estate planning, living trusts, and REI.. new year resolution!

[Joe Kim]

Happy New Year! 2016 is here.

One of my new year resolutions for 2016 is finally do my estate planning and living trust.

I've got some questions for who have recently gone through this themselves.

#1 Are most probate/estate planning lawyers well versed in real estate?  Is it pretty routine since most people at least own their primary residence that need to be included in living trust

#2 How important is it to find a lawyer locally?  who knows the local state, county, city laws?   Does it matter if I find a lawyer in a different county or different region of my large state of residence (California).

#3  What special things can a living trust do for me in terms of tax savings, liability risk, etc.. (I know most of these questions will be addressed by the lawyer) but it's always nice to know as much as possible before you talk to a lawyer so that you have the right questions to ask.

thanks