What do you to handle a US Post Office Change of Address At Death for a Deceased Person?  That is, when a loved one dies how do you change their mailing address?  Furthermore, WHY would you want to change their address? Let’s address the latter question first.  If the person that died had only debts […]

Many people are unsure and unaware how attorney fees and court costs work in a California probate case.  With amazing house appreciation the last 10 years I wanted to talk a little bit about how house appreciation and probate costs work. This came to mind as I am working on a new matter where the […]

I decided to post this question as it’s been too long since I posted something new on here. I had been waiting to post Fixing or amending a California probate court order part 2 but that case is on the slow track due to the courts being so impacted because of Covid (or whatever their […]

A lot of attorneys call themselves a “probate attorney.”  My question to you is: do you want a “probate attorney” or a “probate court attorney?”  My suggestion is you make sure you get a California Probate COURT attorney. I’ll tell you the difference and why it matters. At the time of writing this post I […]

Make sure you are on official IRS webpage when applying for EIN or TIN! I was trading emails with a probate client today and he said he was going to apply for a tin (tax identification number) and showed me the link. I reminded him that we are happy to take care of it for […]

I am frequently asked about selling used cars when there is no probate – i.e. when the car is the only asset or one of the only asset. However, today I want to talk about selling used cars during a California probate. First of all it’s important to remember that the personal representative has a […]

I often have clients or potential clients who come to me to discuss when to open probate when their parents, or other loved one’s, house is almost upside down.  That is, what’s enough equity to make it worthwhile to file for probate?  Upside down, or when the mortgage balance is higher than the value of […]

I don’t know if my mom or dad had a will – what do I do?  I have been asked some version of this question countless times over the years. A recent one was something like, “my brother is living in dad’s house, he says dad gave him everything, I don’t know if there is […]

I have had a few cases recently where a person, who has now died, had been the beneficiary of a trust.  However, in all the cases the person who has now died never got their beneficial share from the trust before they died. So what happens?  When does a trust beneficiary require a probate in […]

If you are reading this page you probably had the question: “How quickly will I receive my California probate court ORDER?” There are many different probate court orders so we will talk about the two most common. Also, every county in California does things differently and in some cases majorly different. As I have a […]