What’s the difference between probate and trust administration or settling a trust?
Now they’re both similar in that the processes we go through when someone passes away to pass things on to the person’s chosen beneficiaries or heirs. Probate is a process where we ask a judge in probate court to sign off on who gets what. That can be based on a will that you have that tells us who should get what. The judge will sign that order or it can be based on generic intestate laws when you had nothing in place ahead of time.
Now the probate process is going to take in San Diego and average of 18 to 24 months to get through, and it’s going to cost a percentage of your estate in probate attorney fees, executor fees, probate referee fees. Then they’re separate filing fees, publication fees, and the costs really add up. So we say probate is an unnecessary time, money and headache for your beneficiaries, and just about all cases.
A trust administration process is a process you go through to pass your belongings onto the people of your choosing. But it’s done so based on a trust that was set up ahead of time while you were alive with a trust attorney in San Diego. Instead of going to court and asking a judge for permission, your chosen trustee is gonna step in, take control of the trust assets privately, and follow your wishes in the trust document.
That’s going to go much more streamlined than petitioning a court for permission. It’s going to cost way less money, even if a trust administration attorney in San Diego is hired to do everything for the trust and most importantly, it’s gonna remain private amongst your family. There’s no court petitions to follow to see who gets what. All of those nitty gritty details are going to be handled privately amongst your family. So in California, we urge everybody to make sure that their family is set up to go down the trust administration process as opposed to the longer, more burdensome probate process.
Now if you need help making sure that your estate plan is set up so that we can go down that easier, streamlined approach, always feel free to reach out to one our estate planning attorneys in San Diego. Give us a call, send us an email, send us a text when we’re happy to answer any questions and tell you exactly what you need to do to go down that route.
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