10/14/2026
Real estate investors: you're days from closing on your fifth property when escrow asks how you want to hold title.
It's a checkbox on a form. You've answered it four times already, the same way each time, and nobody has ever pushed back. So you put your name down, because that's the box everyone checks, and you get back to the funding deadline.
That's the moment I want to slow down.
Because when you pass away, property in your personal name doesn't pass to your beneficiaries directly.
It passes through probate court first.
A judge has to confirm the will, the transfer becomes part of the public record, and until it's finished, your loved ones can't sell, refinance, or borrow against the property.
In California that can take a long time. And the bigger the portfolio, the more of it is frozen.
A trust holding title instead avoids all of it. The work happens once, at your desk, instead of in a courtroom your family has to sit through.
If you're already holding property personally, retitling what you own is the place to start.
I walk through how to hold title so your properties never go through probate in my book, Estate Planning for Real Estate Investors.
Get a copy here: https://talailaw.com/estate-planning-for-real-estate-investors/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Demandii+short+form+social&utm_id=book+lead+magnet
