Wills, Trusts, and Estates

David E. Shell regularly prepares Wills and Trusts.  We also advise clients regarding existing estate planning documents and offer assistance after death.

Our emphasis is on estates valued at under $3 million.  Powers of Attorney and Advanced Health Care Directives are available with all Living Trusts at the time of signing at no additional cost.

We are happy to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Living Trusts and other estate planning devises and how they may affect your particular sitation.

We charge the fees established by statute for formal probate. (A sliding scale starting at 4% on the first $100,000 of assets and decreasing to less than 1% on very large estates.  See Probate Code section 10810.) However, we rarely ask for any extraordinary fees (even when rendering extraordinary services such as drafting real estate contracts and assisting in the sale of estate real property without a broker) and we significantly discount fees for non-probate services such as Probate code 131000-13115 declarations for transfer, consultation, preparation and recordation of Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant or Trustee, and proceedings for property set aside to a spouse pursuant to Probate Code 13660 or clearing title to real property in Estates valued under $100,000 when no probate is necessary.