PROBATE
Donner Legal Services does not wish to see anyone have to be involved the arduous and costly fiasco of a court monitored Probate, but if it is too late to take steps to avoid it, we do have the experience to help you with this process.
Probate is the legal process of transferring all of a deceased person's assets to their rightful heirs and/or designated beneficiaries.
The probate process involves:
1. Collecting and identifying the deceased person's property
2. Paying the estate’s debts and taxes
3. Identifying the rightful heirs and distributing the estate to them. While the court oversees this process, in most cases the work is done by the executor or the administrator of the decedent's estate with the help of an attorney.
If in the decedent's will, a person is named as the executor of the estate, there will have to be a court hearing to establish the validity of the will before he/she can legally act as the executor of the estate.
If there is no will and a person wishes to be the administrator of the estate, he/she must petition the court and be appointed before taking any action regarding the estate.
The costs associated with probate representation for the estate/administrator is a percentage of the value of the estate and governed by statute. (Cal. Probate Code §10810, §10811). The current cost (excluding extraordinary work) is below:
- 4% of the first $100,000 of the gross value of the probate estate
- 3% of the next $100,000
- 2% of the next $800,000
- 1% of the next $9 million
- .5% of the next $15 million
This is payable as part of the closing of the estate.