Each Living Beneficiary will Receive and Equal Share

You might want more options. A will or trust allows you to select the back-up (aka contingent) beneficiaries. For example, prefer that if I leave my property to my 2 children and one dies before me, their share goes to their children.   You can also state an age that young people must be to inherit, most people choose 30.

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A trust will allow you to select one person to sell any property, pay any debts and taxes, and distribute the proceeds to your beneficiaries.   Trust administration generally is not as expensive as probate and avoids many probate problems; however, the trustee generally still needs to work with an attorney, and it tends to take more time, 1-2 years.   An estate plan with a trust usually costs about $1500 per person.

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Further, an estate plan is a preferred method for planning for beneficiaries who are on SSI or Medi-Cal or who cannot manage finances on their own.