Living Trust and Will Package California: Complete Estate Planning (2026)

This page explains the documents in our package, the California statute behind each one, and how each is signed. For a general guide to what any estate plan should contain, the people you have to choose and when to update, read our complete estate plan guide for California.

What is in the package

These are the documents listed on our pricing section and our sample documents page. The single plan ($400) and the joint plan for married couples ($500) contain the same documents; in the joint plan the trust, certification of trust and trustee affidavit are shared, and each spouse gets the rest.

Both trust plans also include funding instructions and the Digital Vault with trusted access and funding reminders. Preparation and review by a California attorney are part of the price.

Why each document is there

The living trust and its schedule of assets

Probate Code §15200 lists the ways a California trust is created. A living trust uses the first two: you declare that you hold property as trustee, or you transfer it to the trust. Either way, the trust governs only property that has actually been put in it. The schedule of assets is where that property is listed, and the funding guide tells you how to retitle each kind of asset. Our step-by-step guide to funding a living trust covers deeds, bank and brokerage accounts and beneficiary designations.

The certification of trust

Banks and title companies need to know that the trust exists and who can sign for it. They do not need to know who inherits. Under Probate Code §18100.5 the trustee can give them a certification of trust instead of the full document. A person who relies on it without actual knowledge that it is wrong is not liable for doing so (§18100.5(f)). A business that refuses an acceptable certification and demands the whole trust can be liable for the resulting damages and attorney's fees if a court finds it acted in bad faith (§18100.5(h)). It may ask for excerpts showing who the trustee is and the trustee's power for the transaction, and the statute does not require the trustee to show the provisions saying who inherits (§18100.5(e)).

The pour-over will

A pour-over will leaves your estate to the trustee of your trust. Probate Code §6300 makes that gift valid if the trust is identified in the will and its terms are in a written instrument signed before, at the same time as, or within 60 days after the will. The gift is not invalid because the trust is revocable or because you amend the trust later, and the property is administered under the trust as amended. If you revoke the trust before you die, the gift lapses unless the will says otherwise (§6300(c)), so a new trust needs a new will.

The will does two jobs the trust cannot do:

• It catches what was never transferred. Without it, property left in your name passes to your heirs under California's intestacy rules, who may not be the people named in your trust.
• It nominates a guardian for minor children. A parent may nominate a guardian of the person and of the estate (Probate Code §1500), in a will or any signed writing (§1502). Section 1500(a) allows the nomination where the other parent nominates the same guardian, and the court gives it due weight (§1502). See naming a guardian for minor children in California.

What the will catches still passes through the will. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, if the California estate outside the trust is worth $208,850 or less, the successor can collect accounts and other personal property by affidavit 40 days after death without a court case (Probate Code §13100). A primary residence worth up to $750,000 left outside the trust can pass by a §13151 court petition. Anything larger needs probate; you can estimate what that costs with our probate cost calculator.

One more rule applies even when everything is in the trust. Whoever holds the original will must deliver it to the superior court of the county where the estate would be administered within 30 days after learning of the death, and send a copy to the named executor (Probate Code §8200). The court's fee for receiving it is $50 (Government Code §70626(d), 2026 fee schedule). Our pour-over will explainer goes through what happens to the will after death.

The general durable power of attorney

If you become incapacitated, your successor trustee can manage what is in the trust and nothing else. A retirement account, a tax return, a pension, a bank account you never retitled or a house you bought last year all sit outside it. The agent you name in a power of attorney handles those. The power of attorney in our package also authorizes your agent to transfer property into your trust, which matters when an asset was missed.

Two statutes decide whether the document works when you need it:

• Durability. Probate Code §4124 makes a power of attorney durable only if it says it is not affected by your later incapacity, or similar words. Without that statement the agent's authority ends when you lose capacity, which is exactly when it is needed.
• Express powers. Under §4264 an agent may create, modify or revoke a trust, make gifts, change survivorship interests or change beneficiary designations only if the power of attorney expressly grants that authority. Read yours with that list in mind.

Without a power of attorney, your family may need a conservatorship of the estate. The court filing fee alone is $435 in most counties under the 2026 statewide fee schedule, before investigator and attorney costs. More on the document itself: California power of attorney guide.

The advance health care directive

The directive names a health care agent and records your wishes about treatment. California publishes an optional statutory form at Probate Code §4701; any form that meets the signing rules is valid. Unless the directive says otherwise, your agent's authority starts only when it is determined that you lack capacity, and stops if you recover (§4682).

If you have no directive, Probate Code §4712 lets your doctors choose a surrogate who knows your values, from your spouse or domestic partner, adult children, parents, siblings, grandchildren, or another relative or close friend. A directive lets you make that choice yourself. Our advance directive and POLST guide explains how the directive differs from a POLST.

The HIPAA authorization

Probate Code §4678 gives a person “then authorized” to make your health care decisions the same right as you to receive your medical information. Federal privacy rules work the same way: a provider must treat someone with legal authority to make your health care decisions as your personal representative (45 CFR §164.502(g)(2)). Both depend on authority that, under §4682, usually begins only once you lack capacity.

That leaves a gap. Your family may need to speak with your doctors before anyone has decided you lack capacity, and when a document takes effect on a physician's determination, someone has to be able to ask for it. A HIPAA authorization fills the gap. Under 45 CFR §164.508(c) it must, among other things, describe the information, name who may receive it, state its purpose, give an expiration date or event, and carry your signature and date.

The trustee affidavit

The trustee affidavit is a notarized statement you sign as trustee. It is prepared with your trust documents and kept with them.

The assignment of personal property

Furniture, art, tools, jewelry and other household items have no title document to change. The assignment is your signed declaration that this property belongs to the trust, using the method in Probate Code §15200(a). It does not replace retitling: real estate, bank and brokerage accounts and other assets with a title or account record still have to be put in the trust's name one by one.

The personal property memorandum

The memorandum is your list of who receives particular items. California recognizes this kind of list in Probate Code §6132 when a will refers to it, the list is dated and either handwritten or signed by you, and it describes the items and recipients with reasonable certainty. You can change it later by signing a new list; the most recent one controls. Under §6132 the list cannot carry more than $25,000 of property in total, and an item worth more than $5,000 is not covered by it, so leave valuable items by name in the trust itself.

How each document is signed

Each document has its own signing rule. Our signing instructions tell you which page goes to the notary and which to the witnesses.

1. Trust, certification of trust and trustee affidavit: signed before a notary. A certification of trust is by statute an acknowledged declaration signed by all acting trustees (§18100.5).
2. Pour-over will: signed before two witnesses who are present at the same time and understand it is your will (Probate Code §6110). Notarization is not required and does not replace the witnesses. The witnesses sign a declaration under penalty of perjury, which lets the court accept the will without calling them in unless someone contests it (§8220). Details: California will requirements.
3. Power of attorney: valid if dated, signed and either notarized or signed by two adult witnesses who are not your agent (§§4121, 4122). We have you sign it before a notary, because a power of attorney used to sign a deed must be notarized to be recorded (Government Code §27287).
4. Advance health care directive: notarized or signed by two adult witnesses (§4673). Your health care provider, the provider's employees, your agent and the operator or staff of a community care or residential care facility for the elderly cannot witness, and at least one witness must be unrelated to you and not entitled to anything from your estate (§4674). If you are a patient in a skilled nursing facility, a patient advocate or ombudsman must also witness it (§4675).
5. HIPAA authorization: signed and dated by you (45 CFR §164.508(c)(1)(vi)).

A California notary may charge up to $15 for each signature acknowledged (Government Code §8211(a)). That fee is paid to the notary, not to us.

Will plan or trust plan: what changes

We also sell a will package without a trust, for people who rent or own no California real estate. The difference is the trust and the documents that support it.

A will alone does not keep a house out of court. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, a primary residence worth up to $750,000 can pass by a §13151 petition, which is still a court filing, and a more valuable home goes through probate. That is why homeowners usually choose the trust plan. The will plan page has the details.

What the package does not include

• The deed. Putting a California property into the trust takes a recorded deed. We prepare it for $100 per property and you record it with the county recorder, which charges its own recording fee. The $75 SB 2 fee is usually not charged on a deed moving your own home into your trust because the owner-occupier exemption is claimed on the deed (Government Code §27388.1(a)(2)); it is charged on rentals and other property, capped at $225 per transaction. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. The transfer is not a change in ownership for property tax (Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d)); a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report is filed with the deed.
• The printed set. A printed package is an optional $75 add-on.
• Notary fees and recording fees. Paid to the notary and the county.
• Beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by the designation on file with each company, not by the trust. You update those with each institution.

A worked example

A married couple in Burbank own their home and have two children, ages 6 and 9. They buy the joint plan for $500 and one deed for $100, a total of $600 to our office.

• The joint trust holds the house once the deed is recorded with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, whose main office is at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk. Because it is the home they live in, the deed claims the owner-occupier exemption from the SB 2 fee.
• Each spouse signs a pour-over will. Both wills nominate the same guardian for the children, which is the case §1500(a) covers.
• Each spouse signs a power of attorney, a health care directive and a HIPAA authorization naming the other first and a sibling as alternate.
• Three years later one spouse inherits a $60,000 brokerage account and never retitles it. If that spouse dies, the will leaves the account to the trust. Because that account is the only property outside the trust and is worth less than $208,850, the successor collects it by §13100 affidavit after 40 days instead of opening a probate.

Homeowners elsewhere in the county can read our Los Angeles living trust page, and Burbank owners our Burbank page, for the court and recorder details.

Related reading

• Complete Estate Plan California: the general guide to what an estate plan covers and the people you choose
• Pour-Over Will California Explained
• Power of Attorney California
• Advance Directive vs POLST in California
• How to Fund a Living Trust in California
• Living Trust Cost California
• California Probate Cost Calculator

Sources

Checked October 6, 2026. Prices are from our pricing section, sample documents page and will plan page.

1. Probate Code §6300, testamentary additions to trusts, California Legislative Information
2. Probate Code §6110, execution of a will
3. Probate Code §8220, proof of a will by a subscribing witness
4. Probate Code §8200, delivering the will to the court
5. Probate Code §6132, writing disposing of tangible personal property
6. Probate Code §1500, nomination of a guardian by a parent
7. Probate Code §1502, how a guardian nomination is made
8. Probate Code §15200, methods of creating a trust
9. Probate Code §18100.5, certification of trust
10. Probate Code §4121, execution of a power of attorney
11. Probate Code §4122, witnesses to a power of attorney
12. Probate Code §4124, durable power of attorney
13. Probate Code §4264, acts requiring express authority
14. Probate Code §4673, execution of an advance health care directive
15. Probate Code §4674, witnesses to an advance health care directive
16. Probate Code §4675, skilled nursing facility patients
17. Probate Code §4678, access to health information
18. Probate Code §4682, when the agent's authority begins
19. Probate Code §4701, statutory advance health care directive form
20. Probate Code §4712, surrogate decision makers
21. Probate Code §13100, small estate affidavit
22. Probate Code §13151, primary residence petition
23. Probate Code §890 adjusted dollar amounts ($208,850 and $750,000), Judicial Council of California
24. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 (items 131 and 169), Judicial Council of California
25. Government Code §8211, notary fees
26. Government Code §27287, acknowledgment required before recording
27. Government Code §27388.1, SB 2 recording fee and exemptions
28. Revenue and Taxation Code §62, exclusions from change in ownership
29. 45 CFR §164.508, uses and disclosures requiring an authorization, eCFR
30. 45 CFR §164.502(g), personal representatives, eCFR

This article is general information about California law and our package, not legal advice for your situation.