Administering an estate may involve the handling of retirement assets. It is important to know what information you need to distribute the asset.
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At the start of a trust administration, trustees must give beneficiaries a Notice of Trust Administration. There are many advances to carrying out this step.
Under California trust law, trustees have a fiduciary duty to act in good faith with respect to the management of trust assets. When a trustee misappropriates funds from the trust for his or her own benefit or the benefit of another, he or she is committing theft.
For those beneficiaries and heirs unfamiliar with the California estate administration process, it is not always clear whether the executor or trustee is acting properly and in accordance with state law.
The answer to this question depends on several factors. In some cases, when a decedent had a living trust that owned all of his assets, it may be possible to conduct a trust administration that does not involve the probate court. In other cases, some assets may require a probate administration.
People listed as beneficiaries who are not members of the family of the deceased will usually be informed by the California probate court. However, this only applies if the will has been filed with the court upon death, which is the case if the assets have to go through probate.
Probate is the legal administrative process through which property from the estate of the deceased is transferred from the name of the deceased into the name of the inheritor. It is a court ordered transfer of property.
What you can legally do and what you should do as a beneficiary are not necessarily the same thing. If you are the only beneficiary than a formal trust administration may not be the best solution.
Whether or not you have to do a probate of your late spouse’s estate will depend on how title to your spouse’s property was held.
If the trustee of a family member’s trust won’t give you any information, send a written request to them. The trustee is obligated to provide each beneficiary with information.