Every Californian's Guide To Estate Planning: Wills, Trust & Everything Else

by Liza Hanks

Estate planning books often fall into two Those that are overwhelming and full of jargon, focusing on strategies to avoid taxes, or those that provide a general overview of wills, trusts, and estate planning tools and issues at a basic level. Every Californian's Guide to Estate Planning is It focuses on estate planning issues that are unique to people who call California home. California is different from almost anywhere else, people come from all over the world to live here, less than 25% of our families fit the traditional model, property is subject to community property rules, and our property tax rates are kept low until a property changes hands. No other estate planning book on the market addresses international issues, how to plan for blended families, how and why community property matters in an estate plan, or how to pass low property taxes on to your children. Written by an estate planning attorney with more than 15 years of experience, complex issues are explained in clear and concise language with lots of examples based on real life stories.

473 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2018

About the author

Also Published as Liza Weiman Hanks

Reviews

[Sarah Shoemaker]

I found this book to be helpful, clear and easy to follow.

[Yaron]

I'm a father with assets but no house who wanted to know what's the fastest way to setup a "good enough" estate plan, what are the gists of the laws, and if a lawyer is even really necessary.

When judging these kind of books I really have one question in mind: does the book add value over the internet and LLMs.

Well, for estate planning the internet is a hellhole of marketing for lawyers with surface level SEO optimized websites aimed at drawing in customers. And LLMs are a choose your own adventure when a table of contents is actually useful to know which adventure you want to dive into.

So yes, it was a relief to see a well written book with clear tables and infographics to help explain estate planning. I especially like the table that explains what goes into probate and what does not (bank accounts with designated beneficiaries).

Still the book has flaws. It doesn't actually give examples of wills, and instead steers you towards buying Nolo's WillMaker (which is probably not needed). I wish it explained more about how custodianship can work with underage children. And that it would give more details about trusts. I'm still not really sure how useful a lawyer would be for setting one up.

There is probably a better book out there. But I liked this one over the trashy internet.


Liza Hanks book is a clearly written introduction to the topic with handy suggestions about when a lawyer is worth it. I especially liked her explanations around what goes into trusteeship vs what does not ()