Probate and Trust Administration
Probate: Probate is the court supervised process of transferring the assets of a deceased person to his/her beneficiaries. Probate is a necessity if the deceased person had a will, or did not have a will, and the total value of his/her assets is not less than $100,000. The entire process is governed by the California Probate Code.
It takes approximately about 9-18 months to complete the average probate estate, if there is no litigation among the beneficiaries of the estate. It usually starts with the will being "lodged" in a court that is nearest to the place of death or residence of the deceased person.

If the deceased person's will nominates an executor/ executrix, that nominated person may petition the court in proper (by him/her self) or through his/her attorney for authorization to administer the estate of the deceased person. If there is no will, it means the person died intestate, and the provisions of the Probate Code will determine who gets appointed to administer the estate. That person is called the Administrator of the estate.
The filing fee, the Personal Representative/Executor/ Administrator's fees and Attorney's fees are determined based on the value of the deceased person's estate.

We are very experienced in this area and have represented families and estates in probate cases in most of the Bay Area Counties, including: San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Marine, and Sacramento.
Our objective is to lessen the emotional and psychological trauma of losing a loved one by taking care of the inevitable legal consequences of that loss.

Trust Administration: This is a parallel process similar to probate that is used in transferring the assets of a deceased person(s) who had a trust before death, to his/her loved ones.

The significant difference between Probate and Trust Administration is that the latter (Trust Administration) is done privately, without court supervision (in most cases) by the designated successor trustee and his attorney. It is usually a faster process, and often is a seamless process if done by an attorney experienced in this area.

There is a general assumption that if someone has a trust, when they die, the assets are automatically transferred to their loved ones/ beneficiaries. That is not exactly a true statement.

The process of administering a trust has to be completed before distribution of its assets to the beneficiaries of the trust. It involves almost all the things that are done in probate, but may be done quicker because the courts are not involved, except for trusts that come under court supervision for a variety of reasons which are not addressed here.

Even though the successor trustee and attorney's fees are determined by the value of the trust estate, the fees are usually less than the attorney's fees for probate because they are negotiable.

We are very experienced in this area especially because of our knowledge of the tax laws, which are usually applicable for taxable trust estates, in the administration of family trusts which have A and B provisions. It involves a lot technical application of various provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, the California Revenue and Taxation Code, the Probate Code, and other related statutes to achieve a result intended to be accomplished when the trust was established. We have administered trusts for taxable and non taxable estates.

It is entirely possible for a non-attorney to represent the estate in Probate proceedings or Trust Administration. However, if he/she is not familiar with the rules it may lead to mistakes which may then need to be corrected by an attorney who is more familiar with the rules.