Law Offices of Daniel H. Alexander, APLC

The first major difference is spelled out in the name: An Irrevocable Trust is a trust that in general cannot be changed by the person setting it up or the beneficiary (it is irrevocable) whereas a Revocable Trust can be changed during the lifetime of the settlor by the settlor (the person that set it up). Irrevocable Trusts are often used to protect assets from creditors or to protect public benefits (Special Needs Trust) from being lost due to owning assets in the beneficiary's name. An irrevocable trust would normally have a 3rd party trustee (someone other than the beneficiary). Whereas a revocable trust would normally, but not always, have the settlor as the initial trustee. Additionally, a revocable trust is like an alter ego of the settlor, in that since the settlor has rights to the trust the trust assets so do the settlor's creditors if the trust is sued. Finally, one other major difference is that an irrevocable trust is usually a separate tax entity (it has its own tax id and pays its own taxes) vs. a revocable trust is usually a pass-through trust that does need to have a separate tax id during the settlor's life and the settlor pays any taxes due because the tax "passes through" the trust to the settlor.

Medical Powers of Attorney / Advanced Health Care Directives are needed when you are unable to make health care discissions for yourself do to incapacity. Of course, incapacity can happen at any time, ranging from an accident to a medical procedure gone wrong to a virus to age related conditions. Everyone should have an Advanced Health Care Directive in place now!

I believe you are asking two questions 1) do you need a lawyer to do probate and 2) do you need to do probate to recover assets /estate because the decedent did not choose or state beneficiaries on their contract or account. The Answer is: it depends. First, do you need a lawyer: you are usually not required to use an attorney or lawyer for probate. But probate court has strict rules that have to be followed and, in my opinion, it is best to have an attorney handle your probate matter. Second, do you need to do probate: under current California law, if the Estate that you are trying to collect does not have real property and is less than $166,250, then it is likely that you do not need to do probate. However, if the estate has real property, or the value of the estate is more than $166,250, or there are disputes over beneficiaries or ownership, then probate is likely needed to resolve the matters and distribute the estate, and its best to have an attorney handle the probate.