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When a person who had an estate plan passes away, their trust needs to be administered. At the Lepe Law Firm, we can assist you, the successor Trustee, to administer the Trust. As a Certified Legal Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law by the State Bar of California, we will guide you every step of the way to ensure that the Trust is administered in a timely fashion and that you, as the successor Trustee, comply with your fiduciary duty. The Lepe Law Firm administers all Trusts, including Trusts prepared by other law firms.
Probate Administration is required when a decedent passes away with or without a Last Will & Testament. The Lepe Law Firm can assist you to navigate the lengthy and complicated probate process. Although we would like to be able to assist everyone, we only accept probate administration matters where the estate assets appraise no less than $600,000.
The Lepe Law Firm also handles summary probate procedures, such as Spousal Property Petitions and Petitions to Determine Succession to Real Property, which do not have a minimum value requirement.
Requesting that the probate court review and admit the decedent’s Last Will and Testament is the purpose of filing a petition for probate. In most cases, this petition will include specific information like the name of the proposed executor, the deceased person’s family members, and the intended beneficiaries.
After the death of a spouse, a spousal property petition can be used to transfer assets from the deceased spouse to the surviving spouse or domestic partner. It is a simplified probate process and can take less to complete than proceeding with the full probate process.
Whether a property is included in a trust or not is a critical question that a probate court can solve. In California, a Heggstad Petition is a court process initiate to request that the probate court declare a particular piece of property a trust asset, even if the title to that property was not formally transferred to the trust.
In cases where the value of the decedent’s interest in real property falls under a certain amount, we are able to proceed with a summary probate process.
In the early stages of the Trust Administration process, a Statutory Notice needs to be sent out to the individuals entitled to notice.
In the administration of a Living Trust, either the assets are sold to pay off debts and the balance is distributed to the beneficiaries, or the assets are distributed to the beneficiaries.
