Time doesn’t wait, and neither do life’s unexpected moments. Taking action today is the only way to ensure your family is cared for tomorrow.
Legal Planning That Grows With You.
Our Focus Areas:
Estate Planning - Generational Wealth Planning • Probate • Trust Administration • Conservatorships • Special Needs Planning
Business Law—supporting entrepreneurs with entity formation, contracts, and succession planning
“Give your loved ones authority—not obstacles—when life takes a turn.”
What is Estate Planning?
It’s a way of putting your heart and intentions into a plan that safeguards your home, your hard-earned finances, and your family’s future.
Why Estate Planning Really Matters
A well-designed estate plan ensures your assets transfer privately and quickly to your loved ones without probate, and with the right protections, can also provide divorce protection, creditor protection, and long-term security for your children.
Plan it
Estate planning isn’t only for the end of life—it’s for the years you’re still active, vibrant, and enjoying everything you’ve worked for. But life can turn quickly: a fall, an illness, or early memory changes that affect your ability to manage finances or make safe decisions. With the right plan, your partner can step in with clarity and love, not fear and uncertainty.”
When life becomes unpredictable, having the right documents prepared means your loved ones won’t have to guess, struggle, or turn to the courts for help. They’ll know exactly how to support you.
A complete estate plan consists of several key legal documents. Each one plays a specific role in protecting your home, finances, and family—both during your lifetime and after you pass away.
Your Living Trust
A Living Trust is the central document that holds and manages your assets. Anything placed in the trust transfers to your beneficiaries without probate, avoiding court delays and costs.
Why it matters: If you own a home in California, a Living Trust saves your family from probate, which can cost $15,000–$50,000+ and take up to two years.
Advanced Health Care Directive
This document records your medical wishes and names someone you trust to make health decisions if you can’t speak for yourself.
Why it matters: If dementia, Alzheimer’s, or a sudden medical emergency affects your ability to decide, your chosen person can step in immediately, without going to court for a conservatorship.Without this document, your family may be forced into a stressful and expensive legal process just to help you.
Having an Advanced Health Care Directive in place early ensures the person you trust, not the hospital or the courts, has the authority to protect your wishes and guide your care.
Nomination of Guardian
This document allows you to name who will care for your minor children if something happens to you. Without it, the court—not your family—will decide who raises your children.
Why it matters: If you pass away unexpectedly, the court will honor your chosen guardian instead of leaving the decision to strangers or causing family disputes.
Pour Over Will
Your Will directs that any assets not already in your trust be transferred into the trust when you pass. It works as a safety net for anything unintentionally left out.
Why it matters: If you forget to title a new bank account in your trust, the Will ensures it still goes into the trust and to the right people.
Certification of Trust
The Certification of Trust is a short, simplified document that confirms the key details of your trust—who the trustees are, when the trust was created, and the powers the trustee has. This is the document you bring to your bank or financial institutions when you need to title accounts into your trust or open new accounts in the name of the trust.
Why it matters: Instead of handing over your full trust—which contains private information about your family, your assets, and your beneficiaries—the bank only needs this certificate. It gives them everything they require to verify the trust is valid without exposing your personal details.
Community Property Agreement
For married couples in California, this clarifies how assets are owned and can provide major tax benefits—such as a double step-up in basis—and ensures proper handling inside the trust.
Why it matters: If one spouse passes away, proper community property classification can reduce capital gains taxes when the surviving spouse sells the home.
Durable Power of Attorney
A Durable Power of Attorney gives someone you trust the legal authority to manage your finances if you become unable to do so yourself.
Why it matters: If you suffer a medical emergency, your agent can pay bills, manage accounts, and handle financial matters without needing a court-ordered conservatorship.
Assignment of Assets
This transfers your personal property—furniture, jewelry, business interests, and miscellaneous assets—into your trust to ensure everything is properly covered.
Why it matters: Even if you forget to update certain items later, the Assignment ensures your personal property is still legally part of your trust.
Not All Estate Plans Are the Same — And Not All Attorneys Are, Either
A real plan doesn’t just avoid probate—it shields your family from the unexpected.
Many people believe estate planning is simply about avoiding probate. While that is important, a truly well-designed estate plan does far more. It protects your family from risks most people never think about—and many attorneys never address.
Protecting an adult child who struggles with gambling, addiction, or poor money habits
Your plan can prevent them from losing everything, while still providing support in a responsible, structured way.
Safeguarding your children from future divorce
Proper trust planning can keep your child’s inheritance separate and protected—so if they divorce, their spouse can’t take what you left for them.
Reducing or eliminating estate taxes
With the right strategies, high-value estates can be structured to minimize or avoid estate taxes, preserving wealth for the next generation.
Providing lifelong protection for a child with a disability
A Special Needs Trust ensures they keep essential benefits (like SSI or Medi-Cal) while still receiving financial support for housing, care, therapy, and quality of life.
Reducing the risk of creditors or lawsuits
With the right trust structure, your family’s inheritance can be better insulated from financial predators and unexpected liabilities, giving your loved ones stronger protection and greater long-term stability.
Ensuring a smooth transition for business owners
If you own a business, your plan can determine who takes over, how ownership is transferred, and how to protect cash flow and operations when you’re no longer here.
Protection only works when it’s in place ahead of time—let’s build your plan now.
A plan only works if it’s in place before the crisis. Once something happens—an illness, an accident, or a loss of capacity—it’s often too late to put the legal protections your family needs into place.
Why Choosing the Right Attorney Matters
Not all attorneys provide the same level of planning. Some only prepare basic documents. Others overlook crucial protections like disability planning, trust structuring, tax strategies, and asset-protection options.
A simple estate plan may look fine today—but without the right guidance, your family may face costly, stressful problems in the future.
At Xanh Law, we take a comprehensive approach.
We look at your family dynamics, your financial goals, your risks, and your long-term vision. We design plans that are intended to:
Protect vulnerable children
Preserve generational wealth
Support tax-efficient planning, in coordination with your tax advisors
Reduce the likelihood of court involvement
Safeguard assets
Maintain family harmony
Honor your cultural values
Prepare for life’s unexpected turns
Because tax laws are complex and highly fact-specific, any potential tax outcomes must be reviewed and confirmed by a qualified tax professional. Xanh Law PC and its attorneys do not provide tax advice.
Estate planning is not “one size fits all.” Your family deserves a plan—and an attorney—who understands that.
Your first 30 minutes with us are complimentary—let’s go over your concerns and build a plan that protects your family.