Trust & Estate Planning Knowledge Center
Plain-language guides to trusts, estate planning, administration, fiduciary duties, and real estate—written to help you bring better questions to your professional team.
Most estate plans don’t fail because of poor drafting. They fail in the gaps between documents, title records, beneficiary forms, cash, and the people expected to act.
Each guide explains one part of that picture: how a structure works, what it does not do on its own, and where coordination tends to break down.
Every guide ends with a short checklist for your next conversation with estate-planning counsel, your CPA, or your advisor.
Choose the path that fits your situation
I’m putting a plan in place
Start with how the pieces fit together, then see how a living trust gets funded.
I’m considering an irrevocable trust
Understand what giving up control does and doesn’t accomplish, then compare structures.
I’ve been named a trustee
Learn the order of the work, the duties behind each decision, and how to handle property.
All seven guides
Understand the structures
Revocable Living Trusts
Learn how revocable living trusts support incapacity planning, probate avoidance, asset funding, and successor trustee transitions.
Read the guide →02Irrevocable Trusts
Understand irrevocable trusts, retained powers, grantor taxation, estate inclusion, basis tradeoffs, and the cost of giving up control.
Read the guide →03Types of Irrevocable Trusts
Compare SLATs, IDGTs, dynasty trusts, GRATs, QPRTs, ILITs, special needs trusts, QTIP trusts, and charitable structures.
Read the guide →Build the plan
Act as a trustee
Trust Administration
Understand successor trustee administration, asset inventories, valuations, records, professional coordination, reserves, and distributions.
Read the guide →06Fiduciary Duties & Trustee Governance
Explore trustee loyalty, impartiality, prudent administration, conflicts, delegation, documentation, and beneficiary communication.
Read the guide →07Real Estate in Trusts & Estates
Understand trust real estate funding, ownership, valuation, liquidity, hold-versus-sell decisions, LLC coordination, and beneficiary interests.
Read the guide →Built to prepare you for the next conversation
- The essential ideaThe one point to carry away, stated first.
- Five focused sectionsWhat the structure does, what it doesn’t, and where plans break down.
- A hypothetical scenarioA short illustration of the issue in practice.
- A preparation checklistItems to gather or confirm before meeting your professionals.
- Common questionsDirect answers to what people ask most.
- Primary sourcesReferences to the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and California court materials.