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Estate Planning Attorney in San Anselmo, CA | Matthew W. Harris, Esq., LLM

If you own a home in San Anselmo, Fairfax, or anywhere in Marin County, there’s a good chance your estate will need to go through California’s probate process when you pass away, unless you have a plan in place. That’s not a scare tactic. It’s just math. California’s probate threshold is now $208,850 (effective April 1, 2025). Most Marin County homes are worth many times that. Without a trust or proper planning, your family faces a court process that can drag on 12 to 18 months, cost 4 to 7 percent of your estate’s gross value in statutory fees, and become a matter of public record.

That’s where Matthew W. Harris, Esq., LLM comes in.

Based in San Anselmo and serving all of Marin County, Matthew Harris is a licensed California estate planning attorney with both a Juris Doctor (J.D.) and a Master of Laws (LLM) with a focus on taxation and estate law. That extra degree isn’t a credential for show. It means when your plan involves tax strategy, business succession, or a larger estate, you’re working with someone who’s studied those issues at a graduate level, not just picked them up along the way.

What Estate Planning Actually Means (and Why Most People Put It Off)

Estate planning is the process of deciding, right now, what happens to your money, your property, and your family if you become incapacitated or die. It covers who makes medical decisions for you if you can’t, who manages your finances, who raises your kids, and who gets what when you’re gone.

Most people know they need it. Most people still don’t have it.

Here’s the honest reason: it feels like a project for later. It brings up topics nobody wants to think about. And frankly, a lot of estate planning attorneys make the process feel stiff, expensive, and confusing.

That’s not how this works here. Matthew Harris walks you through exactly what you need, explains the tradeoffs in plain English, and puts together a plan that actually fits your life. Whether you’re a young family in Fairfax worried about guardianship for your kids, a couple in Ross who just refinanced and want to get the house into a trust, or a business owner in San Rafael thinking about succession, the approach is the same: clear, personal, and practical.

Why Marin County Homeowners Can't Afford to Wait

Marin County has some of the highest home values in California. A home in San Anselmo, Corte Madera, Tiburon, or Larkspur is almost certainly worth well over $1 million. Even a modest home in the area clears the $208,850 probate threshold by a wide margin.

That means your family, without a trust in place, will deal with:

  • Mandatory court supervision of the entire estate
  • Attorney and executor fees calculated on the gross value of the estate, not the equity
  • A process that’s publicly accessible to anyone
  • Delays of a year or more before beneficiaries receive anything

A properly funded revocable living trust eliminates most of that. It’s not a complicated plan. It’s a straightforward one. The hard part is actually getting it done.

Estate Planning Services in San Anselmo and Marin County

Wills

A last will and testament is the foundation of any estate plan. It states who gets your property, names an executor to carry out your wishes, and, if you have minor children, names a guardian. Without a will, California’s intestate succession laws decide all of that for you. The state doesn’t know your family. You do.

A will alone won’t avoid probate, but it’s still a critical document in every plan. In most cases, it works alongside a living trust as a “pour-over will” to catch anything not already transferred into the trust.

Revocable Living Trusts

A revocable living trust is the single most effective tool for avoiding probate in California. When your assets are titled in the name of your trust, they pass directly to your beneficiaries after your death, without going through probate court. Your family gets access quickly, privately, and without the court fees.

You remain in full control of the trust during your lifetime. You can change it, add to it, or revoke it at any time. The trust only becomes irrevocable at your death.

One thing to know: a trust only works if it’s funded. That means your home, bank accounts, and other assets actually need to be retitled into the trust’s name. This is a step a lot of people miss when they try to do this on their own. Matthew Harris makes sure the funding happens correctly.

Powers of Attorney

A durable power of attorney names someone you trust to handle financial and legal matters if you become unable to do so. Without one, your family may need to go to court to get conservatorship, which is time-consuming and expensive.

This document is especially important for older adults in the North Bay area, blended families, and anyone who travels or spends extended time away.

Advance Healthcare Directives

An advance healthcare directive tells your doctors and loved ones what medical treatment you do or don’t want if you can’t speak for yourself. It also names a healthcare agent to make those calls for you.

Combined with a HIPAA authorization, this document gives your healthcare agent access to your medical records so they can actually advocate on your behalf.

Irrevocable Trusts and Tax Planning

If your estate is large enough to warrant it, an irrevocable trust can move assets permanently out of your taxable estate. This includes vehicles like irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), charitable remainder trusts, and others.

The federal estate tax exemption is $13.61 million per person as of 2024, which means most Marin County families won’t owe federal estate tax. But California has no state estate tax yet, and that can change. Matthew Harris holds an LLM specifically in this area, so if tax minimization is a goal, you’re working with the right person.

Special Needs Trusts

A special needs trust lets you leave assets to a disabled family member without affecting their eligibility for Medi-Cal, SSI, or other government benefits. Getting this wrong can disqualify your loved one from the very programs they depend on. This requires careful, precise drafting, and it’s exactly the kind of work that benefits from specialized legal knowledge.

Business Succession Planning

If you own a business in Marin County, your estate plan has to address what happens to that business when you step back or pass away. Who takes over? How is it valued? What happens to your partners or co-owners? Without a succession plan, the business can be disrupted, sold under pressure, or tied up in probate. Matthew Harris works with business owners to build plans that protect both their family and the business they’ve built.

Medi-Cal Planning

Long-term care is expensive. A skilled nursing facility in the Bay Area can cost $15,000 or more per month. Medi-Cal planning is the legal process of structuring your assets so that if you need long-term care, you qualify for government assistance without losing everything you’ve saved. Done early, this kind of planning can protect your home and savings while still getting you the care you need.

Trust and Probate Administration

If a loved one has passed away, Matthew Harris can help you administer their trust or navigate the California probate process. Trust administration is often straightforward if the plan was drafted well. Probate is more involved, but having an experienced attorney guide the process makes a real difference.

Who This Practice Serves

Matthew Harris works with a wide range of people in San Anselmo and across Marin County:

  • Couples and individuals who own a home and want to keep their estate out of probate
  • Parents of minor children who need to name guardians and protect their kids’ inheritance
  • Business owners in San Rafael, Novato, and the surrounding area who need succession planning
  • Blended families where default inheritance laws could cause real problems
  • Older adults in Sausalito, Mill Valley, and Greenbrae who want long-term care and Medi-Cal planning
  • High-net-worth individuals with larger estates who need tax-minimization strategies
  • People who already have a trust but haven’t updated it in years

If you had a trust drafted before 2020, it’s worth a review. California law has changed. Your life has probably changed too.

Serving San Anselmo and All of Marin County

Matthew W. Harris, Esq., LLM serves clients in San Anselmo and throughout Marin County, including San Rafael, Fairfax, Ross, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, Tiburon, Sausalito, Larkspur, Greenbrae, and Novato.

The office is accessible from Downtown San Anselmo and the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard corridor, with easy access for clients across the North Bay region.

Take the First Step

Getting an estate plan doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Most people feel a real sense of relief once it’s done.

Matthew Harris offers a free initial consultation to talk through your situation and give you a clear picture of what you need. No pressure, no confusing legal jargon. Just a straightforward conversation about your family, your goals, and what a good plan looks like for you.

Call today or schedule your free consultation online.

Frequently Asked Questions

A will is important, but it doesn’t avoid probate. In California, if your estate is worth more than $208,850 and assets are held in your name alone, your estate will go through probate court regardless of what your will says. A revocable living trust, properly funded, is what actually keeps your estate out of court. Most people in Marin County who own property need both.

It depends on what you need. A basic plan for a single person might include a revocable trust, pour-over will, power of attorney, and advance healthcare directive. A plan for a couple with a home, children, and a retirement account will be more involved. Matthew Harris offers flat-fee estate planning, so you know what you’re paying before the work starts. Schedule a free consultation to get a clear answer for your situation.

Your estate goes through probate, and California’s intestate succession laws decide who gets what. If you’re married, your spouse inherits most assets, but not all, and it depends on whether property is community or separate. If you’re not married, the rules get complicated fast. If you have minor children and no named guardian, the court appoints one. You don’t get a say.

Joint tenancy does let property transfer to the surviving spouse outside of probate. But when the second spouse dies, the property is in their name alone, which almost certainly means probate. A living trust handles this more cleanly, keeps both spouses protected, and accounts for what happens if you both pass at the same time.

You can, but it carries real risk. Online forms don’t know California law the way it applies to your specific situation. They won’t help you fund the trust. They won’t catch the fact that your beneficiary designations conflict with your plan, or that your community property rules change how assets should be titled. People who show up with “do-it-yourself” estate plans often have documents that won’t hold up or that create exactly the problems they were meant to prevent. An attorney-drafted plan done right is worth it.

At a minimum, review it after any major life change: marriage, divorce, a new child or grandchild, a move, buying or selling property, a significant change in your finances, or the death of a trustee or beneficiary. Even if nothing has changed in your life, reviewing every three to five years is a good practice. California law changes, and your plan should reflect current rules.

Possibly. Trusts drafted before Proposition 19 (effective 2021) may not account for the major changes to property tax reassessment rules. If your trust was drafted more than five years ago, or if your assets have changed significantly, it’s worth having Matthew Harris take a look. Trust amendments and restatements are a regular part of this practice.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER:

The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, in any way an attorney-client relationship. Matthew W. Harris, Esq., LL.M is a California lawyer in good standing with the State Bar of California. Matthew W. Harris is admitted to practice only in California. Mr. Harris is not licensed to practice in any other jurisdiction.