Probate and Intestate Succession

When an individual dies with probatable assets outside of a trust, the Court needs to be involved in the administrative process. To start the process, a probate petition needs to be filed with the Court. The Court oversees the entire administration through to distribution of the estate and discharge of the personal representative. Probates can be expensive and time consuming. These are the reasons people try to avoid probate. When people talk about the fees associated with probates, they are mostly talking about the attorney’s and executor’s fees. Under the California Probate Code, both the attorney for the executor and the executor are entitled to receive the same fee which is set up in the Probate Code.