bat, she (lawyer)recommended an A-B trust for us. I wanted an after death trust because that was our main concern is that our daughter is taken care of in the event of our death. She said that she doesnot recommend after death trust b/c it goes to probate. I checked that out and is true.
I asked the upside and downside to an A-B trust and she said some banks dont refinance property in trust and you have to pay to take it out and put it back in. In doing some research on the A-B it states that is complicated when one spouse dies to transfer assets and these trust are for people that have over 3 million in assets used for tax purposes. We are not even close. If you include both of our insurance policies in the event we both die and our house, etc, we are lucking if we hit 1.5 million for both of us.

I wonder paying 2100 dollars really necessary for us? Any suggestions or recommendtions.

That sounds exorbitant to me but you do live in California.

I cannot understand why a simple revocable trust wouldn't do for y'all (unless you have tax problems that I don't know about).

In any event, another poster here stated that a lawyer quoted $6300 for basically the same thing y'all are getting.

You also need financial powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney, and a will (that would basically say the same thing as the trust).

Belt and suspenders....

 

[stingray_on]

A revocable trust?

So, the question begs to be ask, can I get what I want getting a simple revocable trust (which I would imagine might only cost perhaps half of the price.) For those that know about this, can they answer.

TIA

 

[stingray_on]

talked to a 400 dollars a trust lawyer and...

He just didnt sound credible, he said that AB trust are for people with complicated tax situations and a big estate.

My father voice in my head, you get what you pay for.

Any comments?

 

[seniorjudge]

He just didnt sound credible, he said that AB trust are for people with complicated tax situations and a big estate.

My father voice in my head, you get what you pay for.

Any comments?

This is a decision you have to make.

Do not sign anything until you completely understand it.

Every form of refuge has its price....

There are downsides and upsides of every estate plan; there are advantages and disadvantages to every action we take.

 

[Dandy Don]

A-B trusts are complicated, but you need to be getting fee quotations from 3-6 other attorneys or certified financial planners/estate planners.