When both probate and trust administration are necessary in California

It's absolutely possible to have a probate and trust administration for the same decedent in California. This happens for a very simple reason, some or all of the assets were never put into the trust or assets in the trust were taken out of the trust. Here's an example. Our client's mother passed away. Before she died she created an estate plan. Her estate plan included both a will and a trust. Even though she created an estate plan our client's mother never transferred her home into her trust. Our client lived in Carlsbad but his mother lived in Lake Arrowhead. So our client first had to do a probate in San Bernardino County of his mother's home. Because her will was a "pour over" will, at the conclusion of probate the court ordered her home to be transferred to the trustee of her trust. Our client, who had just completed probate in San Bernardino now had to begin trust administration in San Diego.

Probate and trust administration may also be necessary because a home was refinanced. What happens during the refinance is you are told that your home has to be in your name. So, you take it out of your trust to do the refinance. What the lender never tells you is, now that you've completed the refinance, it is time to convey your house back into your trust. When the house is out of the trust, and the borrower dies, the house will need to go through probate. If there is a pour over will then the house will go back into the trust and be administered according to the terms of the trust. The same thing happens with liquid assets like bank accounts and mutual funds. People who have a living trust who close one account and open another one don't always remember to open the new one in the name of their trust, rather than their names as individuals.


The Grossman Law Firm, A.P.C. are Riverside, California probate lawyers.  We help probate estates in Riverside County, California.  We appear in the Riverside probate court for cases in the area bounded by Temecula, Corona, and Banning, California.  We appear in the Palm Springs/Indio probate court for cases from Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, and Indio, California.  If you  would like more information on probate and trust administration then order our free book The Insider's Guide to California Probate and Trust Administration as well as our free DVD Probate a Will or Administer a Trust After the Death of a Loved One.