A revocable living trust does one job well: it keeps your property out of probate court. In Los Angeles County that is worth real money, because California pays probate lawyers on a percentage of the gross estate rather than on the work involved.
The flat fee here is $2,900 for an individual and $3,600 for a couple. Probate on a $1 million house runs about $46,000 in statutory fees. That is the whole argument, and it does not require anyone to scare you.
Why California in particular
Most states pay probate attorneys hourly or on a reasonableness standard. California pays by formula, on the gross value of the estate, before a single dollar of mortgage comes off.
So a house in Culver City worth $1.2 million with $700,000 still owed produces the same statutory fee as a house owned free and clear. Your equity is irrelevant to the calculation. If you own a home in this county and you have no trust, this is the number you are looking at.
| Gross estate | Attorney fee | Executor fee | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $13,000 | $13,000 | $26,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $23,000 | $23,000 | $46,000 |
| $1,500,000 | $28,000 | $28,000 | $56,000 |
The executor's fee is real
People assume a family member serving as executor waives it. Many do. But the fee exists, it is taxable income when taken, and in a family that is not getting along, somebody usually takes it.
What is in the package
- The revocable living trust itself
- A pour-over will, which catches anything that never made it into the trust
- Durable power of attorney for finances
- Advance health care directive and HIPAA authorization
- Nomination of guardian, if you have minor children
- A deed transferring your home into the trust, prepared and recorded
- A funding letter telling you, account by account, what still needs retitling
That last item is the one that matters most and the one most packages skip.
The failure nobody warns you about
A trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into it. I have opened probate files for people who paid good money for a trust twelve years ago and never moved the house into it. The document was fine. The funding never happened.
“The saddest version of this is the trust that was funded correctly, and then the family refinanced in 2021, and the title company took the house out of the trust to close the loan and never put it back. Check your deed. It takes ten minutes.”
Delia Vasquez-HartWhen you should not do this
If you rent, have no real property, and everything you own passes by beneficiary designation, a trust is solving a problem you do not have. Come back when you buy something. There is a whole page on this, and it is not a sales page.
Questions we get asked
Does a trust save taxes?
No. A revocable trust is tax-neutral. You still report the income on your own return and the federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per person, so this is not a tax product. Anyone selling it as one is selling something else.
Can I change it later?
Yes, that is what revocable means. Amendments start at $750. If the changes are extensive we restate the whole trust rather than stacking amendments, which gets confusing for whoever administers it.
Do I lose control of my house?
No. You are the trustee during your lifetime. You can sell it, refinance it, or take it back out. Practically nothing about daily life changes.
What about my retirement accounts?
Those usually stay outside the trust and pass by beneficiary designation. Naming a trust as the beneficiary of an IRA has real tax consequences and is rarely the right move.
Start here
Look up your home's current market value and check how the deed is titled. Those two facts decide most of this, and the consultation is free either way.