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Looking for a smarter way to protect your assets, avoid the pains of probate, and ensure your loved ones are taken care of—without ever having to step foot in an attorney's office? At Jenkins & Jenkins, Estate Planning Attorneys, we are experts in Revocable Living Trusts and offer completely virtual estate planning services to individuals and families throughout San Diego County and beyond (anywhere within California!).
Whether you're starting your estate plan or updating an existing one, a Revocable Living Trust can often be the cornerstone of your legacy. With our client-centered, video-based approach, creating a trust has never been more convenient or personalized.
What is a Revocable Living Trust?
A Revocable Living Trust (aka Revocable Trust, Living Trust, or Family Trust) is a legal agreement that allows you to manage your assets during your lifetime and dictate how they are managed both during incapacity and after your death— without going through Probate Court.
There are three parties to any Trust – the Settlor (the person who creates the trust), the Trustee (the person who manages the assets in the Trust), and the Beneficiary (the person entitled to property in the Trust).
When you create a Revocable Living Trust you will usually serve in all three roles when it is set up. That way you retain full control and beneficial interest over all of your property, and you can change the terms at any time. Nothing at all changes in your day to day or year to year routines, but you have the foundation in place to protect yourself and your loved ones.
If you become incapacitated or pass away, a successor trustee (who you nominate ahead of time) takes over the administration. In the case of incapacity, they utilize all trust property for your benefit ,and in the case of death, they manage or distribute your assets according to your wishes – all without having to involve the Probate Court. This is the way to allow family to handle affairs around the kitchen table instead of the Courthouse.
Why Create a Revocable Living Trust?
Here in California, the probate process is lengthy, expensive, and public. A properly drafted and funded Revocable Living Trust allows your loved ones to avoid probate entirely—saving them time, stress, and unnecessary legal fees.
It’s more than just probate avoidance though, as a Revocable Living Trust can help you accomplish other goals such as: remarriage protections between spouses; elder fraud abuse prevention; protecting a child’s inheritance from future divorce or creditors; safeguarding public benefits; leaving a lasting legacy for generations to come; and/or protecting a beneficiary from their own poor choices.
Key benefits of a Revocable Living Trust include:.
✅ Avoid Probate: Streamline asset transfer and skip the court process.
✅ Maintain Privacy: Trusts are private documents, unlike wills that become public records.
✅ Plan for Incapacity: Your successor trustee can step in to manage your finances if you're ever unable to, with options to include elder fraud/abuse prevention measures as well.
✅ Greater Control: Specify how and when beneficiaries receive their inheritance with much more detail than a standalone Will.
✅ Protect Beneficiaries: A properly structured trust can also provide added protections to beneficiaries beyond just probate avoidance (ex- protect them from divorce, creditors, or bad decision making).
✅ Easily Updatable: Modify the trust as your life or financial situation changes.
Who Needs a Revocable Living Trust?
At Jenkins & Jenkins, we believe estate planning shouldn’t be stressful or inconvenient. That’s why we meet exclusively via video conference—giving you the flexibility to plan from the comfort of your home or business, without sacrificing personalized service. While we’re headquartered in San Diego near Sorrento Valley, there’s no need to take time off work, pay a babysitter, or deal with traffic just to get to a stuffy law office. This added efficiency allows our clients to be in full contact with their attorney via text, phone, or video conference during the entire planning process and beyond.
Here’s what to expect when working with us:
1. Free Initial Call
Schedule a no-obligation call to discuss your goals and concerns. You can also check out our on-demand webinar to learn more about us anytime. If we’re a good fit for your needs, we’ll send over a link to schedule a design meeting.
2. Design the Plan
Your design meeting will be from the comfort of home – just log in to your video conference and your Attorney will guide you through the lifecycle of your estate plan. We’ll discuss pros and cons of various techniques and tools, and work together to craft the overall structure of your estate plan.
3. Tailored Trust Drafting
After your design meeting, the attorney you are working with personally drafts a customized Revocable Living Trust that fits your life, not a one-size-fits-all template and never outsourced to junior staff or 3rd party companies.
4. Easy Review & Collaboration
When initial drafts are ready (usually 1-2 weeks after the Design Meeting), we’ll send over the drafts and a detailed walkthrough of the plan. This walkthrough is an in-depth video review where your attorney screen shares the plan and walks you through not only what the plan says but also how it all works together. This is an invaluable piece beloved by our clients as it ensures they not only understand the plan but also how to make sure it all works as intended. We’ll repeat this draft and review process until we all agree on a final version.
5. At Home Notarization & Digital Backup
We’ll send our mobile notary out to meet with you at home (or at your business if it is easier) and sign the final plan. Once signed, we’ll make a complete digital backup of the plan, which we’ll share with you as well.
6. Funding Guidance & Ongoing Support
Once signed, you get to have a little celebration, but then we move into making sure the plan works. We’ll take care of getting Real Estate and Business interests into the trust for you as part of the process, and we’ll walk you through step by step on getting financial accounts into the trust, based on your individual assets. Have questions about your plan during the process or anytime in the future? We’re just a click away! We aim to be your ongoing resource to ensure that as life changes, your plan adapts as needed along the way.
Serving All of San Diego and California - Virtually
Whether you’re in La Jolla, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Spring Valley, or anywhere in between, we bring professional estate planning directly to you.
No commutes, no parking hassles—just expert guidance on your schedule and an unparalleled direct access to your attorney. This virtual setup also lets us seamlessly serve families throughout California as well!
And one of the best parts? You can still seamlessly work with our firm even if you move out of San Diego County in the future.
When the time comes, your loved ones can also work directly with our firm for any assistance they may need in administering the plan, no matter where they are located
Ready to Protect What matters Most?
Your legacy deserves more than a generic form or DIY software with no actual legal guidance behind it. With a custom tailored Revocable Living Trust from Jenkins & Jenkins as the cornerstone of your estate plan, you gain peace of mind knowing your wishes will be honored, your assets protected, and your loved ones supported—all without ever leaving home.
Schedule your free call with our Attorneys today and take the first step toward a secure, well-planned future!
