Trust Administration Attorney in Los Angeles
When someone you love dies and leaves a living trust behind, the responsibility often lands on you with no warning. A trust administration attorney in Los Angeles can keep that process moving correctly from the first week forward. At the Law Office of Rodney Gould, we guide successor trustees and beneficiaries across Los Angeles County, from the opening notices through final distribution.
Serving as trustee is a legal role, and California law holds trustees personally accountable for how they carry it out. We understand how much is happening at once. Call us at 818-981-1760 for a free consultation.
What Does Trust Administration Involve in California?
Trust administration is the private, out-of-court process of carrying out a trust’s instructions after the person who created it dies. It usually happens without a judge supervising, which is faster but also means no one is checking your work. Mistakes land on the trustee personally.
The core tasks generally include:
Reviewing the trust document and every amendment
Serving required notices on beneficiaries and heirs at law
Identifying, valuing, and protecting assets, including real property
Paying final debts, taxes, and administration expenses in the correct order
Accounting to beneficiaries and distributing what remains
Each step carries its own timing rules, so we build a working calendar and tell you plainly what is urgent.
Why Does the 60-Day Beneficiary Notice Matter So Much?
Because it starts a clock that protects you. Under California Probate Code Section 16061.7, a trustee must serve written notification on every beneficiary and on the decedent’s heirs at law within 60 days after a revocable trust becomes irrevocable, usually the date of death.
The notice must identify the person who created the trust, give the signing date and contact information for each trustee, and carry a statutory warning in boldface type. That warning tells recipients they have 120 days from service to file a trust contest.
Serving it properly closes that window in about four months, while serving it late or incompletely can leave it open indefinitely. This is the misstep we correct most often for trustees who handled the first month alone.
The Los Angeles County Deadline Many Trustees Miss
Trustees holding Los Angeles real estate face a separate 150-day deadline that has nothing to do with the trust document. The Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor requires a Change in Ownership Statement, Death of Real Property Owner (form BOE-502-D/ASSR-176) within 150 days of death, even when the home was already titled in the trust.
Missing it can bring a penalty of $100 or 10% of the taxes on the new base year value, whichever is greater, plus escape assessments reaching back to the date of death. On a Sherman Oaks home that has appreciated for 30 years, that adds up quickly.
We handle assessor filings alongside the trust work, including any parent-to-child reassessment exclusion your family may qualify for.
Why Families Across Los Angeles Turn to Our Firm
Rodney Gould has practiced law since 1991 and has run this firm since 2008, bringing roughly three decades of courtroom-tested judgment to your trust matter. He began as a civil prosecutor handling mail fraud cases for the United States Postal Service, later served as a special assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice, and has represented companies including Starbucks, USAA, and Bank of America.
Here is what that background means for your administration:
Litigation experience in probate courts across California, plus successful appeals in several districts of the California Courts of Appeal
Direct attorney contact, so you are not handed to staff when a beneficiary sends a demand letter
Working familiarity with the probate division of Los Angeles County Superior Court
Honest conversations up front about what your trust requires and what it does not
We work from Sherman Oaks with families in Studio City, Encino, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and across the San Fernando Valley. Attentive support, trusted experience, and reliable counsel are the standards we hold on every file. Call 818-981-1760 to talk with a trust administration attorney in Los Angeles about where your trust stands.
Do Trusts Always Avoid Probate Court?
No, although most do. A fully funded trust normally keeps an estate out of court, which is the main reason people create one. Assets left outside the trust, unclear language, a missing amendment, or a beneficiary who wants a fight can all put the matter before a judge.
When a petition becomes necessary, we file it and appear at the hearing. If part of the estate never made it into the trust, a limited probate filing in Los Angeles can bring those assets under the trust’s terms, and probate in Los Angeles County commonly runs well past a year.
Accountings, Taxes, and Closing the Trust
Most trust disputes begin with information rather than money. Probate Code Section 16062 requires trustees to account to current beneficiaries at least annually, upon a change of trustee, and when the trust terminates.
The trust also needs its own employer identification number, and a fiduciary income tax return may be due for the administration period. Federal estate tax is rarely a factor, since the 2026 exemption sits at $15 million per person and California imposes no separate estate tax.
Once debts are paid and the contest period has closed, we prepare the distribution documents and the deeds that move real property to beneficiaries. Going through this often prompts a fresh look at your own plan with an estate planning attorney in Los Angeles.
FAQs about Los Angeles Trust Administration Attorneys
Below are the questions trustees and beneficiaries bring to a trust administration attorney in Los Angeles most often.
How long does trust administration usually take?
Many straightforward trusts close in 12 to 18 months. Real property sales, business interests, tax filings, and beneficiary disagreements are what most often stretch that timeline.
Can a trustee be paid for serving?
Yes. A trustee is generally entitled to reasonable compensation unless the trust says otherwise, and the document often sets the rate. Fees appear in the accounting, so records matter.
What if the named successor trustee does not want the job?
A named successor can decline in writing before accepting. The trust usually names an alternate, and if no one named will serve, a petition can ask the court to appoint someone.
Are beneficiaries entitled to a copy of the whole trust?
A beneficiary or heir who receives the trustee’s notification may request a complete copy of the terms of the trust, and the trustee must provide it. Withholding it invites the scrutiny a trustee hoped to avoid.
Who pays for the attorney the trustee hires?
Legal work that benefits the trust is generally paid from trust assets rather than the trustee’s own pocket. Costs tied to a trustee’s personal wrongdoing are treated differently.
Talk With a Los Angeles Trust Administration Lawyer Today
You should not have to work out the trustee role by rereading the same document alone. We will review the trust, tell you which deadlines are already running, and explain what comes next in plain language.
Call the Law Office of Rodney Gould in Sherman Oaks at 818-981-1760 to schedule your free consultation with a trust administration attorney in Los Angeles.