How Your Decision To Move Out of California Impacts your Estate Plan
This article answers the question, “How does your decision to move out of California impact your estate plan which consists of your power of attorney, your advance healthcare directive, your pourover will and your trust?”
If you are asking me what happens if you just change your address within California, then it is my opinion that your new address does not invalidate the Power of Attorney or Advance Healthcare Directive documents.
If you have a trust, then I will update your Schedule of Assets to reflect your new ownership. This means that I will delete your old address on the Schedule of Assets, and I will add your new address to the Schedule of Assets. This is only step 1 in funding the Trust. Step 2 will be actually recording a new Trust Transfer Deed which will add the new residence to your Trust. This second step can be avoided during the escrow process, all you have to do is present your Trust Certification to the title company. When my clients call my office and ask for an update to their Schedule of Assets, my office searches the county records first to confirm that the new property has been properly added to the Trust. If not, we assist our clients with step 2. It does incur additional costs but it is a nominal investment compared to what it would cost to probate the property.
In order to avoid probate, your real property and bank accounts need to be registered in the name of your Trust. I assist clients in this process by preparing the Trust Certification; the Trust Transfer Deed(s) for Real Property; and the Itemized Schedule of Trust Assets. The most common example of an update due to change in circumstances is the inheritance or purchase of real property. The Trust Transfer Deed(s) for Real Property must be recorded in the County where the real property is located. The new residence needs to be added to the Itemized Schedule of Trust Assets. Also, in order to avoid the probate court process, your bank accounts need to be registered in the name of your Trust. It is not sufficient to just add one of your beneficiaries on your account as a joint owner. If both joint tenants die, the account is frozen for 40 days and may be vulnerable for a probate if the dollar amount in the account exceeds the small estate amount which is currently $184,500.
When I am notified by a client that they have moved out of state, as a California licensed attorney I must issue the following statement: “I oversaw the drafting and signing of all of the documents listed above, and can confirm, as a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law, that all of the documents listed above conform to all the statutory requirements of the State of California, and are valid documents.”
Unfortunately, this cold advice doesn’t satisfy me or my client. I care about my clients and their loved ones. I have prepared their documents and checked in with them from time to time. I have mourned with them when they have lost family members. I have celebrated with them when their children have added spouses or babies to the family tree. I don’t want to drop them now as clients just because they found a new home outside California state lines. I want to provide ongoing legal guidance and they don’t always want to hire a new attorney either because they don’t want to incur additional costs or they are committed to our attorney client relationship as well. However, I must advise: “As a California licensed attorney, I can only certify that these documents are valid in California. Should a client move to another state, it is my recommendation that the client have these documents reviewed by a local attorney to ensure that the documents are valid in the new state of residence.”
Recently I had a client move to Tennessee. I am happy to report that they did follow the California state specific advice and confirmed with a new attorney in their new state that their California documents were still valid in their new state of residency.
