Welcome
Little Saigon Living Trust
We specialize in living trusts - helping families take care of families.
About Us
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Greg Johnson
Greg has a law degree and passed the California Bar Exam on the first time. Instead of practicing law, however, he decided to specialize in setting up living trusts for typical family situations.
Western State Univ. College of Law, J.D., May 2004
California Bar Exam, passed, July 2004
Greg and Lan-Anh opened the office in Little Saigon over ten years ago and have hundreds of satisfied clients.
We see clients by appointment only. This allows flexibility in scheduling. Often, weekend appointments are available. Because we have a good reputation, we have clients from San Diego to San Jose in addition to OC, LA, Riverside and San Bernardino.
Typically, the only documents we need at the time of an appointment are Grant Deeds to the properties that the client wishes to place in the trust.
Call (714) 912-8500
Lan-Anh Benjamin
Lan-Anh has a degree in molecular genetics from UCLA, an MBA, law school training and 15 years experience setting up living trusts. You will hear Greg say without reservation that Lan-Anh is one of the smartest people he knows.
Lan-Anh opened the office in Little Saigon over ten years ago with Greg ... it was her idea (and Greg listened) ... and together they built a successful professional practice with hundreds of happy clients. It works because they care to do the right thing for their clients. While Greg is limited to the English language, Lan-Anh speaks perfect English and Vietnamese. It works.
We see clients by appointment only. This allows flexibility in scheduling. Often, weekend appointments are available. Lan-Anh also has a lot of client meetings using Zoom.
Typically, the only documents we need at the time of an appointment are Grant Deeds to the properties that the client wishes to place in the trust. If you can't find the deed, we can usually get it from a title company.
Call (714) 912-8500
Helping families take care of families
We specialize in living trusts for typical family situations.
We specialize in helping families to set up their living trusts. Our clients know what they want ... to be able to pass property easily and efficiently to their children or others when the time comes.
We specialize in helping families by drafting the trust documents, the deeds, getting things signed and notarized, and getting the deeds recorded in the county recorder offices most anywhere in the country. We walk each step of the way with you.
FAQs
Q: What is a living trust?
A: A living trust is a way to pass property to someone when the time comes, and it is intended to avoid the cost and delay of probate. The goal is to set up a method where children and others will not have to go through an expensive and lengthy process to get what you want them to have.
Q: I'm young ... why should I have a living trust?
Many young families with young children care to make sure that not only will the property be taken care of but also their children will be taken care of. Actually, young families with young children are a special risk category because if something bad happens, the young children are in an especially difficult situation. It's tough enough with older or full-grown children. But it's especially difficult when the children are small. We understand that none of this is pleasant. But we also understand that wise people make reasonable preparations because those situations really do happen.
Q: Should I wait?
It's your decision, of course. Several times every year an adult child will bring a parent to set up a living trust ... but it's too late. If the parent is suffering from Alzheimer's and is no longer mentally capable, we have to decline.
Q: How will I know much everything will cost?
A: We charge a flat rate to set up a trust for the typical family situation, and we charge for each deed we make that puts property into your trust. When we know your situation, and the number and location of properties, we will give you a precise quotation of all charges. There will be no surprises. We want our clients to be fully informed.
Q: Why does it cost so much? After all, it's just paper.
A: Charges are for time, not for the number of pages. And that includes time to listen and learn about what you have and what you want to do, answer your questions about how the process is done, prepare draft documents, communicate with clients via phone and email and text message (actually quite a lot), review with the client and edit, prepare final documents, go with clients to get things signed and notarized, and get the deeds recorded. Unlike a lot of offices that have a non-professional staff, we do not delegate any of the tasks to someone else in the office to do. We do everything ourselves.
Q: Can't I just do this myself?
A: The short answer is yes. The smart answer is probably no. If you understand real property, community property, property tax issues, trusts and wills, probate, and have enough experience so that you truly know what you are doing, then there is an almost zero chance you can do everything correctly.
In all my years, however, I have yet to see even one person bring to me a living trust they have done on their own that was correctly written and properly funded - not one. For contrast, you can amend your tax return if you mess it up. But if you mess up your living trust, nobody is likely to know it until you are gone and then your children are going to be stuck in a mess that you created.
You are our client in the office, and we truly care about our clients. We also care about your children and want things so they can get the property with the least amount of burden and expense.
I find it useful for people to consider whether they would hire someone to write up a contract for a long-term disposition of million-dollar properties when that person was neither educated, nor trained nor experienced in the matter. I would never hire anyone who was so grossly incompetent. If you think you are smart enough to do something important for which you have no education, training or experience ... we probably will decline to accept you as a client, anyway.
Q: If I have a revocable living trust, can I change it? How much will it cost?
A: A revocable living trust can be amended by the Trustor. From time to time clients will sell their primary residence and buy a new home or take on an additional property. The Trust will be amended, and the property will be deeded into the trust. That takes time. Our charges reflect the time required to do things, and our rates are fair. What will the charges be in 5 or 10 years? I have no idea, but our charges will be fair. We respect the people we choose to work with, and we want them to respect us, too.
Q: Will you do an irrevocable living trust for me?
A: No. I will not do an irrevocable living trust. I understand that irrevocable living trusts get a lot of hype on the local TV and radio stations "asset protection" "Dynasty trusts" I have yet to see a client who understands the reasons for and limitations of an irrevocable living trust. And once you set it up, it's almost impossible to get out of.
Be careful.
There are a lot of slippery guys in skinny ties out there. Think of what your kids may end up having to do if you end up going to a smooth-talking scammer while trying to save a few dollars. So If your children end up in probate because you went to some cheap scammer, you should know that the cost of probate on a $1 million house is likely to be around $30,000 and tie up the property for a couple of years. Is that really where you want your children to end up?
One more thing ... there are times when we have to tell people that we may not be the best fit for them. There are folks who listen to scammers on TV, radio and YouTube and who believe some of the nonsense. I learned a long time ago that some folks will hold onto absolutely silly beliefs. So, there are times when we have to decline accepting a client.