You live in Pleasanton, Danville, San Jose, or somewhere nearby. Your home is worth $1.5 million, maybe more. Traffic is a known hazard. And your estate plan is still on the to-do list.
Bay Area families have more at stake in California estate planning than almost anyone else in the state because Bay Area homes are expensive, which means the probate fees will be expensive. But with virtual estate planning, you can set your family up to avoid probate without getting in your car.
California probate fees are based on the gross value of your estate, not your equity. If your Walnut Creek home is worth $1.5 million and you have $700,000 left on the mortgage, your estate still goes through probate based on the full $1.5 million value.
California probate fees are set by statute. On a $1.5 million estate, the statutory attorney and executor fees run around $42,000. Before court costs. Before the appraisal. Before the 12 to 18 months your family spends waiting for the court to let them do anything with your assets.
A properly funded living trust eliminates all of that. Your family gets access to your assets on their timeline, not the court's.
Bay Area families do not need to drive to an estate planning attorney's office. The commute-to-a-lawyer model was designed for a different era. For a working family in the Bay Area, taking half a day off to drive to and sit in a law office conference room, then doing it again two weeks later to sign documents, is a real barrier. It is not laziness. It is logistics.
Virtual estate planning removes the logistics. Two Zoom meetings with one of our attorneys. One signing appointment from your home. About two to three weeks start to finish. The legal result is identical to in-person. The documents are the same. The attorney is the same. But no traffic.
We have clients throughout the Bay Area, from San Jose to Danville to Marin. Many of them found us specifically because they wanted an experienced estate planning firm that knew what they were doing and knew how to remove the obstacles to completing the work.
The intro call. No charge, no obligation. A free fifteen-minute call with one of our estate planning attorneys. By the end of the call, we should be able to tell you what you need and what it will cost. Certainty. No guesswork. Flat fee, quoted before you hire us.
The design meeting. First Zoom meeting about one hour. You Zoom with one of our attorneys and make the decisions that actually shape your estate plan: who inherits, who manages things if you cannot, who raises your kids, how your kids receive their inheritance - outright or in an asset protection trust.
Document drafting. We draft your documents and give you online access to review them.
The review meeting. Second Zoom meeting with your attorney, about one hour. We review your new documents, make sure you understand each document, and confirm the documents will accomplish your estate planning objectives.
Signing. You join a video session with a remote online notary. Your documents get signed and notarized, legally and completely, from your home.
This comes up a lot, and the short answer is yes. Here is the slightly longer version.
California is one of the few states that does not yet allow its own notaries to perform remote online notarizations. California passed Senate Bill 696 in 2023 to eventually fix this, but full implementation is not expected until January 1, 2030, pending the Secretary of State's completion of the required technology infrastructure. California being California, we will most likely be the last state to authorize what many states approved prior to Covid.
What California does have is Civil Code Section 1189(b), which provides that a notarial acknowledgment performed in another state is valid in California as long as it conforms to that state's laws. In practice, this means you sign with a remote online notary licensed in a state that already permits remote notarization, Nevada, Florida, and Texas are common ones, and that notarization is fully recognized here.
The notary verifies your identity using multi-factor authentication and a government-issued photo ID. You sign your documents electronically on the call. The whole signing appointment usually takes about 30 minutes.
As for whether California county recorders accept deeds notarized this way: 48 of California's 58 counties accept electronic recording, and those counties accept RON-notarized deeds without issue. The remaining 10 are small rural counties. If you are in Walnut Creek, Pleasanton, San Jose, or anywhere else a Bay Area family is likely to live, your county is covered.
For the full legal breakdown of how remote notarization works in California, including Assembly Bill 2004 and what happens in the rare paper-only county, we have written a detailed post on virtual estate planning in California.
A complete Bay Area virtual estate plan includes the same documents as any in-person plan:
Revocable living trust. Avoids probate. Controls what happens to your estate. You manage it during your lifetime and can amend it as circumstances change.
Pour-over will. Names your executor and guardians for minor children. Captures any assets that end up outside the trust at your death.
Durable power of attorney. Authorizes someone you trust to manage your finances if you become incapacitated. Without this, your family may need a conservatorship.
Advance health care directive. Authorizes someone to make medical decisions and speak with your doctors if you cannot.
Trust transfer deed. Transfers your California home into the trust. This step is what actually keeps your home out of probate. Skipping it means your home goes through probate even though you have a trust.
Certification of trust. A short document banks and title companies use to confirm the trust exists and that you have authority to act on its behalf, without you having to hand over the full trust document.
Prop 19 and your home. If you own a Bay Area home and plan to leave it to your children, Prop 19 significantly limits the property tax break they used to get. Under the old rules, kids could inherit a parent's home and even rental property and keep the low assessed value and corresponding low property tax. Now, the exclusion only applies to your home, and only if a child makes the home their primary residence within a year, and even then, it is capped. For Bay Area families with homes worth $1.5 million or more, the property tax difference can be substantial. Your estate plan should account for this, and your attorney can help you understand what will happen with the property tax on your home and other properties when your kids inherit them.
RSUs and stock options. Unvested equity stays in your name, but vested shares and brokerage accounts can be retitled into your trust.
Retirement Plans. Your estate plan should coordinate with your beneficiary designations on 401(k)s and IRAs. Your attorney needs to walk you through which assets go where.
Investment property. Rental properties can generally be transferred into a trust. Many people prefer to own their rental property through an LLC for asset protection. But there are pros and cons to this, which you need to discuss with your attorney.
Blended families. Blended families have more to consider in their estate planning: community property v separate property, kids together and kids from a prior relationship, how to allocate assets at the first death, etc. Blended families need an attorney who asks the right questions before drafting anything. Read more about estate planning for blended families.
You will work with a licensed California attorney throughout the entire process. Not a paralegal after the first meeting. Not a document service with minimal attorney involvement. An attorney, from the intro call through signing.
California estate planning is all we do. Every attorney, every process, every document we produce is built around it. We have been doing this for over 30 years. This is not the side business.
Do I need to be physically located in the Bay Area to work with you? No. We serve clients virtually throughout California. You just need to be a California resident with a California estate.
What if I want to meet in person? We have offices in El Dorado Hills, Roseville, San Luis Obispo, and San Diego. Many of our Bay Area clients meet with us on their way to Tahoe.
How long does it take? About two to three weeks from the design meeting to signed documents.
What does it cost? We charge flat fees and publish them.
What happens after signing? Post-signing questions to your attorney are free. We never charge our clients to talk to us. If you have an issue with your bank or financial institution six months later and you’re not sure what to do, call us.
Do I need to fund the trust after signing? Yes, and this step matters more than most people realize. A trust that is not funded does not protect your family from probate. We walk you through what needs to be retitled and how to do it.
Two Zoom meetings. One signing session from your home. About two weeks. The probate exposure that comes with Bay Area home values is real, and a living trust is how you eliminate it.
We serve Bay Area families and clients virtually and in person at our offices in El Dorado Hills, Roseville, San Luis Obispo, and San Diego.
Click Get Started below or call us (800) 394-1988 to schedule a free 15-minute intro call with one of our estate planning attorneys.