Probate Success Planning

If you’re the administrator of an estate, you will benefit greatly from having a qualified guide to help you navigate the court’s probate process. We’ll provide you with a step-by-step, customized plan enhanced by continuous support from our dedicated legal team to ensure you meet all your legal and financial responsibilities and successfully close your probate case as quickly and painlessly as possible.

These are just some of the probate requirements we help our clients accomplish:

• Filing the petition for probate and letters of administration (often referred to as “letters testamentary”) with the Court.
• Notifying creditors and publishing required legal notices.
• Conducting and filing an inventory of the deceased’s assets with the Court.
• Adhering to deadlines for all filings, notices, objections, and payments.
• Appearing at court hearings on our client’s behalf.
• Facilitating real estate or other property sales if necessary to pay debts or as desired before final distribution of assets.
• Preparing and overseeing the transfer of assets from the decedent to the beneficiaries.
• Maintaining the rights of beneficiaries and of creditors throughout the process.
• Avoiding unnecessary delays and keeping things moving forward.
• Limiting the legal liability of our clients throughout the process.

The Administrator can easily get overwhelmed with the many technical responsibilities and legal duties he or she must accomplish to successfully probate the estate. That’s where we come in; guiding the administrator, doing the heavy lifting, and making things as easy as possible for the administrator throughout the probate process. The bottom line is that we save our clients significant time, money, and stress all while protecting them from liability.

Both the administrator and the attorney are entitled to equal compensation under California Probate Code Section 10810. The formula for determining ordinary probate compensation is straightforward.

The Compensation in a probate case is calculated as follows:

4% of the first $100,000 of the gross estate value,
3% of the next $100,000 of the gross estate value,
2% of the next $800,000 of the gross estate value,
1% of the next $9,000,000 of the gross estate value,
½% percent of the next $15,000,000 of the gross estate value.

The probate court determines reasonable compensation for an estate valued at more than $25,000,000. Also, probate courts can – and typically do in more complicated cases – award additional compensation for extraordinary services performed during the course of probate process.

EXAMPLE: The statutory compensation for probating a California estate with a gross value of $500,000 is calculated as follows: 4% of the estate’s first $100,000 (which equals $4,000), plus, 3% of the estate’s next $100,000 (which equals $3,000), plus 2% of the estate’s remaining value of $300,000 (which equals $6,000). The sum total is $13,000 which means the attorney and the administrator are both entitled to $13,000 in compensation at the end of the probate process. Compensation is paid by the estate.