Single Person with Minor Children Estate Plan

California Estate Plan for a Single Person with Minor Children

A California estate plan for a single person with minor children helps protect your children, your assets, and your children's future. It typically includes a Revocable Living Trust, a Pour-Over Will with guardian nominations, a Durable Power of Attorney, an Advance Health Care Directive, and related estate-planning documents. The plan allows a single parent to nominate primary and alternate guardians, name a successor trustee to manage inherited assets, and set the ages at which children receive their shares instead of having property paid outright to a minor. Because a guardian nomination is not an automatic appointment and a surviving parent ordinarily has custody, the nominations should be reviewed carefully. When properly prepared and funded, a living trust can also help avoid probate and keep assets protected 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. A guardian nomination is a parental nomination, not a court appointment; a California court decides whether a guardianship is necessary and whom to appoint, and it considers the rights of any surviving parent first. 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. Disputed custody or parentage, an absent or unknown other parent, or a child with a disability calls for advice from a qualified California attorney before signing.