Estate Planning Documents Every Family Should Know About

Durable Power of Attorney (finances)

Governed by Probate Code Division 4.5 (§§4000–4545), a power of attorney lets you name an agent to handle financial matters on your behalf. What makes it “durable” — Probate Code §4124 — is specific language showing intent that the agent’s authority survive your incapacity (for example: “This power of attorney shall not be affected by subsequent incapacity of the principal”).

Without that durability language, a power of attorney ends at incapacity by default. This is the single most important thing families miss.

It must be either notarized or signed by two qualifying witnesses (§§4121–4122). There’s an optional statutory form built into the Probate Code itself (§4401) — families can use that form, modify it, or use an attorney-drafted alternative.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.

Advance Health Care Directive

Governed by Probate Code Division 4.7 (the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act, beginning at §4670), with an optional statutory form at §4701. It names a health care agent and states your wishes about future medical treatment. It must be signed by you, and either notarized or witnessed by two qualified witnesses — with specific rules: at least one witness must be unrelated to you, have no interest in your estate, and can’t be the named agent, your treating provider, or a related facility employee.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.

POLST is legally different from an Advance Directive

Families confuse these two constantly, so it’s worth being explicit: POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) is a medical order, not a standalone legal planning document. It requires a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant’s signature to be valid, alongside the patient’s (or their legal decision-maker’s) signature.

An Advance Health Care Directive is signed by you alone (with witnesses or a notary) and tells your agent and doctors your wishes in advance. POLST is your doctor writing current standing medical orders based on your present condition. The current official POLST form (a 2017 revision, still current as of today) is maintained by the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California at capolst.org.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.

Revocable living trusts

A living trust only controls assets actually retitled into the trust’s name — real property re-deeded, accounts retitled — or that name the trust as beneficiary.

An unfunded or partially-funded trust does not avoid probate for whatever wasn’t retitled. This is the single most common estate-planning mistake — a trust that was signed but never actually funded protects nothing.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.

When formal probate isn’t needed

Per the Judicial Council’s own current table (effective for deaths on or after April 1, 2025; next adjusts April 1, 2028):

• A simplified small-estate affidavit can be used for personal property up to $208,850 (Probate Code §§13100–13101).
• For real property up to $69,625 (§13200).
• A simplified court petition is available for a primary residence worth up to $750,000 (§§13151–13154, raised by AB 2016 in 2024).

Note: $208,850 is the correct, directly-verified current figure for the personal-property threshold — a different number ($239,700) circulates on some third-party sites and is not correct.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.

Special needs trusts

SSI has a hard countable-resource limit of $2,000 for an individual — unchanged, and not inflation-indexed. A direct inheritance that pushes a disabled beneficiary over that limit terminates SSI eligibility, and often Medi-Cal along with it, since SSI eligibility frequently auto-links Medi-Cal.

A properly drafted special needs trust — where the beneficiary can’t demand principal directly — is excluded from that countable-resource calculation. But the drafting has to be right, which is exactly why this needs an attorney rather than a DIY form.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.

Conservatorship

When there’s no power of attorney or advance directive in place (or it’s insufficient) and someone can no longer make decisions for themselves, a family may need to petition the probate court for a conservatorship (of the person and/or the estate). This is a court process: a petition is filed, a court investigator interviews the proposed conservatee and reports neutrally to the judge, and then a hearing is held where the proposed conservatee has due-process rights — they can object or request counsel.

Note this is a different thing from “LPS conservatorship” (a separate, mental-health-specific process) — don’t conflate the two.

Placer County Superior Court has a Self-Help Center (Howard G. Gibson Courthouse / Bill Santucci Justice Center, Roseville) covering guardianships, conservatorships, and limited probate matters, with in-person hours Tuesday and Thursday mornings and phone or video appointments available. It’s a free starting resource for families who can’t afford an attorney for a straightforward conservatorship filing.

This is exactly the kind of document an elder-law or estate-planning attorney should help you get right.