Estate Planning Attorney in California
California Estate Planning Attorney
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(760) 376-5502 Estate Planning Attorney in California
(760) 376-5502 
At Katzner Law Group, we help families throughout California put the wishes you have for yourself and your loved ones – who will be responsible for raising your children if you’re unable to do so, who will make healthcare and financial decisions on your behalf upon your incapacity or death, who will receive your assets and how will they receive them – in writing with an estate plan built around your goals and concerns for your loved ones. Working with an estate planning attorney in California gives you a clear answer to three questions: who inherits your assets, who makes decisions when you cannot, and how your wealth stays protected from a future lawsuit. We center that work on trust-based estate planning and proactive asset protection, two strategies designed to keep your family out of court and your assets in your family’s hands.
Estate planning in California is the process of putting in writing who will manage and inherit your assets, and who will make financial and medical decisions for you if you become unable to make them yourself. An estate plan exists for the people you leave behind. Without one, a court decides these questions in a public proceeding that runs on its own timetable, not your family’s.
California courts see this constantly. The Judicial Council of California reports 66,908 probate filings statewide in the 2024-25 fiscal year, with probate among the case categories that grew by more than 7 percent. A trust-based estate plan keeps your family out of that line (while a last will and testament based estate plan guarantees probate). Precision matters from the first page, because under California law a trust exists only when the settlor properly manifests an intention to create one. Clear drafting removes doubt about what you meant and who receives what.
Asset protection keeps your wealth intact during your lifetime, so your estate plan has something to pass on. A will or trust controls where your assets go after you die. Neither document stops a creditor who wins a judgment against you today from collecting first leaving your loved ones to inherit very little (or even nothing at all).
Asset protection also works in the other direction, protecting what your loved ones inherit. When you leave assets to a loved one outright, those assets become that person’s own property, exposed to a divorcing spouse, creditors, lawsuits, or financial immaturity. When the inheritance stays in a trust managed by a trustee you selected, the trust owns those assets, which shields them from those same claims. A complete estate plan addresses both kinds of protection: yours during life and your loved ones’ afterward. Each layer starts with understanding what a revocable trust can and cannot do.
A revocable living trust serves as the foundation of a trust-based estate plan. It functions as a will substitute, directing how your assets pass to your beneficiaries without ever passing through probate court. The trust only works once funded, meaning we work with you to retitle your accounts and real estate into the trust’s name and update beneficiary designations to match. Unlike a will admitted to probate, a funded trust never becomes part of a public court file, so the details of your estate stay private within your family.
You keep complete control of your assets throughout your life. You can add assets, remove them, or rewrite the terms of your trust at any time, which is exactly what makes the trust revocable.
That same control marks its limit. Because you are the beneficiary of your own revocable trust, California law does not let its transfer restrictions block your creditors. A revocable trust avoids probate and protects your loved ones, and also provides wonderful incapacity planning, but it does not shield your assets from lawsuits. Lifetime protection calls for separate tools.
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An asset protection plan is a coordinated set of legal tools, put in place before any claim exists, designed to make your assets far more difficult for a future creditor to reach. No single document accomplishes this. Effective planning layers several protections:
No asset protection plan makes you one-hundred percent immune to creditors. Its purpose is practical: when a claim arises, protected assets put you in a far stronger position to resolve it on favorable terms than money sitting exposed in a bank account.
An asset protection attorney evaluates where your exposure comes from, then builds an estate planning and asset protection structure to address it. That work typically includes reviewing how your home, accounts, and business interests are titled; coordinating with your insurance coverage; organizing business entities; and drafting irrevocable trusts suited to your goals.
The attorney also acts as a gatekeeper. Before any transfer, we confirm you have no known or reasonably foreseeable creditor and will remain comfortably solvent afterward. Planning that skips these checks can unravel when tested in a creditor scenario.
Coordination with your estate plan matters as much as the protection itself. Owning an LLC, an S corporation, or no business at all changes how your trust needs to be drafted. An estate planning attorney in California who also handles asset protection can align both sides from the start. Katzner Law Group designs estate plans and asset protection structures together, so each one supports the other.
Anyone who has accumulated significant assets and faces meaningful liability exposure should consider asset protection planning. High earners attract lawsuits because claimants see substantial assets to collect from. Groups with elevated risk include:
Liability also arises outside of work. A car accident involving a family member, a dog bite, or a worker injured on your property can each lead to a lawsuit seeking more than your insurance covers.
Gabriel Katzner has a track record, along with a vast number of outstanding public reviews across platforms, of working hard on behalf of individuals who need assistance with comprehensive estate planning services.
Timing decides whether asset protection works. Protection put in place while no claim exists holds up far better than any transfer made after trouble starts. Once a creditor problem surfaces, even a hint of one, the planning window closes.
A creditor can undo transfers made with the wrong intent, or transfers leaving you unable to pay your debts, and the assets you meant to protect end up exposed. A poorly executed plan can leave you worse off than having no plan at all as criminal liability can attach when there’s an intent to defraud.
Planning before any claim exists also brings peace of mind, since you no longer have to wonder what a single lawsuit could take from your family. Waiting offers no comparable benefit, only a narrower set of options once a problem appears. Knowing what the process involves is the first step toward planning correctly.
Asset protection planning follows a deliberate sequence, because California law sets firm boundaries on asset transfers:
Yes. Asset protection planning is legal in California when you do it proactively, for legitimate purposes, and remain solvent afterward. California’s voidable transfer statute allows a creditor to undo a transfer made with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud any creditor, whether the creditor’s claim arose before or after the transfer. A creditor can also undo a transfer made without reasonably equivalent value when it leaves you with unreasonably small assets or unable to pay debts as they come due.
Courts weighing intent may consider whether you transferred assets to an insider, kept control of them, concealed the transfer, had already been sued or threatened with suit, or became insolvent shortly afterward. The creditor bears the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence. California also refuses protection for trusts you create for your own benefit, self-settle asset protection trusts, which is why proper planning relies on trusts with very nuanced structures to work under California law.
Call Katzner Law Group at (855) 528-9637 or schedule a consultation to start building your estate plan and asset protection strategy with an experienced estate planning attorney in California. We will design around both your goals as well as your concerns for your loved ones, so you make these decisions before a lawsuit or a probate court makes them for you. We help families in San Diego and throughout California protect what they have built and pass it on privately.
In 2002, Gabriel Katzner, the founding partner of Katzner Law Group received his Juris Doctorate with honors from the Fordham University School of Law. After spending the first 7 years of his legal career practicing at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, an international law firm based in New York, he went on to found his own firm.
Gabriel Katzner has a track record, along with a vast number of outstanding public reviews across platforms, of working hard on behalf of individuals who need assistance with comprehensive estate planning services. Finding a lawyer who is knowledgeable about revocable and irrevocable trust planning, guardianship for minor children, asset protection, trust administration and probate, as well as Medi-Cal / Medicaid planning is extremely important.
Years of experience: More than 17 years
Locations: New York, NY / San Diego, CA
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The cost of estate planning in California depends on the scope of the estate plan you need. A will-based estate plan, a trust-based estate plan, and an estate plan that addresses retirement accounts or tax exposure each involve different work. Asset protection structures, such as third-party irrevocable trusts or business entities, add another layer. The number of properties you own, whether you have a business, and the needs of your loved ones also affect how much drafting and coordination the documents require. All the work we do is flat fee, so once we understand the work involved, we’ll quote a flat fee for the work – there’s never any hourly billing surprises. You can read more about how we price our services on our legal fees page.
An irrevocable trust can protect assets from a future lawsuit in California when you are not a direct beneficiary, you fund it before any claim exists, and you remain solvent afterward. If you name yourself as a direct beneficiary of a trust you created, your creditor may reach the maximum amount the trustee could pay you. A third-party irrevocable trust for your spouse and descendants avoids this problem. Some structures let a trusted person add you back as a beneficiary later, although using that option can reopen the assets to creditors.
The seven steps move from identifying your goals to funding and maintaining your estate plan. Here is how the process unfolds:
The best way to leave your house to your children is usually through a funded revocable living trust rather than a will. A house passing under a will goes through probate. Adding children to the title creates different problems: minors cannot manage property on their own, adult children may face a larger capital gains bill when the home sells, and the property becomes exposed to a child’s divorce or creditors. A trust passes the house privately, on the terms you set.
Anyone who owns assets or has people depending on them benefits from estate planning, not only the wealthy. Parents of minor children, blended families, homeowners, and business owners gain the most immediate value. Net worth does not decide whether you need a trust. The deciding factor is how you want your family’s transition to unfold when you are gone: through a public, drawn-out probate, or privately and efficiently through trust administration.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. Furthermore, it has received approval from attorney Gabriel Katzner, an experienced estate planning lawyer with over 17 years of legal expertise.