Estate planning 101, for Hanford families.

Start with why this matters in Hanford

Here in Kings County, most family wealth sits in two places: the house and the land. A home in Hanford that's worth $400,000 today, or a quarter-section of farmland worth far more, is exactly the kind of asset California's probate system is built around. If you own property here and don't have a plan, the state has one for you, and your family probably won't like it.

The good news: this is fixable, it's not complicated to understand, and you can get the whole picture on this one page.

What an estate plan is

An estate plan is a small set of documents that answer three questions: who gets what you own, who is in charge of making that happen, and who can act for you if you can't act for yourself. For most families that means four documents.

A will or a living trust. Both say who inherits. The difference is the road your family travels. A will goes through probate court. A funded living trust skips it.

A durable power of attorney. Names someone to handle your finances if you're ever unable to.

An advance healthcare directive. Names someone to make medical decisions for you and tells them what you'd want.

Beneficiary designations. Not a document you sign at a law office, but the names on your retirement accounts, life insurance, and bank accounts. They override everything else, so they need to match the plan.

What probate is, and why people work to avoid it

Probate is the court process for settling an estate when there's no trust. For Hanford families it runs through the Kings County Superior Court, and it comes with three costs your family pays: time, privacy, and money.

The money part is what surprises people most. California sets probate fees by law, as percentages of the gross value of the estate. Gross means your home counts at its full market value even if you still owe on it. And the fee applies twice, once for the attorney and once for the executor.

Percentages are abstract. Your house isn't. Use the calculator to see what the statutory fees would be on an estate your size.

How families avoid probate

For homeowners, the main tool is a funded living trust. You create the trust, you retitle your home and accounts into it, and you stay in complete control while you're alive. When you pass, the person you chose distributes everything on your instructions, privately, without a courtroom.

Two smaller tools round it out. Beneficiary designations pass retirement accounts and life insurance directly to the people named, no probate involved. And California's small-estate procedures let families collect modest estates with an affidavit instead of a court case. Part of an honest consultation is figuring out which tools you need, because plenty of people don't need all of them. If your situation is simple, Jonette will say so. She wrote a whole article on that: Do I need a trust, or just a will?

The mistakes Jonette sees most

After twenty years of cleaning these up, the pattern is familiar. A trust that was never funded, so the house still goes through probate anyway. Two kids who don't get along named as co-trustees. The house left 50-50 to siblings with no plan for what happens next. A stepchild raised as your own but never adopted and never named, who under California law inherits nothing. And plans kept secret, which breeds exactly the resentment they were meant to prevent.

Every one of those is avoidable with a plan that's realistic about how your family works. That's the plan Jonette builds.

What to do this week

1. List what you own, in plain language. The house, the land, the accounts, the vehicles. Note which accounts already have beneficiaries named.

2. Write down who you'd trust to handle things. Who should inherit, who should be in charge, and who should raise your kids if it ever came to that. Getting clear on this before you talk to an attorney saves you time and money.

3. Have the conversation. Bring your list. A straightforward consultation shouldn't take more than an hour, and you'll leave knowing exactly what you need and what you don't.

"Estate planning is one of the most selfless things you can do. You'll be gone, but your family won't be. Get it done while every decision is still yours to make."

Jonette M. Montgomery

Where would my family's probate case be handled?

For Kings County residents, probate cases are filed with the Kings County Superior Court in Hanford. The process and the statutory fees are set by state law, so they're the same everywhere in California.

What's the single best way to avoid probate?

For California homeowners, a funded living trust. Accounts with named beneficiaries also pass outside probate, and estates under California's small-estate threshold can use simplified procedures. The right combination depends on what you own.

How does the cost of a plan compare to the cost of probate?

For most California homeowners, a living trust costs a fraction of the probate fees it avoids. Jonette will quote you plainly before any work starts, and if you don't need a trust, she'll tell you that too.

Is it too late to plan if I'm older?

No. Jonette has helped people do their first estate plan in their 90s. The best time is now, while every decision is still yours to make.