With lawyerly detachment, Bezaire pressed the law firm’s case against probate.

Confronting the nuts-and-bolts details surrounding one’s own death cannot be life’s most appealing task. But when a law firm that concentrates on estate planning recently began a public campaign to get people to do just that, it found an eager audience.

The law firm is giving a series of public lectures around the city based on the premise that ordinary people, as well as the rich, can make the distribution of their estates a happier affair by keeping it out of the courts.

About 150 mostly middle-aged and elderly people nearly filled the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors auditorium in Reseda one evening last week to hear the lecture on wills.

They listened intently, many taking notes, as an attractive young woman with short black hair, olive skin and a strong, penetrating voice urged them to become a part of what she called at one point “a movement to eliminate probate.�

The speaker was Maria Bezaire of Bezaire & Bezaire, a law firm started by her father in the San Gabriel Valley. It recently opened an office in Studio City.

The firm specializes in preparing what is called the revocable living trust.

Bezaire described the living trust as a method for holding title to property that makes probate unnecessary by allowing the heirs of the person who has one to simply go to the bank and take the money or go to the county recorder and write up a new deed for the house.

With lawyerly detachment, Bezaire pressed the law firm’s case against probate, the common method of settling an estate.

First, she said, it takes a long time, at least nine months.

“Two years is not unusual; three years is not unusual,� she said. “So the assets are tied up all during that period of time. . . . It’s an extremely technical procedure, all at a time when they need all the emotional resources to deal with their own problems.�

And then she brought up the big issue.

“But, in addition to that time and frustration, is the hard, cold cash,� she said. “Probate fees are based on the gross value of the estate--that’s the value of the estate before the debts are paid--and run approximately 6% to 10%.�

Bezaire gave an imaginary example showing what that can mean to a suburban couple.

“Let’s say they want to leave that home to their children, and let’s say that the home has an $80,000 mortgage on it. In order to leave that home to the children, the children are going to pay probate fees based on the full $100,000� value of the house, she said. “They’re going to have to pay about $6,700 in probate fees. . . . If the kids can’t reach in their own pockets and come up with that $6,700, then the property will have to be sold in order to come up with the probate fees,� Bezaire said.

After explaining how the revocable living trust avoids this, Bezaire asked if there were any questions.

There were dozens. Most of the people in the audience obviously had acquired some knowledge about these matters but seemed confused by all the terms.

They asked her to explain such things as the Clifford trust, the Totten trust and the inter vivos trust.

Others asked questions about problems of their own.

One woman, without revealing which way she expected it to go, asked if she could set up a trust so that either she or her spouse could change the heirs after the other died.

Bezaire said she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do that, but that they could.

Someone also asked about the wisdom of owning a home as community property to avoid probate. Bezaire said it would work, with one slight hitch, that each co-owner can will half the property separately.

“You could find yourself in the very uncomfortable position of being the co-owner of a piece of property with your husband’s mistress that you didn’t know about,� she said.

Other benefits that Bezaire attributed to living trusts included the possibility of breaks on inheritance and property taxes and the ability to keep private information private.

To illustrate the last point, she reminded the audience that the estate of John Wayne is now in probate in Orange County.

“Any one of us could go to the probate court, look up his file and know everything there is to know about his estate,� Bezaire said. “What were the debts, what were the assets, who said what about whom, who got what.�

Bing Crosby’s case was different.

“When he died, all that was announced was that Mr. Crosby had a living trust and there will be no further information made public and that’s it,� Bezaire said. “There was no information made public except what the family wanted the public to know.�

No one in the audience seemed to care that the world will never know how Bing Crosby spent his money. Their concerns were more immediate.

After the lecture ended, a small crowd huddled around Bezaire to ask more questions.

Waiting until all the others had left, two elderly sisters stepped up. They explained that they owned an apartment building jointly and were worried that everything would go haywire when one of them died.

They asked Bezaire if she could set up their estate so that, when one of them died, the other would keep full control of the property but still could not cut out her dead sister’s children.

Bezaire said reassuringly that she could.

“That’s our big problem, and, if you could do that, we’ll love you forever,� one of them said.

They smiled warmly, promised to go to see her, then walked out together.