Probate and Trust Administration

Orange County, California, Trust Administration & Probate Attorneys

If you have been designated as the executor of a will, administrator of an intestate estate, or successor trustee upon the death of the original trustee under a revocable living trust, you will need dependable advice to fulfill the full range your duties in Probate Court, to trust beneficiaries, and in preparing accountings and tax returns.

At Schmiesing Blied Stoddart & Mackey, our probate attorneys have from 25 to 40 years of experience with the probate of wills, the post-death administration of trusts, and the successful winding up of estates. For a free consultation about our trust and estate administration services, contact us at any of our three Southern California offices.

Probate Administration

Our Orange County probate lawyers can advise you as to whether the estate you're responsible for needs to go through Probate Court supervision, or whether the assets can be distributed under the will or to statutory heirs without court involvement. We can also assist with the following essential estate administration functions:

• Prove the validity of the will
  
  
• Determine the need for Probate Court supervision
  
  
• Publish the estate to heirs and creditors
  
  
• Assemble and preserve assets and prepare and file an inventory of the estate
  
  
• Pay debts, assess and resolve claims against the estate
  
  
• Prepare and file estate tax returns
  
  
• Appraise and transfer real estate as necessary
  
  
• Distribute property and bequests to heirs and legatees under the terms of the will or the intestate succession statutes

Trust Administration

When a trust is created and funded, a trustee is responsible for preserving or investing its assets, distributing income to beneficiaries, filing tax returns, and other functions essential to the management of the trust's assets. When the trustee - who is often the trustor as well - under a revocable living trust or A/B trust dies, a successor trustee must be appointed, and must perform certain duties under deadlines in order to avoid tax liability and to protect the validity of the trust.

These responsibilities include making sure that the asset protection trust is properly funded and holds title to its ostensible assets, obtaining property values as of the date of death, preparing an inventory of the trustor's property, filing fiduciary tax returns, allocating assets to subtrusts as necessary, making distributions of trust income to beneficiaries, and many other duties.

At Schmiesing Blied Stoddart & Mackey, we have the experience and familiarity with post-death trust administration issues necessary to make sure that the tax advantages of tax planning trusts are not lost due to administrative mistakes after the trustor's death. For a free consultation about our ability to help your family with estate and trust administration matters both in and out of Probate Court, contact a probate attorney at any of our firm's Southern California offices.

The Orange County estate planning and probate attorneys at Schmiesing Blied Stoddart & Mackey, LLP represent clients with wills and trusts, charitable trusts and gifts, probate and trust administration, business formation and transactions, real estate, and adoptions. Our Southern California probate administration lawyers serve clients in Orange County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County, Anaheim, Irvine, Fullerton, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, Mission Viejo, Brea, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, other Inland Empire communities, and the Coachella Valley.