Blog Posts About Probate Law

What is an heir-at-law? What does that term mean in California under the California Probate Code? When people die intestate, meaning they die without a will or a trust, their assets pass to their heirs. There are other instances where we might use the term “heir.” For example, oftentimes, we’ll…

In California, most of our Trust laws, the laws that apply to Trustees, to Trust Administration, and to the distribution of assets to Beneficiaries, can be found in the California Probate Code.  You can find the California Probate Code by going online and searching Google for California Probate Code. One…

What is an Estate? It sounds like a relatively easy question. At least in my mind it does. But the answer is a bit more complicated. An Estate can mean a lot of different things. People often think that their Estate is all of the assets they own. And that…

Trustees and Executors are similar in many ways. They are both fiduciaries. A fiduciary is someone who is put in charge of someone else’s money. A Trustee is a fiduciary over a Trust, and an Executor is a fiduciary over a probate estate. Trustees are responsible for administering a trust…

Occasionally we see cases where a parent leaves all of their assets to a child with the understanding that the child will share the assets with the siblings. For example, a parent may name one child as a joint tenant on a house or bank account, and then expect that…

When is a Will a Will? When the court issues an order saying the Will is valid. Before that time, the Will is just a possible Will. In other words, Wills do not take effect, and have no power to control the distribution of an estate, until the court first…

Easy, just go to the court in the California County in which your loved one lived at the time of their death and ask for a copy because every Will is required by law to be lodge with the court after death.  Just kidding, people rarely lodge a Will with…

How Can I Go Through Probate With My Family Without Things Getting Hostile? That all depends on what you mean by “go through probate.”  If you are referring to the probate of a Will (or the administration of an estate without a Will), then you may be able to get…

Yes.  In America, you can take almost any legal action on your own, even representing yourself in court.  Of course, the old saying is “he who represents himself has a fool for a client.”  That may be true in some complicated legal matters, but there are plenty of simple legal…

Who should be notified when Probate begins in California and whose duty is it to notify them? Under California law, the entire world must be notified when probate begins in California, and it is the named executor’s job to do so, or the person filing to open probate.  But how…