Jalaxie Legal Document Services, Inc.

For our Facebook special, $100 off living trust and pour-over will, click on this link

Why does Jalaxie cost so much less (only $399, almost half of what our competitors charge, that our competitors while providing better quality documents and services? We don't offshore or subcontract any of our work and we have low administrative overhead. And because we are not only experts in utilizing living trusts, wills and estate planning forms, we have expertise in IT and we are able to automate the tedious part of the project.

This price includes preparing the documents for you on an ASAP baais, making up to two revisions, and emailing you the pdf versions of your living trust and will with all instructions. If you want a hard copy mailed to you, we charge $20 which includes sending these documents to you USPS priority mail. If you want to put your house or other California real estate in your trust, we will prepare the quitclaim deed AND the preliminary change of ownership report (so your property tax bill will not increase) for you for $50, based on your copy of the deed and your latest property tax bill you can email to us. We want to earn your continued business and your referrals.

There are a number of things you can do to reduce the hassles of probate as well as potentially protect your assets. All of this is under this page’s topic of estate planning.

Last Will and Testament

When you die, everything that you own personally goes into your “estate.” In order for someone else to use or sell that property, it has to go through a court process called probate (unless an exemption applies). Probate requires the filing of the will with the court, the appointment of an executor and a lawyer. The lawyer and executors get paid according to a fixed percentage of value. Because a probate is a public proceeding, this opens up your life to the world. And it costs money and time..

Sole proprietorships report their income on Schedule C of an individual’s tax return. The individual needs to ask the IRS for an employer ID number, which will apply to not only that sole proprietorship, but any other one operated by the taxpayer during the rest of his or her life. Although a sole proprietorship is a simple way to do business, it does not insulate the individual from personal liability from the business. Therefore, most small business people do business in other forms.

The Living Trust, also known as a Revocable Trust

If you set up a living trust, and, importantly, title property in the name of the trust, you don’t “own” it when you die. While you are alive, you can deal with that property the same as if you continued to own it. For income tax purposes, you still do, because the trust can be revoked at any time and you can take the property out of the name of the trust. Any income or tax deduction related to that asset goes right into your personal tax return Your trust agreement will name one or more successor trustees who will have control over that asset when you die. Or become incapacitated. But that asset will not be subject to probate. Usually, spouses appoint each other as trustee. You can easily amend a living trust to provide who will be your heir when you die. You can specify that money gets distributed immediately, or over time.

Does a living trust protect your assets from creditors? The answer is no. However, if you have significant assets and you are in a risky profession (like a doctor) there are ways to protect the assets. We refer many people to a Nevada lawyer who can set up a spendthrift trust that will protect your assets, especially if you do not have any current creditors seeking your assets, or lawsuits pending against you. You can also employ out of state LLCs for additional protection. (California LLCs usually will not work).

Advanced Health Care Directive

Also known as a “living will,” this is a California-designed form to provide instructions for someone (family or close friend) to make medical and life decisions if you are unable to do so. You can decide, for example, if all possible measures should be used to keep you alive, or you don’t want to be on life support forever if you find yourself in that category. We help you complete this essential document.

Heavy Duty Estate Planning

In 2023, the lifetime Unified Credit was $12.92 million for individuals and $25.84 million for married couples. That means you could give away (including through a trust or plain gift), or will to others up to that without being subject to estate taxes. Which are a lot. Transfers to spouses are exempt from the tax. Basically, this estate planning involves you giving something away at today’s current value with the idea that by the time you die, it will be worth a lot more. But if you make the gift now, you freeze the value for purposes of the Unified Credit. We have attorneys we refer people to for this kind of planning. You can also use insurance or a host of other mechanisms for this.

Prince died without a will or estate planning, leaving a big mess. The estate of Michael Jackson is selling half of his music catalog for $900 million—probably to pay estate taxes, because Mr. Jackson did not take care of this problem. Contrast this to the estate of Steve Jobs. Jobs used estate planning carefully, and his family probably paid little or no estate tax on his $10 billion estate.