Who Knew? Who Should be Notified of a California Probate?

[Music] Hi those Keith Davidson with Albertson and Davidson in this video I want to discuss notification in probate estates if you open a California probate who do you have to notify that that estate has been opened and who has the duty to notify those people so let's start with who has to be notified when you open an estate in California pretty much the entire world has to be notified and there's a couple of ways that you go about doing that first of all if you have a will everybody named in that will has to get mail notice that the estate has been opened and there's a form for that it's form de 1:21 and you file you've you fill out that form you serve it on all of the people named in the will and then you file it with the court and that way everybody's been notified of the estate having been opened and that they can look and see what their rights are you have to also notify all known creditors as part of the probate process so you have to gather together any debts of the decedent and notify the creditors of the estate so that the creditors can file a creditors claim if they want to assert their claims and finally you have to serve notice in the newspaper you have to publish notice of the estate and that's how the rest of the world finds out about this estate it may seem old-fashioned to have to publish notice in a newspaper but that's what the law requires and the reason for that is so that any unknown creditors can come in and make a claim if they have a claim to make against that decedent it also notifies any other areas of law who may be their address isn't known their whereabouts is not known and so instead you notify everybody else who possibly could be interested in this estate through publication in a local newspaper not that anybody reads the newspaper anymore or even sees the publication but that's what the law requires now in terms of who should do this notice well then notice to the people named in the will and the notice for publication the newspaper that all has to be done by the person filing the petition asking the court to open the estate sometimes that's the named executor who's filing that potato sometimes it's one of the beneficiaries sometimes it's one of the creditors whoever's coming into the court and asking the court to open probate that's the person who's responsible for publishing notice and giving mail notice to all the named people in the will when it comes to notifying creditors that's the job of the executor once the executor has been appointed they have the duty to go out and locate any creditors and then notify them and so that's a little information about who has to be notified of a probate estate and who has the duty to notify. [Music] [Applause] [Music]