Shouldn’t those accounts be in your trust, not natural, name?
Even for homes, one doesn't need a will, nor a trust. Just make it "community property with a right of survivorship". What if both spouses die in some accident? A fix: joint tenancy with kids. Again, this creates a host of problems: what if a kid owes a lot of money to creditors? What if a kid files for bankruptcy? So, joint tenancy with kids is NOT recommended in such scenarios.
My brother passed this year and I paid an attorney about $1000 for some very basic templated documents on a probate-less estate in CA. The key was setting everything (before passing!) to have myself or the intended recipient as a beneficiary or joint owner. I further distributed the assets per his will and used the Small Estate process for what he had left.
Items my brother placed in my name are legally a gift and I’ll be filing gift tax paperwork in his final return. Note that the Gift Tax is not a paid tax in Federal returns, but a reduction in your Estate Tax exemption. This is still a zero tax transfer since my brother’s estate was no where near that exemption.
For what I further transferred, anything over the gift tax limit will eat into the portion of my Estate Tax exemption that is set to disappear in 2026. It’s low enough that it won’t materially affect me. If it’s extended and I manage to have my own $20MM estate there will definitely be trusts and distributions before I pass.
Estate planning isn’t difficult. Find a good CFP and/or Estate Lawyer and speak with them.
(The ~$40,000 is based on the fee for a sadly typical $2.5 million SF Bay Area home, bought before the interest-rate hike.)
In India, often times, multiple kids sell the same inherited property to different parties. Then, this property ends up in legal disputes. Often times, thugs buy such disputed properties, then kicking out other buyers who don't have the political/thug backing. Why such disputes arise in the first place? Dumb buyers, who don't demand the probate.
Probating a will takes time and money: you need to hire a lawyer; these lawyers want 10 percent of the estate or even more; and it takes some time. How to avoid this nonsense? Create another legal person/entity, called trust(treat trusts like companies with assets, stock holders, etc). Have the trust, transfer the ownership of land and real estate to that legal entity, establish trustee and beneficiaries. Dissolve the trust and distribute assets to beneficiaries, without involving the court or even lawyers.