California Married Couple Estate Planning Package - Minor Children

California Estate Plan for Married Couple with Minor Children

A California estate plan for a married couple with minor children helps protect your family, your assets, and your children's future. It typically includes a joint Revocable Living Trust with an optional disclaimer trust, a Pour-Over Will for each spouse, Durable Powers of Attorney, Advance Health Care Directives, and related estate-planning documents. The plan allows parents to nominate primary and alternate guardians, name successor trustees to manage inherited assets, and set the ages at which children receive their shares instead of having property paid outright to a minor. When properly prepared and funded, a living trust can also help avoid probate and provide for the surviving spouse while preserving assets for the children.

Disclaimer

These forms are provided by Califorms as general-purpose California legal forms for self-help use. They are not legal advice, and purchasing or downloading them does not create an attorney-client relationship. Califorms does not complete, customize, interpret, select provisions for, notarize, witness, file, record, fund, or administer these documents. Each spouse signs a separate Will, Power of Attorney, and Advance Health Care Directive. A guardian nomination applies only if neither parent is living, willing, and able to provide care, and it is a parental nomination rather than a court appointment; a California court decides whether a guardianship is necessary and whom to appoint. The customer is responsible for identifying every child, completing the guardian and distribution elections, transferring assets into the trust, and satisfying all signature, witness, notarization, and recording requirements. A disclaimer trust is optional and time-sensitive, generally requiring a qualified disclaimer within nine months of the first death. A blended family, a stepchild, disputed parentage, Indian Child Welfare Act issues, or a child with a disability all call for advice from a qualified California attorney before signing.