CDP Video: Millennials Create Living Trust After Birth of Son, Charlie

While a large segment of our LivingTrust clientele tends to be older couples, we’re now seeing more Millennials and Gen-Xers creating Trusts. It starts with buying a home–scraping together a down payment and buying a Bay Area home is a sobering experience. But the big motivator is the birth of a child. As parents, our clients feel the need to provide a safety net for their children if something happens to them. Watch California Document Preparer’s Video: Millennials Create Living Trust After Birth of Son, Charlie!

CDP video on one young couple’s Living Trust

We recently made a video that highlights the Living Trust process for one of these representative young couples—they have good jobs, a bright future and a home in Oakland. With the birth of their son Charlie, they felt the need for financial planning. They began working with a financial adviser who recommended creating a Living Trust as part of the process, and he referred them to California Document Preparers’ Oakland office.

The Living Trust process

• Getting started. Our savvy younger clients like that they can begin the process online. We’re still available by phone and email with questions.
• The intake process. You will need to gather all of your financial documents, to include bank and brokerage account statements, mortgage information and other investment and financial data. Life insurance policies and retirement accounts are not included in Living Trusts.
• We prepare the legal documents.Once we have all of your financial information, we prepare the legal documents.
• Our Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive. You will want to be thinking about whom you will name to be your Agent as well as your backup. If there are children, you will want to identify a Guardian who will be responsible for raising your children until they turn 18.
• Finalizing your Trust. We call you when your Trust is ready to be signed and notarized.
• Funding your Trust. A Trust needs to be funded—all of your assets need to be moved into your Trust. We create a Trust Transfer Deed to move real property into your Trust.

Our deliverable is a bound Trust and a pdf file for your records

We recommend storing your Trust in a secure place. Share its location with a family member or someone you trust. If no one can find it, it doesn’t exist. A Trust needs to be updated with important life events—the birth of another child, new investments, etc. We keep a soft copy of your Trust and can help you with this as your family grows.

To be thinking about: Your growing list of digital assets

Our Living Trust package includes a section to identify important contacts, including healthcare providers, veterinarians, accountants, financial advisors, CPAs, etc. Try to be thinking about all those people with whom your family would need to be interacting if you were not available.

Start thinking about your online accounts

You’ll want to make a list of your digital assets and login information. This list will include computers, hard drives, flash drives, smartphones, tablets, files stored on the cloud and accounts with online retailers and healthcare providers. Social media sites, video gaming accounts, domain names, forums, your dropbox, websites and blogs you manage. You can consolidate this information in an excel file store it on a flash drive.

A note about banks and other financial institutions

Banks and financial technology companies tend to merge and constantly upgrade their technology. Because of that, beneficiary data might get lost. Keep a paper copy of all beneficiary data or store a digital copy of important documents on a password-protected flash drive.

A Living Trust is an important part of estate planning, and our Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive. Without a Trust, your family will need to go through Probate. Schedule an appointment today to get started on your Living Trust by contacting us at one of our three Bay Area offices. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.

A Cautionary Tale: Nearly 20 Years Later, Titleholder Still Owns Property

A Deed can seem like an insignificant document, but without it, you can’t buy or sell a property. In the following example, the buyer hadn’t recorded the Deed, and the title remained in the owner’s name for nearly two decades.

Nearly 20 years later, an unrecorded Deed surfaces

This case study comes from a property manager colleague, Jack, who got a call from Sally, a realtor who wanted to list one of his properties for sale. One big problem—this was a property that Jack had sold way back in 2000. According to public records, that property was still in Jack’s name.

Jack checked with the county recorder, and sure enough, Sally was absolutely right. Public records showed that Jack still owned that house. The buyer had not recorded the Deed and the title was still in Jack’s name. If Jack were dishonest, he could sell that property again and skip town with the illegal second profit. Given the inventory issues of the Bay Area real estate market, this transaction would have represented a significant windfall!

Despite Jack’s efforts to contact the buyers to understand why the deed was unrecorded, he has been unable to locate them. Possible reasons may have included avoiding property tax reassessment or liens on the newly acquired property. What this means for Jack: Without a clear title, he can’t sell this property. Now that he’s re-inherited his own property, he has to assume the responsibilities of ownership, including maintenance and property taxes.

Something that may surprise you: Unrecorded deeds are not uncommon

• There are potential liability issues for both buyer and seller. If the title remains in the seller’s name, he could be named in any lawsuit involving the property.
• If someone is injured on the premises and the buyer’s insurance policy doesn’t pay the claim, the legal title owner would likely be named in a lawsuit.

It is very unwise to become involved with a property without securing a title search and title insurance. Unfortunately, there are many people who try to save a few dollars by skipping a title search and not buying an owner’s title insurance policy.

Another cautionary note about Deeds: Remember the wild west refi market of pre-2008?

Think back to the environment of the mortgage industry before it crashed in 2008—these companies couldn’t process refi’s fast enough.  Many of us were eager to refinance to leverage lower interest rates. The lenders were eager to help people take a property out of their Trusts, but in some cases, there was little regard to whether or not it ever got transferred back into that Trust via a Trust Transfer Deed. This might be a good time to check on the whereabouts of your Deed.

Do you need to transfer a Deed?

Have you changed ownership, married or divorced and want to change the name on a property title? In many cases we can transfer a Deed in a day. Schedule an appointment today by contacting us at one of our three Bay Area offices. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.