Choosing the Successor Trustee of a Special Needs Trust
When creating a special needs trust to benefit your child, choosing the right trustee is important. This person will have to fill your shoes after you pass.
When creating a special needs trust to benefit your child, choosing the right trustee is important. This person will have to fill your shoes after you pass.
At some point during the administration of a trust, a successor trustee must step in and assume the trustee duties. Accepting the appointment is not difficult.
Assets outside of trust can ultimately be distributed to the beneficaries of the trust through what’s known as a Small Estate Affidavit. Probate Code Section 13100 outlines the rules for these kinds of transfers. The first requirement is that the decedent must not have left more than $150,000 of probate property outside of trust. The following are NOT considered probate property: assets held in trust, joint bank accounts, assets held in joint tenancy, California registered vehicles, life insurance, and retirement accounts with beneficiares. The second requirement is that you must wait 40 days form the date of death to transfer such assets into the trust or to distribute the to the benficiary or beneficiaries. Finally, a declaration must be signed by personal representative confirming that 40 days from death have in fact lapsed and that the probate estate does not exceed $150,000.
If you are administering a Trust With Business Interests, you have many responsibilities. You must act quickly and carefully to ensure it is protected.
Do you know which creditor to pay first if you are administering a California, if estate has multiple creditors? Find out the general order of how debts should be paid.
Assets when a beneficiary dies during estate administration, the asset will pass depending on how it was held.