Do I need a lawyer to set up a living trust?

Estate & Tax Attorney, Sonja Panajotovic, shares advice on estate planning and explains if it is necessary to have a lawyer to set up a living trust
Is A Lawyer Necessary To Set Up A Living Trust?
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Do I need a lawyer to set up a living trust?

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A living trust can be set up either by do it yourself, or you can have a lawyer assist you. Generally for those with assets or slightly smaller estates, for example with assets under $1M, a way to get a living trust. You can go to a library and they have self-help books. You can go to any bookstore and they have CDs and forms that help you through the process. And for those who have slightly more complicated estates a lawyer can or should assist in the process of setting up the living trust. But if money's the issue, I would suggest that you do it yourself and have a living trust versus not doing anything at all.

Estate & Tax Attorney, Sonja Panajotovic, shares advice on estate planning and explains if it is necessary to have a lawyer to set up a living trust

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Sonja Panajotovic

Estate & Tax Attorney

In 1992, Ms. Panajotovic graduated from University of Colorado, Boulder with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration/Finance and with multiple honors as a scholar/athlete (tennis) and honored as Academic All Big Eight, and Scholar Athlete of the year. She earned her law degree from the Southwestern University School of Law and graduated Cum Laude, was an Associate Editor for the Law Review, and on the Dean’s List, and began her legal career as a law clerk for Magistrate Judge Margaret A. Nagle, United States District Court, Los Angeles, and as an associate at the prestigious law firm of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP.

Sonja Panajotovic’s estate planning services include the preparation of documents ranging from simple wills to advanced health care directives, asset transfers and living trusts. She also counsels many of her clients on the various types of trusts such as the marital deduction trust, special needs trusts, Q-TIP trusts, and charitable remainder trusts and helps her clients coordinate their trusts with their overall estate planning needs.

 Her probate and estate practice is also designed to provide full legal services to personal representatives of decedent's estates, trustees, and guardians/conservators for minors or incapacitated adults, including all proceedings in the probate court. She aids her clients with estate and trust administration to efficiently transfer assets from decedent's trusts or estates to intended beneficiaries at death.

Guardianship, Wills and Trusts
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