0:00 who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to trust and Estates weekly I'm your host Kevin bamel and we are here every Monday at 10: a.m. Pacific time to talk about all those things related to Estate Planning and trust and probate Administration whether
0:35 it's for your own uh needs or for those of you who like me are professionals who help people with these situations so today I'm going to be talking about something that's California Centric um and and uh other states I think have similar processes uh I I would say that so often as goes California it seems like a lot of the country um follows you know behind um and uh unlike many of the things that come out of California at least in
1:12 theory um this particular California uh Innovation for one of a better word um it is really meant to help people especially lower income people um and people without a lot of assets it's it's intended to help them out and so the topic is what's called a small estate probate so um we've talked many many times about avoiding probate using things like living wills and all that sort of thing
1:48 uh um uh beneficiary on death designations Etc so despite that um and and despite all the tools that are available to us many people die either in testate they do no estate planning or for various reasons um there's a defect in their will or something like that and so um in essence when they when they die they leave behind property with no clear Direction on what's supposed to be done
2:24 with it so um especially if there's not a lot of money or a lot I shouldn't say money let's use the word value in their estate to have to go through a probate can be expensive uh and and it could significantly defay the value of the estate to the detriment of The Heirs and so California has created a number of rules in the probate code I'll I'll I'll
2:59 I'll give you the specific sections at the end um but it for the administration of a small estate okay and the idea is that uh the a smallest state can avoid a formal probate um for a formal probate procedure and therefore save uh save quite a bit of money and again toward the end I'll talk about I'll compare the fees for the two or the estimated fees for the two let's start out now by defining what is a small estate so in
3:38 California if an estate consists of only personal property that means there's no real estate could be bank accounts stocks Vehicles could even be artwork uh anything that's personal property is property that's generally movable okay all um intangible property as well be considered uh personal property in this context so if if they had crypto assets those kinds of things those are it it would probably be better say non-real property assets but but personal
4:14 property assets and they're valued at $184,500 or less then rather than going through the regular probate process the air can use an affidavit to claim the assets okay so first of all let's let's just take a little bit of a step back here and say well um how do we know who the heirs are well there may be a will okay and if there is a will so the will hopefully it's properly drawn up and the will is clear on who The Heirs are so in
4:50 that case The Heirs know who they are okay in the absence of a will so then what what are known as the laws of dissent and distri contribution uh will have to be followed so in California if someone is still legally married okay so then their spouse um gets a certain percentage of it if they have any children their children U may be heirs under the will okay so I mean may be Heirs of the estate um if the person dies in testate it is more difficult to
5:25 determine who an heir is and at that point even though the smallest state procedure is designed to help people avoid having to use an attorney at that point you may be well advised to get some legal advice um so it doesn't turn into a big mess because people who uh were heirs legal heirs were left out and so now there's fights because you know somebody got all the property and they weren't entitled to all of it and now you're in a big lawsuit okay but so let let's just take
6:01 a a situation where there is a will and the will is drawn up correctly and so it's clear who is an heir and in the case of someone who might be an heir under the law they've been specifically disinherited okay so then The Heirs can claim the assets into the estate using the following procedure so first of all they have to wait excuse me 40 days after the dece Eden's death okay so they're going to have a little over a month okay let the dust settle next they
6:36 prepare an affidavit it's it's called an affidavit for collection of personal property under probate code section 13,100 okay and and by the way I'll put some links to some of these uh in the show notes um so that you can look them up if you want to now by the way I I should have said this at the beginning as as as anyone who's watched the show before knows I am not a lawyer okay I am a professional fiduciary so I am not giving you legal advice here I'm informing you about what the law says
7:12 but how you apply it to your specific situation uh that's for you to determine or if and if you're not sure if you're not experienced in these matters for sure get proper legal advice okay you may be reluctant to hire a lawyer they can be expensive but you know as as the old saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and I can tell you in my practice um whenever that is violated it people end up in a huge mess it t it often takes years for a probate
7:48 to be settled um much to the detriment of the aors okay so uh uh so under again probate code 13,100 an aid David for collection of personal property is prepared okay and then supporting documents are attached to the affidavit that includes a copy a certified copy of the death certificate which you can order from the County recorder in the county in which the person died as well as proof of the assets value so if it's a bank account a
8:23 bank statement if it's a brokerage account uh a brokerage statement if it's a vehicle um go I I in with a vehicle you I think you can just go to the DMV I don't think you need I I don't think you even need to well if you're a spouse you don't need to do this um but you can just go online and go to like kellybluebook.com or something like that and and bring a copy of the um uh of the registration of the vehicle along with a print out about what the vehicle is worth and that that's that's I think that's probably
8:58 all you need to do okay and you go and you present it to the holder of the property it could be the bank it could be a um a brokerage company like uh you know they've all merged so much um these days uh UBS or you know somebody like that uh Fidelity okay the DMV okay and they should release the property to the air now they may not do it right there on the spot okay so if it's for example Fidelity okay they have a a department
9:34 that handles uh transfers um of of property of deant okay and there's forms that need to be filled out they need to be notorized uh generally speaking and and there's a process that has to be gone through but um you should be able to accomplish that process without having to open a formal probate okay so uh why am I bringing this up why am I bringing this topic of small Estates up now well it just so happens that um a a law was passed here in California I
10:09 believe it was last year uh assembly Bill 2016 and it uh amended the small estate probate rules so that now if an estate includes real property for example a house worth up to $750,000 beginning on April 1st of this year The Heirs can also use a simplified uh court process that avoids probate okay so what so let's let's just take a
10:45 simple example that the deedon had a house the house is worth a half a million dollars okay so that fits um within the $750,000 limit so the heir or heirs they file a petition a petition to determine succession to real property under probate code 13,150 okay it's filed with the court so um it's it's not you know super easy to file a court petition but the people at the court if if you are a lay person
11:20 they will help you okay they may be a little Gruff okay but but you know sort of deal with it almost all of this stuff can be done online nowadays uh here in LA county for example the online portal for La Superior Court is is excellent um it's the best one I've dealt with and I've dealt with them in several Court jurisdictions here in California okay if you're not in La Superior Court so if if you're in you know Riverside Superior Court or you know some other jurisdiction you might have to go down
11:55 to the court itself now outside of a a big jurisdiction like LA or Orange County or San Diego it's easier to deal with the court the court people are much friendlier they're much more helpful okay but you'll prepare this petition to determine succession to real property okay and then you have to give notice to heirs and interested parties okay so uh any if if let's say there's three heirs to the decedent okay and one of The Heirs decides to to file this petition
12:31 so they're going to have to give notice of it to the other two heirs now let's Al let's say also there's a loan on the house okay so the lender is an interested party and notice would probably have to go to the lender as well now by the way this is a new procedure okay it hasn't even started yet it doesn't start until April 1 so how exactly this is all going to play out there's there lots of discussion about it going on right now but it's not 100% clear how this is going to handle so if if you're doing if you decide you know if you know God forbid somebody
13:08 passes away next month in April and you decide this is the proper procedure to use or you consult with a lawyer and the lawyer advises you to use this procedure just be aware that it's new for the court okay and so judges have to judges and clerks and and and people in the uh you know in the filing Department the the clerks there not the court clerks but the fal clerks they all have to figure out how this is going to work okay because they haven't done it before okay now if there so then there's going to be a court hearing okay and uh again most I
13:47 think all the courts in California allow you to appear remotely I know in La Superior Court they use Microsoft teams um in Riverside Superior Court they have some sort of proprietary system I think or or maybe it's Zoom each court has you know its own system for doing this now I could imagine in some you know far Northern California uh courts um where you know they're very low population counties maybe they don't have uh virtual appearances yet um and so you may have
14:22 to show up at court but again in a in a small County like that it's it's it's you know much easier to do and you just show up at the courthouse and and the people there are are going to be able to help you okay now if there's no disputes the judge May approve the transfer of the property okay so then um what'll happen is if the judge approves the transfer of the property usually later that day or the following day the judge will issue an order ordering the transfer of the property okay and then
14:57 um the the uh the heir files the court order with the county uh record's office and that transfers title to the property now by the way if there's a loan on the property okay there's a good chance the court is not going to order transfer of title because that would take away the lender's security so some kind of arrangement is going to have to be made either to pay that loan off or for the loan to be assumed by the new owners so
15:32 if they're if if if if I were handling something like this um and and uh uh I wouldn't be doing this professionally but say for myself so I would talk to the lender first before going through this whole process because if the lender is going to object then the uh smallest state petition for transfer of real property the judge may not approve and so now you're back to you know filing a probate and and and you might as well have done that from the beginning okay
16:07 so now um I'm going to go through a few more things about small estate well actually let me do this here so if you if if you cannot use the small estate uh petition process then you're going to have to go through a full probate that means submitting the will to to probate and for the appointment of the executive named in the will or for some other personal representative that's the first step and then letters of administration have to be issued by
16:42 the court and that's when the probate process can begin and that process alone can easily take two to three months that's if there's no objection to the person who's who's requesting be being appointed as the personal representative okay so you you can see right away that if you have to go through a full probate uh procedure it's going to take a lot more time okay I'm going to talk about the the cost a little bit later on okay so if you can use the small probate
17:19 process that that is generally speaking going to be uh beneficial okay but you won't always be able to use it I suspect now so so what are the benefits of the small Pro small estate procedures well one is there's no formal formal probate and a formal probate generally speaking will take about a year could take more could take two years okay it depends if any disputes arise that can lengthen out the time it depends on the size of the estate now in a small estate like this where you've got you know less than
17:54 $200,000 of personal property and a house worth 750 ,000 or less you're talking about under a million dollars okay generally speaking if there's no disputes you know you can probably get through um the the probate of that estate in about a year maybe a year and a half okay but that's considerably longer than the you know probably two or three months that the smallest state petition um and affidavit process would take you okay so you know four to six
18:31 times longer to go through a a full probate now since I raised the issue of a lender on the house okay I want to talk a little bit about um the priority of debts in a small state so merely because you can gain you meaning The Heirs or I should say The Heirs to the estate can gain ownership of uh personal property through the affidavit process and real estate through the petition process that does not mean that the
19:06 debts of the deeded disappear they are not cancelled okay they need they need to be dealt with okay and if you don't deal with them it could come up and and and and bite you so to speak okay so first of let me just give you the priority of debts now the reality is although I'm giving you the priority of debts in the context of a small estate this is the same priority of debts for any estate okay whether you're going through a full probate whether you're administrating a trust doesn't matter okay so uh highest
19:41 priority debt is funeral expenses right that's to make sure the person the decedent gets properly um buried or cremated whatever is going to happen that they have a proper funeral the second is estate Administration costs okay otherwise people facilitating the administration of the estate may not want to get involved if they're not if it's not clear that they're ever going to get paid okay and it's it can be the case that debts besides funeral expenses and administrative costs exceed the value of
20:18 the property in the estate and if that's the case Okay um then if if funeral expenses and administrative costs uh were not given priority the the property could well sit there and the estate would never be settled okay so number one funeral expenses number two uh cost of EST State administration number three secured debts okay so a loan on real property or a car loan these are loans that are secured by the proper by a property um typically the the loan was used to buy
20:53 the property although that's not always the case so when like if if you if you bought a house and you had a loan uh you got a loan to buy the house that's what's called a purchase money loan but let's say five years later interest rates dropped and you refinanced the property that refinanced loan is not a purchase money loan okay nonetheless it is a secured debt okay so it has number three priority number four priority is taxes federal and state taxes now in a small estate it's not
21:29 going to be estate taxes those are exempt okay and it's unlikely that even if the estate tax exemption drops to its pre uh 2017 level um it's it's very unlikely that it's it'll drop to the point where a small estate as defined in California would be taxable but someone may own income taxes okay they may own prop May owe property taxes or other they may owe some franchise taxes okay so all of
22:04 these have fourth priority in terms of debts number five medical expenses related to the last illness okay maybe the person was in a hospital or Hospice Care something like that ambulance whatever it is those have number five priority number six are unsecured debts things like credit cards and P unsecured personal loans okay there's no property securing those debts they write a credit card you get a credit card based on your credit score these days essentially okay
22:40 so those are the six those are the six um types of debts and priority okay so um when a small estate when the small estate affidavit process is used for personal property okay they they inherit the obligation to pay the debts from those assets okay so let's say there's a brokerage account with uh $100,000 of uh Securities in it um but some of them were bought on margin and so there's a a a margin loan let's let's
23:17 just say $25,000 okay so when the SS through the affidavit process inherit that portfolio of securities they inherit it subject to the margin loan okay and and depending on the terms of the account it may be that you know upon transfer the margin loan has to be paid off okay so that that that could vary from from um brokerage to brokerage okay so the affidavit does not eliminate
23:53 the debts okay so uh um when you know the heirs may have to settle that debt and use inherited funds to do that okay so again before you um if you have information let's say about a brokerage account check and see does it look like there's a margin loan on it or something like that and if so just know that you're going to have to deal with that as part of the affidavit process okay uh next and and and by the way um creditors
24:31 can make claims Against The Heirs if their debts remain unpaid so let's say The Heirs inherit uh $150,000 in bank accounts and and stocks and bonds and such okay so it fits under the affidavit process but let's say that the funeral home did not get paid or um let's say that um there are some unpaid tax taxes merely because now The Heirs are the owner of the property that doesn't mean that they escape paying
25:06 those debts the creditors could look to The Heirs uh to pay the unpaid debts up up to the amount of what they inherited okay now the court um except I I I've never seen a case where this has happened but in general the court is not going to hold the heirs responsible for debts in excess of the value of the estate but the courts do have the authority and likely will hold
25:41 the heirs liable for debts up to what they the value of what they inherited because those debts the the the creditors have the right to get paid before the beneficiaries The Heirs get their share okay now for the small estate petition process for Real Property okay again as I mentioned earlier the court may require that the the debt secured by the real property or other debt claims that
26:16 are filed be paid prior to ordering the transfer of title okay so and and the court would have the authority to order the property sold if the debts exceed available liquid assets okay so let's say you've got a situation where uh there's a $500,000 house and a $100,000 brokerage uh you know bank account and brokerage accounts okay so hang on one second here I always
26:53 forget to close my email and you hear that dinging okay so there's $100,000 in bank account and stocks and such and there's a $500,000 house and let's say outstanding debts are $200,000 meaning that it's twice as much as the liquid assets in a case like that okay the court May order even through the um small estate petition process the court has the authority to order the sale of the property in order for the debts to get paid and then whatever is left um left over from the Pro proceeds
27:28 of sale would then go to The Heirs okay now the um the time frame for creditors to make claims in a small estate probate are different than a full probate they're actually creditors have a longer period of time and and that's only reasonable since there's no process by which they have to be notified I in the smallest state procedure okay so creditors typically have one year from
28:06 the decedent's death to file a claim even if no formal probate is open okay so um if um unlike the formal probate proceeding um where creditors have a very strict time frame that I'm going to tell you about in a minute uh creditors may still pursue heirs if they inherit assets but fail to uh pay debts okay so
28:42 um even if they even if they and and again it's not clear how how this is is is going to work but the way I read it is and your lawyer May read it differently that let's say a a creditor didn't find out for 18 months that its debtor had died and in the meantime The Heirs have taken ownership the property I read this is the Creditor may have the ability to come after The Heirs to pay to pay the unpaid debt um even though it's been longer than a year um but
29:18 again probably only to the extent of the amount of money that The Heirs inherited okay now um there there let's look at the formal probate process first and then I'm going to talk about um a couple of exceptions so in a formal probate process creditors generally have four months from the date the court appoints a personal representative that is an executive or an administrator to file a creditor's claim against the estate okay so um in a formal probate case the
29:56 personal representative must notify known creditors of the decedent's death and then creditors have the later of four months from issuance of the letters of administration or 60 days after they receive notice from the personal representative so you can see that the time frames are much shorter and if the Creditor Waits until after those deadlines pass the Creditor may not be able to pursue a claim against the
30:32 estate okay so you can see that one of the things that about a small estate probate is it does give creditors a lot more time to see to it that their debts get paid okay now we're talking about sort of commercial creditors right because there are exceptions you want to guess what one of them is of course the government so government claims for example medical recovery so they have their own deadlines um they they um they often are longer than the usual creditor period
31:09 okay and so um you know don't think that you know because um medical didn't come after you or Medicare didn't come a I'm sorry uh yeah medical Medicare didn't come after you for your dece deceased relatives uh you know reimbursement claim but and now you have ownership the assets that you're that you know you're not going to have to pay them that's not how the government works the government has its its own set of rules and it's going to get its money okay now in um if
31:46 the Creditor misses the deadline they they can petition the court for an exception um now I've never seen one granted but that doesn't mean that they aren't granted um however ever the I I would imagine the burden of proof will be on the Creditor to show good cause as to why they missed the deadline okay and and and it wasn't just you know oversight or negligence on their part okay so what happens if there are more debts than assets okay so in any estate where
32:22 there's more debts than assets the estate is considered insolvent whether it's a small estate or not okay um creditors uh are paid based on the priority that I that I'm explained before and so lower priority debts may go unpaid so if if funeral expenses costs of administration and secur debts Al together um use up all of the value of the assets of the Estates uh the unsecured creditors May are are probably
32:58 not going to get paid and outstanding taxes may not get paid either okay now as I mentioned before airs generally are not personally liable for debts beyond the assets that they inherent okay now the the exceptions to this would be if an air cosigned for a debt and so they're they're partly liable anyway or for example a community property liability um where uh one spouse is inheriting the other spouse's community property
33:34 interest so in that case um um they might be still held liable for the debt even though um there were not sufficient Assets in the deedon estate okay so this starts to get very complicated okay and so again this is where you would be well advised to consult with an attorney who specializes in a State trust and probate matters okay and and and and get that you know ounce of prevention um that that you know is better than the the pound of cure so to speak okay
34:11 now so those are the debt procedures now I'm going to talk about um the the costs um of a small probate in California okay so uh the first of all there's going to be Court filing fees so the to to file a small estate small estate petition for real property is going to cost maybe somewhere between $400 and $700 it depends on the county um you know there are different
34:46 different filing fees and such you may have to have an if if if there's not online filing you may have to pay an attorney service to take it down to the court and file it or you may have to go down to the court and file it okay um the affidavit for collection of personal property there is no court fee for doing that because it happens outside of the Court okay so so there's there's there's no cost there okay legal and professional fees um may be zero on a small estate process because it's simpler and and it's designed for people
35:22 to be able to do it without the uh without the help of an attorney however um if legal help is needed okay um you know attorneys who practice in this area generally are charging somewhere probably in in smaller counties around you know $250 or more in larger counties like Los Angeles I think you'd be hardpressed to find one who charges less than $400 or500 an hour and if it's very complex they're likely to charge even more now there are some lawyers who will
36:00 handle certain things on a flat fee basis okay and if you've got a small estate maybe you can get an attorney to agree to help you for a flat fee $1,000 $1,500 that would still be that may still be considerably less than the attorney um charging on an hourly basis okay and then there'll be a tax preparation fee so the deedon final tax return uh will have to be filed and a 706 may be a 706 which is an estate tax
36:35 return even though there's no estate taxes to pay a 706 may need to be filed and if so um you're going to need an accountant who knows how to handle these types of tax returns okay not every accountant knows how to file the tax return for a deceased individual or how to file a 706 and their fees like with lawyers can vary um sometimes you can get them to agree to a flat fee especially if it's simple other times it's going to be an
37:10 hourly fee okay so talk with them talk with you know your accountant if you have one or if you don't have one who knows how to do these talk with a couple of them before you make a decision and and talk upfront what do you estimate the fees will be okay all right next if um if a small estate probate um involves real estate okay and you're going to use the small estate petition nonetheless you still the court may still require that a probate referee uh
37:45 appraise the property now they call in an appraisal um most appraisers would agree it is not really an appraisal in the context of how that term is used in ordinary business um but but they do evaluation would I think would be a more accurate term okay the fee for that valuation is generally on10th of 1% so if you have a $500,000 home the probate referee is going to charge $500 to do the valuation okay so you may have to do that as well okay um certified copies
38:23 and recording fees so a death certificate um it it can cost um well the the filing of it there that'll typically be done by um the funeral home or or perhaps the um the hospital okay um they're going to include that in their bill if you need copies though the count counter recorder charges for each copy now um those fees are going to vary by county they may be $10 a copy 20 25
39:00 whatever it is um you're probably gonna need multiple copies okay so um and and the thing is it can take I know here in Los Angeles County it can take sometimes six weeks to get a copy of the death certificate so you're not going to want to wait each time three to six weeks or or more even if if for some reason the system goes down or something to get copies so you probably want to have uh a number of copies on hand okay so that if if you need them to use with affidavits or to submit to the court you have them
39:36 available and those are certified copies right to take an an original death certificate and and copy it in a you know copy machine a lot of Institutions will not take that because they they it's not a certified copy okay and and and so they're going to ask for that certified copy some May May view it accept it and return the copy to you so for example cancelling a passport um the um uh passport Bureau you send it to you you send the paperwork to them along with a you know
40:13 a certified copy or original of the death certificate and you can request that they return it to you and they will okay um I know because I've been through the process all right and then the counter record fees for example if you're using the small estate petition process for transfer of real estate you're going to have to record the court order and again that varies county by county but it can cost 500 to I'm sorry $ 50 to $100 something like that okay credit for creditor notification and debt payments so there are no formal creditor claims
40:48 process in small estate procedure um and so you know the any cost of notifying creditor is going to be negative neble maybe some postage or maybe some emails something like that so negligible okay miscellaneous costs you may have notary fees and depending on whether you go to the notary or they come to you could be you know $25 a signature 50 it's just it's just going to depend okay now uh bonds rarely are bonds needed in a small estate probate case um but if you need a
41:24 bond then there will be a bond fee as well well um and in my experience the bond fees too are generally about a tenth of the value of the property so again on a $500,000 house uh the bond fee would be maybe about $500 if the court ordered a bond okay so um total estimated cost for a small probate without real estate in it may be up to $1,000 with real estate could be $1,000 to maybe as much as $5,000 depending on probate I depending on
41:59 attorney's fees and probate referee fees now let's contrast that with the fees that you would pay for a formal probate so in addition to all the fees that I've just mentioned the personal representative of the estate as a matter of Statute gets what are called statutory fees okay those fees are on a sliding scale from 4% to a half a percent so on a on an estate valued at a
42:35 million those fees are going to be $23,000 on an estate valued at $200,000 they're going to be $7,000 by the way the statutory fees for an attorney to represent the personal representative are the same as the Fe to the personal representative so on a $200,000 estate which is only slightly above the personal property limit okay so maybe it would be the personal property limit might be it might be uh the fees if if an estate were within the
43:12 personal property limit of $184,500 the the personal representative fees might be $6,000 and then another $6,000 for the lawyer representing the personal representative that's $122,000 in addition to the $1,000 of other fees so you can see it's much much higher once real estate gets involved let's take an state that where there's real estate of $700,000 and there's a personal property of let's say
43:47 $150,000 you've got $850,000 okay so um your um your fees on that are going to be around $20,000 for the personal representative and $20,000 for the personal representative's lawyer in other words around $40,000 again plus all the the the recording fees and the probate referee and all that kind of stuff that that could be another $5,000 you can see that the formal probate
44:22 procedure is much higher much much higher but order of magnitude higher so that's why California law sets up this small estate procedure it allows small Estates to be settled much more coste efficiently by the way this also shows you the wisdom of of if you're using the small estate procedures of getting a little bit of legal advice and avoiding a dispute that pulls it into a formal probate okay so even if you end end up
44:57 paying let's say $4,000 in attorney's fees in addition to $5,000 in other costs so now you're your your costs of of administration are $99,000 that's still significantly less than the 21 to $45,000 that a formal probate would cost okay so that's that's what's at stake here okay now um I I I uh okay so I'm going back to this
45:33 uh the law that was passed um last year um assembly Bill 2016 that said starting April 1st there there are going to be changes to the small estate uh procedures um the law permits this transfer of primary residences up to $750,000 um Plus it the the personal property limit of $184,500 stays in place so you've got almost a million
46:09 dollars that will avoid probate now what now you might be saying to yourself oh pardon me you might be saying to yourself well property values real estate property values in California are so high big deal so houses Worth $750,000 or up to $750,000 are Exempted that doesn't mean anything well the reality is that as of January 31st of 2025 the average home value in
46:46 California was $773,000 in change okay which means that roughly half of houses are worth less than that I should say the median home home value so um you know while not literally 50% of homes fall within the exemption uh or or the small state limit you know maybe somewhere around 40% 45% due that's a lot that's a lot of people now who could potentially avoid probate who could not
47:21 prior to to this law going into effect on April 1 Okay so so it is it it is a big benefit see we we sometimes we can maybe do something right here in California okay now consideration for estate planning okay um given the increased threshold it's a good idea to have your estate plan reassessed okay to determine is there a way to align it with the new provisions and maybe without having to
47:56 go through the cost of forming a trust um set up your estate so it can avoid probate okay maybe you transfer some assets before you die to decrease the value of your estate or something like that these are all things for you to talk to an estate attorney an estate planning attorney about and see if this this new rule um changes any changes anything about how you're going to handle your estate okay so um while generally I recommend uh having your estate plan
48:31 reviewed anytime there's a major change in your circumstances in your family life um but at least every few years when there's a change in the law like this um this may also be a trigger that you should have your estate plan reviewed now if you own a house that's worth over $750,000 and it's very unlikely that it's going to decrease in value so then there doesn't appear to be any benefit to to necessarily having your estate plan reviewed simply because of ab 2016
49:06 because you're not going to be able to take advantage of it okay so I'm gonna put these in the show notes but the bill amended probate code sections 13,100 13,111 13,150 13,111 152 and 154 of the probate code and it also repealed probate code section 13,158 okay so if you want to read the specific language of of the probate code affected
49:45 by this this new law I'll put a link in the show notes to that part of the probate code and you can you can do so okay uh reading the law though again is not necessarily grounds to not get proper legal advice okay there is no substitute for proper legal advice in these matters and I'll say it now I think for the third or fourth time an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure when the fees for having to go through a full a formal probate process
50:22 are so much higher than they are going through the small estate process okay well so uh you know a lot of information um did my best to make it as as clear as possible uh and uh and and hopefully it was if it wasn't maybe uh you know watch through the show again um or talk to some people you know who are who like me are familiar with probate process and get their thoughts on it okay it it's always a good thing to get more than one party's opinion okay I I I I make no
50:58 claims to immutability or anything like that or non- immutability whatever the word would be okay so uh let me take this opportunity to thank you very much for joining me today um uh it's you know show wouldn't be the show with without without you watching so I I deeply appreciate that if you have any questions comments thoughts uh my links to my uh social media will be in the show notes as well feel free to post them if it's of a personal nature you can feel free to send me an email my
51:34 email address will be in the show notes as well okay now with the caveat as always that uh if it's within my area of professional expertise I will do my best to respond and if it's not in my area of professional expertise if it's an if it's a legal question or an accounting question something like that then I will um respond as such and and if you want me to refer you to a lawyer or an accountant I will be happy to do so okay so um before signing off uh tomorrow on uh Tuesday at 10: a.m. is my
52:14 show uh business lessons from the military and my guest is Derek Keller Marine Corps veteran and and uh business advisor and he's going to talk about how to propel meteoric growth and then on Wednesday at 10 a. Pacific time I have a a really a treat um Mike psky and his colleagues at underground studios are all going to be on the show I think it's
52:49 going to be a a bit of a a rockus time these are really astute young businessmen I met them now probably about a year ago and and and just am so impressed by their their Drive their Acumen the business that they're building and I think you will really be inspired by by Mike and his colleagues so join me on Wednesday at 10: am Pacific time and then on Thursday at 5:00 pm specific time is my every other week's show jiggers his place we're
53:26 going to have a cocktail and talk about how can we renew societal institutions I'm sure you know that trust in in our societal institutions is at I think an absolutely all-time low um and and I want to share some thoughts on what we might do about this it's it's it's in my opinion not a good thing that we have so little trust in institutions that are meant to bring cohesion to our society so I hope you'll
54:02 join me for that and then a week from today I'll be back with the next episode of trust in the states weekly um my guest is going to be Brian Whitland and so I hope you will uh join me uh and Brian and listen to our our discussion so once again thank you so much for joining me deeply appreciate it uh hopefully I'll see you again later this week and signing off as I always do Marie darling you are my bell courage at all times my friends