An asset can also have a TOD (transfer on death) designation, to pass an asset to a specific person when the owner passes away. This type of designation is often used for real estate, but sometimes for other types of accounts as well.
As you stated, in addition to real estate, some financial institutions use the term Transfer on Death. Others use Payable on Death (like my bank). Some are just called Beneficiary Designation (like my brokerage firm accounts). Many times they can be setup and changed online. I once saw TOD designation printed right on the front of a US Saving Bonds (along with the Bond owner) years ago (they have since gone paperless).
Coupled with a California Statutory Will Form (as a statutory form, it is recognized by California courts when executed correctly), the combination (TOD, POD, Beneficiary Designation for all financial accounts) is usually suitable for those who cannot afford a lawyer (and even for many who can afford one). Lawyers typically charge about $450 per hour these days.
Even if one could afford a lawyer, the less the value of the estate that has to be passed via the Will, the better off the survivors will be when a person passes, because the transfer of assets to a survivor by a TOD, POD, or Beneficiary is done very quickly, but assets passed via probate of a Will takes months or sometimes years, and a lawyer to handle the probate is costly (in addition to what you paid for having the Will drawn up).
Personally if I lived in California I would prepare the California Statutory Will Form, and if really paranoid have a lawyer review it. Hopefully they would only charge one or two hours for that, but many lawyers don't want to waste their time on clients who are not going to generate a substantial fee for them, and it is hard to blame them if they have those kind of clients.
In terms of a Will being valid,
it is much safer to use the California Statutory Will Form than a custom Will drawn up by a lawyer if one is worried about the validity of the Will (I remember the movie
Body Heat with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner). I have seen Wills and Trust documents in my family drawn up by an expensive Estate Lawyer that had several inconsistencies and could have been challenged and possibly declared invalid had someone in the family wanted to do that.
I would get two original signed copies of the Will executed (with all hand-written designations and signatures in
blue ink), and make sure everyone knows where the wills are located. It is usually difficult and expensive (although not impossible) to have a will accepted if only a copy is available.
https://saclaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/6240-Statutory-will-form.pdf
I apologize for being repetitive in my comments, but I feel pretty strongly about these things, having gone through these issues within my own family a couple of times.
