My mother who lives in California, had a living trust but she didn't want to keep it the same so she went to a legal secretary and had them make her a lst will and testament , does that replace the the living trust?
Answer
That depends. Are assets held in the name of the Trust? Does the will specifically revoke the Trust. You will need to have an attorney review the specific documents to advise you what the legal affect of the new Will could mean.
Answer
If a "legal secretary" really drafted a Will for your mother, that person
was practicing law without a license, which is illegal.
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Another important point is that if your mother doesn't want a trust, and her trust was revocable (that is, she had the right to change it) then not only should she revoke the trust, she should make sure that none of her assets are still named within the trust and the trust isn't named as the beneficiary of any life insurance or retirement accounts or other assets.
Also, she needs a durable general power of attorney and and advance health care directive so that someone she trusts can make legal, financial and medical decisions if she were to become incapacitated.
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The factors others have described are important. Unfortunately counsel (and perhaps a court) would need to see the documents to try to determine what their effect is.
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