Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Can a conservator and her attorney handling an AB Trust for their conservatee, bill hourly, then when the conservatee dies and it's time to submit their final accounting, make "adjustments" for all previous payments, stating they neglected to state in previous accountings what trust her fees and her attorneys fees should have been paid from.

These �adjustments� are major. They are stating 10% of fees be allocated from one trust and 90% from the other, based on the amount of time necessary to administer each trust.

However, the conservatees trust held only his home and was funded by his deceased wife's trust. The conservator requested for the court to allow 90% of the fees they were paid to come from his trust, (which was funded from the other trust), in essence, now one trust owes the other trust a significant amount of money and in order to pay the other trust back, the home must be sold.

How can the conservator and her attorney bill hourly for their services, then change it up and say they are now billing on a percentage basis?

Both the A and the B trusts were listed as the conservatees total worth, yet they are now separating the two?

It just doesn�t make sense and the only one who benefits from this is the conservator herself as now she will have many more billable hours because she will have to manage the sale of the home.

ANd the conservator is now the trustee since conservatee passed away.

Please respond.


Asked on 8/06/11, 3:24 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Kurt Seidler Law Offices of Kurt A. Seidler APC

None of this would be allowable in probate court locally. You need to see a probate specialist right away.

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Answered on 8/15/11, 3:35 pm


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