Settling an Estate or Trust in California

Most people have not been an Executor or Administrator before and so are walking in unaware to both the responsibilities and the emotions of settling an Estate or Trust. Plus most clients have a job and family to manage and at the same time dealing with the loss of their Loved One and that’s why I take a holistic approach to helping my clients, including offering access to estate settlement software to help with tracking and managing the process.

You will be approached by a wide range of people who either are not trained or may not have the Estate’s best interests as their highest priority so I would ask you to let me show you why I am different and can make the process easier and maximize the value to the Estate whether you want to sell fast or do more preparation for higher proceeds. ALL CASH OFFERS ARE NOT THE SAME!!

In California a Probate case can easily take one to two years to settle (excluding small estates). Much of this time is spent waiting during the Notice to Creditors period and collecting items to have a tax return prepared for the Decedent.

In the meantime the Probate/Trust attorney handles the legal process but there are so many other activities to be managed in estate and trust settlement and administration such as communicating with family members, securing and maintaining a property (including insurance and loan), managing or selling the personal belongings, deciding whether to sell any real property and if so preparing it for sale. Probate/Trust trained professionals like myself will make the process less overwhelming. An untrained Realtor or cash investor can unintentionally make costly mistakes by not following the documents or instructions correctly.

I have established a team of Estate Professionals in Los Angeles – San Fernando, Conejo and Simi Valleys that help with all aspects of estate and trust settlement and administration here locally no matter how small or how complex.

To help with all of this I offer estate settlement software to help you track key information, tasks and the accounting required. You can securely share access with family members, your attorney, any professionals helping with the estate, etc. There is no charge to my clients.

Below is a 30 day checklist to help you get started. You can download the pdf here to print it for use or use the estate management software instead.

30 Day Estate Settlement Checklist pdf