Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and probate procedures.
A plain-language reference to estate planning in Pennsylvania: the core documents, how wills work, intestate succession, powers of attorney, probate through the Register of Wills, and the state inheritance tax.
An orientation to estate planning in New York, the core documents, what makes a will valid, intestate succession, Surrogate’s Court probate, incapacity planning, and the state estate tax.
A plain-language reference to estate planning in Illinois: wills, intestate succession, trusts, transfer-on-death tools, powers of attorney, and the state estate tax, each linked to the governing statute.
A plain-language guide to estate planning in Florida: how wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives work, plus homestead rules, the spousal elective share, intestate succession, and probate.
A plain-language overview of estate planning in Texas: the wills, powers of attorney, advance directives, and trusts that decide who inherits your property and who makes decisions if you cannot.
How California’s advance health care directive and durable power of attorney split medical from financial decisions, and why the state has no separate living will.
A California transfer on death deed names who inherits a home at death without probate. It covers residential property with up to four units, must be notarized and recorded within 60 days, and can be revoked any time before death.
A California small estate affidavit transfers a deceased person’s personal property without probate when the estate is worth $184,500 or less. Here are the rules, the 40-day wait, and what the affidavit must say.
California repealed its estate, inheritance, and gift taxes in 1982, so no state death tax applies. Only the federal estate tax can reach a California estate, and Proposition 19 can raise property tax on inherited homes.
A plain-language overview of estate planning in California: wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, probate, small-estate transfers, and the state’s estate-tax rules, with links to the Probate Code and the courts’ self-help center.