Estate planning basics
The house is usually the thing that gets stuck.
We are not attorneys and this is not legal advice. It is the vocabulary, written plainly, so that the conversation with an actual estate planning attorney goes faster — and so you know which question to ask first if there is a house involved.
Why a real estate company has this page
Because we see the far end of it. Most of the families who call us are dealing with a house after something has already happened — a parent died, a parent moved into care, siblings inherited a place none of them live near. By then the documents either exist or they do not, and that single fact decides whether the house sells in six weeks or eighteen months.
The difference is rarely money or sophistication. It is almost always whether someone spent a few hours with an attorney years earlier, and whether the paperwork was finished properly afterwards.
The four documents people usually end up with
A California estate plan is typically built from some combination of these. Which ones you need, and how they are structured, is what the attorney is actually for.
Will
The document most people picture when they hear estate planning. It says who should receive what, names the person you want administering the estate, and — for parents of young children — names who should raise them. Worth being clear about one thing: a will does not avoid probate. It gives the probate court instructions. The case still happens.
Revocable living trust
A trust is an arrangement where a trustee holds assets for beneficiaries. The revocable living trust is the version most California homeowners are steered toward, because property properly held in one passes to the beneficiaries without a probate case. You typically act as your own trustee while you are alive and able, and name a successor trustee to take over afterwards.
Other types exist for other purposes — irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts for a beneficiary receiving public benefits, charitable trusts, life insurance trusts. Each solves a specific problem, and picking among them is exactly the judgment you are hiring an attorney for.
Durable power of attorney
Authorizes someone to act for you on financial and legal matters. "Durable" is the important word: it means the authority survives your becoming incapacitated, which is the situation it exists for. Without one, a family facing a parent's sudden decline often has to go to court for a conservatorship, which is slow, public and expensive.
For anyone who owns real estate, the detail that matters: the document has to specifically authorize real property transactions, or a title company will not accept it.
Advance health care directive
California's combined document for medical decisions. It names the person who can speak with doctors and decide on your behalf, and it records your own wishes about treatment. Its real function is removing an impossible guess from your family at the worst moment.
If you remember one thing, make it this
Signing a trust does not put your house in it.
A separate deed has to be recorded transferring the property into the trust. Attorneys normally handle this, but it gets missed — often when a house is refinanced years later and the lender takes it out of the trust to close the loan, and nobody moves it back.
The result is a family holding a valid trust, a real estate attorney's invoice, and a house that is going through probate anyway. We have watched it happen more than once. Pull your last recorded deed and check whose name is on the grantee line. It takes ten minutes and it is the highest-value thing on this page.
What no plan costs, concretely
When someone dies owning California real estate with no trust in place, the house generally goes through probate. That means nobody can sign to sell it until the court issues Letters, which commonly takes a couple of months. It means a creditor claim period of four months from the date those Letters issue, fixed by statute and not shortenable. It means a case that typically runs 12 to 18 months start to finish.
Meanwhile the house has property taxes, insurance that costs more once it is vacant, utilities, landscaping, and the risk that comes with an empty building. All of it runs against the estate for the entire duration.
There are lighter paths for smaller estates. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, a primary residence valued at $750,000 or less can transfer through a streamlined court petition rather than full probate. A Bay Area house is usually well past that figure.
Where we fit
Not in drafting any of this. We are a licensed real estate brokerage and a licensed general contractor, and writing estate planning documents requires a law license that we do not hold.
What we can do is make an introduction. We work with estate planning and trust attorneys around Santa Clara County and can point you toward someone appropriate for what you are dealing with. And once a plan exists, or once something has happened and a house needs to be sold, that part is ours — as a direct cash purchase with no commission and no cleanout, or as a listing, whichever genuinely nets your family more.
No fee for an introduction, and we will tell you if we have any financial relationship with anyone we refer you to.
Common questions
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
That is a question for an attorney, and the answer usually turns on whether you own real estate. A will does not avoid probate — it tells the probate court what you wanted. In California, where a modest house can be worth well over a million dollars, most homeowners end up being told a revocable living trust is worth the setup cost. But it depends on your assets, your family and your goals, and it is not our call to make.
We have a trust. Is the house actually in it?
Check, because this is the single most common failure we see. Families sign a trust, pay for it, file it away — and nobody ever records a deed moving the house into the trust. The trust is valid. The house is not in it. The estate goes through probate anyway, which is the exact outcome the trust was purchased to prevent. Pull the last recorded deed from the county recorder and read the grantee line.
What happens to the house if there is no plan at all?
It goes through probate. In California that commonly runs 12 to 18 months, and part of that is fixed by statute — the creditor claim period alone is four months from the date the court issues Letters. There are streamlined paths for smaller estates, including a petition for a primary residence valued at $750,000 or less for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, but a typical Bay Area house is well past that.
Does a power of attorney let someone sell my house?
Only if the document specifically authorizes real property transactions, and many general forms do not. Title companies read these closely and will reject one that does not clearly grant the authority. If the plan is that a child may someday need to sell the house on a parent's behalf, that needs to be spelled out while the parent still has capacity.
What is the difference between a health care POA and an advance directive?
In California they are largely combined into one document, the Advance Health Care Directive. It does two jobs: it names the person who speaks for you about medical decisions, and it records what you would and would not want if you cannot say so yourself.
Can you write these documents for us?
No, and nobody without a law license should offer to. We are a real estate brokerage and a licensed general contractor. What we can do is introduce you to estate planning attorneys we have worked with, and handle the real estate side once there is a plan.
Want an introduction?
Call or text (408) 807-9954. Tell us roughly what you are dealing with and we will point you at someone who handles that kind of situation.
Important. This page is general educational information about California estate planning documents. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for talking to a licensed attorney about your own situation. We are a real estate brokerage and a licensed general contractor, not a law firm, and we do not prepare estate planning documents. Laws and dollar thresholds change. Confirm anything here with an estate planning attorney or CPA before acting on it.