One plan, written for both states.

Two questions decide it

Where do you live?

Your home state’s law governs most of what you own: accounts, vehicles, business interests, and the community property rules that apply to a married couple. It also decides which statutory forms your powers of attorney and health-care directive should be written on, because those are the forms the hospitals and banks around you recognize.

Where is the real estate?

Land and houses follow the law of the state they sit in, whoever owns them and wherever the owner lives. A house in Truckee is a California matter. A rental in Sparks is a Nevada matter. If either is left in one person’s name, outside a trust, that state’s court handles it.

Five situations

Common cross-border situations and what usually follows

Your situation	What governs	What usually follows
You live in Nevada and own property in California	Nevada law for the plan; California law for the property.	One Nevada-based trust, with a California deed moving the property into it, drafted with California’s property tax rules in mind.
You live in California and own property in Nevada	California law for the plan; Nevada law for the property.	One California-based trust, with a Nevada deed recorded in the county where the property sits.
You moved from California to Nevada	Nevada law, from the day you became a resident.	A review. New powers of attorney and health-care directive on Nevada’s forms, a check of how each asset is titled, and a look at California tax provisions the trust no longer needs.
You moved from Nevada to California	California law, including its income tax and its rule for property acquired elsewhere.	A review, with more to talk through: California forms, who serves as trustee, and how the home will be treated when it passes to the next generation.
A parent lives across the line	The parent’s home state for the parent’s plan.	The parent’s plan is reviewed under their own state’s law. If you are named to act for them, the forms need to be the ones their hospital and bank expect.

The differences that change a plan

• Tax. Neither state has an estate or inheritance tax. Nevada has no personal income tax; California does, and it can reach a trust’s income depending on where the trustee and beneficiaries live.
• Property tax. California reassesses many homes at current value when ownership changes, and the exclusion for transfers from parent to child was narrowed by a 2020 ballot measure that took effect in 2021. Nevada has no rule of that kind.
• Forms. Each state has its own statutory power of attorney and health-care directive. The other state’s form is usually valid and is the one most likely to be questioned in an emergency.
• Probate. Both states supervise it through the courts and both offer shorter procedures for small estates, at thresholds that differ and change over time. In both, a funded living trust is how most homeowners stay out of it.

The full guide to California vs. Nevada estate planning goes through each of these in depth. The pages on Nevada estate planning and California estate planning cover each state on its own.

Jenny is admitted in both Nevada and California, so a plan that touches both states is drafted in one office.