Probate & Trust Administration
Probate Administration
If a person passes away with or without will and he or she owned personal and real property, more than likely the court- supervised legal process called probate will be necessary to transfer the property to the person’s rightful heirs.
Probate can be an intimidating process. Indeed, there are petitions to file and publish; a will to get validated by the court; notices to serve on heirs and beneficiaries; bonds to file; estate property to inventory and appraise; debts and taxes to pay; and a myriad of strict laws that must followed at each step of the probate process.
The attorneys at L&D have significant experience handling probate cases and regularly assist their clients to navigate the complicated probate administration process so that cases are completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Trust Administration
If a person dies and he or she has a living trust, then the successor trustee named in the living trust must administer the trust. The process of administering a living trust is similar to probate in many ways. The main difference, however, is that trust administration is a private process whereas probate administration is a court- supervised process.
Under California law, there are a number of steps that a successor trustee must take after a person dies with a living trust. At L&D, our attorneys are equipped to help successor trustees with trust administration from beginning to end, and can provide as much -- or as little -- assistance as is needed.