Taking on the role of a trustee or executor can be daunting—and for good reason! With so many responsibilities and legal requirements, checking all the necessary boxes can feel overwhelming. In this episode of Absolute Trust Talk, we continue our discussion on trustee and executor duties, focusing on the critical importance of notices. For instance, the trustee’s or executor’s responsibility is to ensure that all beneficiaries and heirs are properly notified of the decedent’s passing. And that’s just the beginning. If you’ve recently been named a trustee or executor, you won’t want to miss the valuable insights in this episode. Tune in now!
Time-stamped Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
1:40 Did you know that when someone passes away, a notice must be sent to beneficiaries and heirs?
3:20 An often overlooked but essential notice must be sent to the Department of Health Care Services, even if the deceased wasn’t receiving Medi-Cal.
5:20 If the estate includes real property, notifying the assessor’s office is a must. Press play now for what you need to know.
6:18 What if there are multiple properties spread across different counties? Listen in for Jessica’s key tip on handling this situation.
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Absolute Trust Talk. I’m Kirsten Howe. This is our video and audio podcast here at Absolute Trust Counsel. I’m here with Jessica Colbert, one of our associate attorneys. We are doing what I think is part two of – I don’t know how many episodes – we’re going to be talking about trustee and executor do’s and don’ts. We have found this to be an extraordinarily popular topic. It’s one of the most-watched series on our YouTube channel. I think there’s a lot of need for education out there. There are also a lot of do’s and don’ts we could talk about for a long, long time. So, we will go back to this topic today and probably again in the future to cover some more trustee do’s and don’ts.
Today, we’re going to be talking about notifications. These are things that our trustee clients often come to us with. Sometimes, they come to us right away – Mom died on April 13th, and we are meeting with the client on April 25th right away. Then there are trustees who work away doing their job without our help for about a year, and then they come in and discover there are things that they should have done and haven’t done. We’re going to help them do it. The first thing we discover is this category of things we call notices.
Jessica, talk to us about one of the common notices that our trustee clients don’t know about and, therefore, don’t take care of.
Yeah, so one notice that the trustee must send out is a very specific notice to the trust beneficiaries and the heirs of the decedent. This notice goes out and says that the person who created the trust has died, the trust is now irrevocable, and these people are entitled to a copy of the trust. It also, very importantly, starts a 120-day deadline where those people can challenge the trust. We like to get these notices out as soon as possible and get that clock running so that once those 120 days are up, we know that no one will be challenging the trust.
Yeah, that’s what we do in our office first when we get hired. We hurry up and get those notices out even before we start doing other things that we also have to do. That’s usually our focus – let’s get that clock running so that our trustee, our client, can finish their job. We don’t want them distributing money out to the beneficiaries until they’ve done that. Sometimes, when they come to hire us, they’ve already distributed some money but haven’t done that. Then you have to hope that everybody’s happy in the family and they get along, and there’s not going to be a challenge once you send the notice out. The Trustee Notice is very important and often overlooked.
Now, in the notice category, there’s another one that we find our clients tend to need to learn about and know what they’re supposed to do. Do you want to talk about that?
Yes, another notice is that anytime someone in California dies, this notice must go to the Department of Health Care Services. If the decedent received Medi-Cal, the Department of Health Care Services could claim their estate to recover that. But if they didn’t, we’ll typically get a letter back saying there is no claim. Regardless, this notice does need to go to the Department of Health Care Services.
Right. So, it’s not the case that you get to decide. You have to provide that notice. You must send that notice even if you know your mom wasn’t on Medi-Cal. The thing that’s interesting to me and that happens so often is we tell the client. We tell our trustee client we have to do this notice. First of all, as the attorney for the trustee, we have our own separate requirement that we provide the notice. The statute says that we ourselves have to do that. So, we have to do it. We have to do it, and we do it for you as well.
What’s interesting is that a lot of people say, “Oh, well, I’m sure they were notified. The funeral home notified Social Security.” Yes, that’s what the funeral homes do. That doesn’t mean the California Department of Health Care Services got a notification. A very intelligent question I get from our trustee clients is, “Well, but the county produced the death certificate. Why? Of course, they know my mom died.” No, these separate departments do not communicate with each other. The county issues the death certificate, but that doesn’t mean that the state Department of Health Care Services knows anything about that. So it’s a separate thing. We have to do it.
The last one is a little more logical. Clients get this one. This notice is to yet another government agency. When someone who owns real estate dies in the county, the assessor’s office has to be notified. We prepare a very specific notice and send it to the assessor’s office.
Can you guess why? The reason is that anytime somebody dies, there’s an opportunity for the property to be reassessed and, therefore, for the property taxes to go up. They require that you notify them. You can’t just hang onto that property and hide behind the fact that you don’t need to do a probate or something like that. You are required to notify the assessor’s office and just let them know somebody has died. It doesn’t mean the property will be reassessed, but you must let them know.
Jessica, is there anything you want to add to that?
Yes, I think it’s important to note that if the decedent owned real property in multiple counties, each county gets that notice.
Yeah, that’s a good point. It’s the same notice – it’s a form – but you’ve got to send it to each assessor where the decedent owned real estate. That is a very good point. I appreciate that expansion.
All right, I hope you got a lot out of this. We are very grateful that you joined us, and I think this conversation about trustees and executors’ dos and don’ts will be a long one. There will be many more episodes, so come back.
We look forward to connecting with you next time.
Resources Related to This Episode:
- Absolute Trust Talk Episode 144: Navigating Trustee and Executor Responsibilities: Best Practices and Pitfalls
- Absolute Trust Talk Episode 142: Navigating Trust Administration with Real Property https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/142-navigating-trust-administration-with-real-property/
- Absolute Trust Talk Episode 141: Managing Real Estate Assets as a Trustee https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/141-2/
- Absolute Trust Talk Episode 090: Choosing a Trustee – How to Get It Right https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/090-choosing-a-trustee-how-to-get-it-right/
- Absolute Trust Talk Episode 070: Trustee Do’s and Don’ts Part Two https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/070-trustee-dos-and-donts-part-two/
- Absolute Trust Talk Episode 44: Estate Administration: Executor and Trustee Dos and Don’ts https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/044-estate-administration-executor-trustee-dos-donts/
- A Will is Not Enough – Securing Your Legacy with Estate Planning Life can change in an instant. A will is not enough to be prepared. Get free access to our actionable E-book Guidebook #1 and start protecting your legacy today. https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/guidebooks/
- Learn how to comfortably define gray areas and assess your own unique needs to effortlessly build a secure future now. Check out Guidebook #2, Estate Planning Beyond the Basics, here > https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/guidebooks/
- Get our free introductory guide to the most used estate planning tool, family trusts, and understand how we plan to help protect your family. Guidebook #3: https://absolutetrustcounsel.com/guidebooks/
- Absolute Trust Counsel would love to offer access to our Incapacity Planning resource page: https://AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com/Incapacity-Planning/. We’ve collected our top planning information all in one place so listeners can find videos, guidebooks, blog posts, and a host of information with tips and strategies on implementing, planning, and protecting themselves and their loved ones.
- We’re pleased to provide a library of e-books to address common estate planning questions and concerns in practical, easy-to-understand language. https://AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com/Resources/.
- ASK KIRSTEN: If you’d like Kirsten to answer your question on the air, please email her at Info@AbsoluteTrustCounsel.com.
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