Make a list of the decedent’s assets, debts, expenses and ongoing bills.

Are the assets titled in the name of the trust, or in the sole name of one or both of the decedents?

We review and deliver deeds to Successor Trustee with real property titling information and advice and help guide the Successor Trustee to accomplish the other part(s) of this task to keep everything in order.

The Successor Trustee needs to make records of all of their “out-of-pocket” expenses and any other trust expenses. Accounting is a very important task and should not be taken lightly. The Successor Trustee has a fiduciary responsibility to the Trust beneficiaries. The beneficiaries have a legal right to inspect the books and accounting, and unless they waive this requirement, you will need to produce a written accounting of all Trust receipts and expenses.

We obtain a new taxpayer ID from the IRS for the Successor Trustee to open a Trust Administration Bank account of their choice. The successor trustee will fund all assets and pay all debts from the Trust Administration Account. The “net” remaining after the dust settles is then distributed to the beneficiaries pursuant to the trust/law.

California Probate Code 16061.7 requires the Successor Trustee to send a notice to all Trust beneficiaries and potential heirs. The notification must comply with Probate Code Section 16061.7 and must be sent within 60 days of the date of death.

We prepare the legal Notification that complies with all requirements for the Successor Trustee’s signature. The Attorney’s team signs a proof of service and sends Notification with copies of trust pursuant to 16061.7 PC to the beneficiaries in compliance with California Probate Code.

Probate Code Section 8200(a) requires the custodian of the original Will to “lodge” it with the probate court within 30 days of death. “Lodge” is a fancy term for “File.” An original Death Certificate needs to be attached to the Will. Certain other local Superior Court requirements must be followed depending on the County in which the Will is being lodged.

We act as custodian and lodge the original Will with the Superior Court in the County where the decedent died on behalf of the Successor Trustee.

If either (or both) of Decedents were a recipient of Medi-Cal in California, the Department of Healthcare Services (“DHCS”) must be notified within 180 days of the date of death.

We prepare and process the official “DHCS” notice to the California Department of Health Care Services. This is sent to the main department office in Sacramento, not mailed or delivered to a local branch office. An original Death Certificate is included.

When we provide this notice to DHCS, they will send us an estate assets questionnaire to complete and return. This is so they may lodge a claim with you (the estate) for repayment of financial resources paid on decedent’s behalf.

If the decedents had a valid Living Trust, the questionnaire by law does not need to be filled out and returned. We deliver a copy of the decedent’s Living Trust for DHCS review and confirmation that there is no State Medi-Cal Recovery Lien due by estate.

If the decedent’s owned real property, deeding must be done to remove the decedent’s name from title and replace it with Successor Trustee’s name. If the decedent’s held property in Trust, an Affidavit of Death of Trustee w/Original Death Certificate must be completed and recorded with the property County Recorder. This gives the Successor trustee the authority to dispose of the property – sell, rent, transfer to an heir, etc.

We prepare the Affidavit of Death of Trustee and corresponding tax document entitled “Preliminary Change of Ownership Report.” We process by delivering the Affidavit personally to the County Recorder (if Santa Clara) and via mail (if other Counties).

The Death of Real Property Owner Statement is required to be filed with County Tax Assessor within 150 days of death of decedent. We prepare and file for the Successor Trustee.

This “Exclusion from Reassessment Transfer Between Parent and Child” document is filed with the County Tax Assessor if the transfer involves a primary residence transfer between parent and child and we are claiming the exemption. This is fact specific and tax-sensitive (property tax) and to be discussed with Attorney.

Filing this particular tax return may be important – fact sensitive. It depends on the size of your estate. The basic idea is that a deceased spouse can “port over” their estate tax exemption amount (that would otherwise die with them) to the surviving spouse, if needed, to double the estate tax exemption for the surviving spouse for estate tax reasons. This is very important and will be discussed with Attorney during Trust Administration process.

Again, we act as the manager to put together the right team to handle your Trust Administration properly and legally. A final income tax return for the decedent needs to be filed. If the decedent had a CPA or you have one, then you can use yours, or I have a CPA to work as part of the “Trust Administration” team to refer.

On the death of the decedents, they can no longer use social security numbers to report income. Depending on the type of assets and how soon the assets are distributed to the beneficiaries, you may need to file a Form 1041 fiduciary tax return. The return will report the income earned on the Trust assets from the date of death until the date the assets are distributed. This is another matter the CPA will handle.

Usually, the first thing to be disposed of is personal property. The successor trustee should deliver any such specific devises of personal property as soon as reasonably possible and have the recipients sign a receipt for the items.

Items not specifically noted for distribution may be equitably divided by the trustee among the beneficiaries, an estate sale can be held and the proceeds added to the Trust funds, or donated as appropriate.

If there are assets not titled in the Trust, such as small bank accounts, those accounts can usually be transferred using a Small Estate Affidavit (PC 13100), so long as combined value of such accounts are worth less than $184,500.

We prepare the Small Estate Affidavit and set-up a notary for client to execute same.

After you have paid off the liabilities of the Trust estate and liquidated the assets, you may be in a position to make a preliminary (or final) distribution to the beneficiaries. Sometimes, you may want to hold back enough funds (“reserve”) to pay for unknown and unexpected future bills. If you distribute all the funds right away, it may be difficult to ask the beneficiaries to pay some of the money back when an unexpected bill or expense crops up. When the dust settles and it is reasonable to believe there will not be any more expenses, you can make the final distributions.

We prepare a Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release that contains the facts of the Trust Administration, including amongst other things, an accounting of why each party is receiving what they are receiving under the terms of the Trust. The Mutual Release is contained in the Settlement Agreement that releases the Successor Trustee from further liability.

After all parties have signed and initialed the Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release, we then prepare and process check(s), prepare and process “beneficiary” deeds to change title to real property, etc., on behalf of the Successor Trustee and deliver same with receipts to the beneficiaries via certified mail with stamped return envelope for beneficiary to sign and return receipt. Upon return of all the receipts, the case is closed.

We highly recommend you get the beneficiaries to sign a receipt on each distribution. We also recommend you ask them to sign a waiver of further accounting. You should be able to give them a spreadsheet of the Trust accounting if requested, but by the time you make distributions, you should ask the beneficiaries to sign a waiver of further accounting. You don’t want them to scrutinize your accounting after they receive their distribution. We include the accounting as part of the Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release. If they want to examine the books, they should do so before the distributions so any issues can be resolved at that time.