Estate Planning Blueprint for California Parents in 2025: The 8-Step Plan I Used to Protect my Family in 2025
- Christopher Gipe
- Jan 1
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 16
A Blueprint for California Parents to Protect their Family in 2025.
I originally wrote this article several years ago but decided it was time for an update. My kids are older now, but I still see parents asking the same questions I once had:
What would happen to my family if something happened to me?
That question haunted me. As a father and attorney, I was in a unique position to solve it, but even with my background, I couldn't find a clear guide that connected and balanced the emotional, legal, and financial pieces together.
Everywhere I looked, the advice was fragmented. A (sometimes) helpful tip here. An expensive (often unnecessary) insurance pitch there. But no complete, realistic plan to safeguard my loved ones. I wanted a blueprint that I could use to protect my family.
So I built one.
After years of refining it, I cracked the code and now I'm giving the exact blueprint away for FREE. No tricks. No gimmicks. Just a choice:
Do it yourself using this step-by-step guide. You'll need to assemble your own team for professionals to help you execute it.
Hire my team do it for you. If you don’t have the time or energy to reinvent the wheel or vet professionals, we’ll handle everything for you. From start to finish.
One simple choice. One Powerful plan. So lets get into it . . .
Step 1: I Created a Revocable Living Trust.
This is the foundation of my plan. A Revocable Living Trust:
Avoids probate — the lengthy, expensive, and public court process after death (especially important here in California).
Allows me to stay in control of all my assets while I’m alive
Lets me choose who manages everything if I’m incapacitated or pass away
Keeps my children’s inheritance protected from lawsuits, divorce, or poor decisions
Without this, my kids would have inherited everything at age 18 in one big check. I was a fairly responsible young adult but was not ready to manage or any real significant amount of money. If we're honest most young people aren't. If something happened to me I wanted to put my kids in the best possible scenario for them to succeed, which meant they needed more time to mature and learn about money and finance. So now, their inheritance stays in trust and is used for their benefit, on my terms, over their lifetime.
This step alone saved my family upwards of $150,000 in court and legal fees by avoiding probate. There is a cost to doing nothing. To see how much you can save check out our Probate Calculator for a quick calculation.
Step 2: I Funded My Trust by Changing Asset Ownership
A trust only works if it actually owns your assets. So I retitled our assets (bank accounts, investments, home) into the name of our trust.
Now, instead of "Christopher Gipe" owning these, they’re owned by my Revocable Living Trust. I still control everything — but I’ve legally passed ownership to the trust to keep the plan functioning properly.
**This is a very important step and an easy one to overlook! Make sure you complete this step otherwise the plan might now work as intended.
Note: These first two steps — creating and funding a trust — are the foundation of your entire plan. Without it the next steps are of little value. There are some DIY places you can use online, but if you live in California want it done right my law firm helps families build and fund trusts that actually work when needed — no guesswork, no generic documents, and we do it for you. If you want support building a personalized plan for your family, you can schedule a consultation here.
Step 3: I Bought Term Life Insurance (For Me).
I have three young children (who were even younger when I first created this). Like most families, we rely on my income. If something happened to me , I needed to ensure they’d still have:
A roof over their heads
Food on the table
A way to pay for bills and expenses
Contribute something toward tuition and college funds (optional)
Build a safety net and peace of mind for my spouse (kind of optional)
I cannot control when I will die, or how much money/assets I will have at that time. So I could not guarantee I could do all of those things on my own.
BUT I could with the right life insurance. So I got life Term life insurance, and after every child I added I reviewed my coverage to make sure I still had enough.
On those policies I designated my spouse as the primary beneficiary, and my trust as contingent beneficiary. This way, if I pass, they have the money goes directly to my spouse if they are alive. If they are not then it will go to my trust. In either scenario they will be able to mourn/grieve without fear of wondering how they will pay for the mortgage or how they will survive. It also keeps them from needing to rely on programs like GoFundMe and the charity of others to live.
It is worth noting that these Steps are listed in order. Without completing Steps 1 & 2 first you run the risk of the plan failing and this insurance policy going through probate court. Best case scenario is your kids are 18 years old and they get a single check. Worst case scenario these funds are tied up in a guardianship case until they're 18 and are given a large check.
Remember this is designed to limit large distributions to young adults. Avoid court battles, and eliminate delays.
Step 4: I Bought Term Life Insurance (For My Spouse)
My amazing does a tremendous job at raising our kids. It is arguably more important because we take our jobs as parents very seriously. If she were gone, I'd be emotionally and logistically overwhelmed.
This policy ensures:
I have financial breathing room to take time off work to be with my kids
I can hire help with childcare when I have to eventually return to work
Give a cushion for dips in performance
People often do not look at this with clear eyes because it is harder to compute the value of a stay at home parents. But think about it, how long could you take off of work today with out pay? A week? A month?
Your kids will be going through one of the most challenging times in their life, you need to have the breathing room to be there for them. And when you return to work, you need to now have additional money to pay for things like child care if you need it.
Seriously do not overlook this! Note: Having trouble finding the right insurance? Not sure where to start? You're not the only one. Finding the right insurance professional that can advise on the right amount of insurance, structure the beneficiaries, integrate this into your plan is harder than it sounds. Insurance companies train their agents to maximize opportunities ( e.g. sell you the most insurance you will buy). They're not focused on goal oriented product placement (giving you only what you need to accomplish your goals). So we built one. As a brokerage we can look across the market to get you the best coverage at the best price. To take a look, and start the process learn more about life insurance see this post for more details.
Step 5: I Named Short-Term Guardians.
This is another overlooked item in estate planning.
If something happened to both of us suddenly, I didn’t want my children being temporarily placed in foster care while courts decided what to do.
So I created a document naming short-term guardians — trusted friends and family members who can step in immediately until our long-term guardians arrive.
Our long-term guardians were legally nominated in our trust, but this short-term plan ensures no gap in protection.
Step 6: I Created a Durable Power of Attorney.
What if I become incapacitated and can’t manage my finances? A durable power of attorney allows someone I trust to:
Pay bills
Access accounts
Handle real estate or legal matters
The best thing is that it it only becomes active if I need it (if I’m incapacitated), and it terminates when I don't (when I recover). That’s intentional — these documents are powerful and must be carefully drafted.
Step 7: I Created an Advanced Health Care Directive.
Just like finances, medical decisions need a backup plan.
If I’m unconscious or unable to speak for myself, this directive:
Appoints someone I trust to make medical decisions
Includes instructions about life support and end-of-life care
Lists backups in case my primary person is unavailable
This prevents delays in treatment and spares my family from agonizing uncertainty.
Step 8: I Review My Plan Every 2-3 Years
Estate planning isn’t “set it and forget it.”
Families grow
Laws change
Life circumstances shift
Relationships change
So I review everything — my trust, guardians, insurance, and powers of attorney — every couple of years, or after a major life event. Since I created my plan in 2018, shortly after the birth of my first child, I have already changed and updated it at least 4 times. In that time, my wife and I have moved had more children and experienced other major life events so I would say that is not typical, but just like your car or home, your plan needs maintenance to stay reliable.
Use this as Checklist & Work Through It
I created this Estate Planning Blueprint for California parents to protect their family, and refined it time and time again through working with hundreds of California families. Now, I have polished and finalized it (until I update it again). Stay organized, and use this as a checklist. Work through it step by step by step and your family will have a great and secure foundation.
TL;DR: 8-Step Family Protection Plan
Create a Revocable Living Trust - Avoid probate, stay in control, name successors and guardians.
Fund the Trust - Retitle your home, bank, investment accounts, and assets into the trust.
Buy Term Life Insurance for Parent 1 - Ensure financial security for your spouse and children with clear beneficiary setup.
Buy Term Life Insurance for Parent 2 (if applicable) - Purchase coverage for the other spouse to replace income, support childcare, and/or household continuity.
Name Short-Term Guardians (Both Parents) - Create a temporary guardianship plan to avoid gaps if both parents are suddenly unavailable.
Create a Durable Financial Power of Attorney (Both Parents)- Designate someone to manage bills, accounts, and legal tasks if you’re incapacitated.
Create an Advanced Health Care Directive & HIPAA Release (Both Parents) - Appoint a trusted decision-maker, outline care preferences, and authorize medical record access.
Review & Update Every 2–3 Years - Reassess your plan after major life events (births, moves, new policies) to ensure ongoing relevance.
