An estate plan your family can follow.

What an estate plan is

For most families, an estate plan comes down to a few documents that each do one job. A will or a living trust says who gets what and who is in charge of making it happen. A durable power of attorney names someone who can handle your finances if you can't. An advance healthcare directive names someone who can make medical decisions for you and says what you want. Together, they mean the people you chose are the ones making the decisions, instead of a court or a code section.

If you own a home in California, a living trust usually belongs at the center of the plan, because it keeps your family out of probate. If you don't own real estate, you may need much less. Jonette wrote an honest guide on exactly that question: Do I need a trust, or just a will?

How Jonette builds a plan

She calls it going into educator mode. Every document gets explained: what it does, why it matters, and what happens if you don't have it. You leave understanding your plan, not just signing it. That includes the step many families skip, which is funding the trust, meaning your home and accounts are retitled so the trust does what you paid for.

She also builds plans around how families really behave. After twenty years of administering trusts and litigating the ones that went wrong, she'll respectfully push back when a plan is setting your kids up for a fight. Naming two children who don't get along as co-trustees starts a lawsuit. Leaving the house to the kids 50-50 with no plan for what happens next creates one too. She tells clients all the time that you should not own property with your siblings. And she'll encourage you to be open with your kids about what you decided and why, because when it comes from you, there's very little left to fight over.

Who this is for

Homeowners, first and foremost, because California real estate is what creates probate exposure. Farm families, where the land, the equipment, and the generations who worked for it deserve a plan that keeps the operation running. Young parents choosing a guardian, which is one of the hardest conversations a couple can have, and one Jonette has been through herself. Parents of kids who just turned 18, who need powers of attorney of their own. And blended families, where California law will not protect a stepchild you raised but never adopted unless your documents say so.

Older plans need a checkup

If your trust was drafted in the early 2000s, it may contain mandatory A/B division language written for an era when the federal estate tax exemption was a fraction of what it is today. That old structure can force a surviving spouse to lock up half the estate in an irrevocable trust, and changing it later can mean asking your own children for permission or going to court. Jonette reviews older plans and, where the language should stay, makes it permissive instead of mandatory, so the surviving spouse keeps the choice.

"My job isn't to hand you a stack of documents. It's to make sure you understand what you have, why it matters, and that it works for your family, not just for the law books."

Jonette M. Montgomery

What documents come with a basic estate plan?

For most families: a will or a living trust, a durable power of attorney for finances, and an advance healthcare directive. Together they say who gets what, who is in charge, and who can act for you if you can't act for yourself.

I did my trust back in the early 2000s. Is it still good?

It should be reviewed. Many trusts from that era contain mandatory A/B division language built for old estate tax exemption amounts, and that structure can now work against a surviving spouse. A review can tell you whether your plan still does what you think it does.

Will you push me into a trust I don't need?

No. If you don't own real estate and your accounts have named beneficiaries, Jonette will tell you a simple will may be enough, and in some cases you may not need anything at all. She's the first one to say you don't need her.