Probate and Trust Law
Probate Administration
- If a person passes away with or without will and he or she owned personal and real property, more than likely the court- supervised legal process called probate will be necessary to transfer the property to the person's rightful heirs.
- Probate can be an intimidating process. Indeed, there are petitions to file and publish; a will that needs to be validated by the court; notices to serve on heirs and beneficiaries; bonds to file; estate property to inventory and appraise; debts and taxes to pay; and a myriad of strict laws that must followed at each step of the probate process.
- The attorneys at L&D have significant experience handling probate cases and regularly assist their clients to navigate the complicated probate administration process so that cases are completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
- The probate administration process is supposed to provide an orderly means to wind up a person's legal and financial affairs after death. However, this process is almost never straightforward. In some cases, disputes arise among family members, beneficiaries, and the individuals managing the deceased person's estate.
- L&D’s probate litigators and trial attorneys help their clients successfully resolve a wide-range of disputes that occur during the probate process. The scope of our probate litigation practice covers, but is not limited to, the following areas:
- Will contests
- Beneficiary claims
- Estate mismanagement
- Recovery of estate assets
- Breach of fiduciary duty claims against executor/administrator
- If a person dies and he or she has a living trust, then the successor trustee named in the living trust must administer the trust. The process of administering a living trust is similar to probate in many ways. The main difference, however, is that living trust administration is a private process whereas probate administration is a court-supervised process.
- Under California law, there are a number of steps that a successor trustee must take after a person dies with a living trust. At L&D, our attorneys are equipped to help successor trustees with trust administration from beginning to end, and can provide as much -- or as little -- assistance as needed.
- Trust litigation primarily falls into two categories. The first category focuses on disputes related to the validity and/or terms of the trust. The second category of trust litigation focuses on disputes related to the administration of the trust by the trustee.
- At L&D, our attorneys assist clients in all types of trust litigation. The scope of our trust litigation practice covers the following areas:
- Trust contests
- Beneficiary claims
- Trust accounting disputes
- Breach of fiduciary duty claims against trustee
- Trust misappropriation and mismanagement claims