Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My father passed away recently and we(my mother, half siblings, and I)are in the process of settling his affairs. He had many different assets, one of which is a safety deposit box in which we believe he put his living trust. My mother came across a draft of his living trust in which she is named the beneficiary of many of the assests, but of course we are unable to find the official living trust to verify, leading us to believe it may be in the safe. My father used to always mention "everything you need is in the safe", and we assumed he meant the personal safe kept in the house until we discovered he had a safety deposit box after his death.
We went to the bank, but were told because my father did not name my mother as a beneficiary on the deposit box, we would have to wait 40 days for it to be unclaimed. Then we were told we must go to court to get a court order naming her as the executor of the state.
The question is: are we able to get that document and will it be an easy process such as going to the court and requesting it same day, or will we have to make an appointment and experience a waiting period for the document? Also, since the living trust draft is inadmissable, if someone wants to claim the executorship or a percentage of it(say a greedy sibling), what would be our options.?
2 Answers from Attorneys
You can start the Probate process without waiting 40 days; however, it takes 30-45 days to get named as an administrator or executor of an Estate. You must publish Notice and the Petition itself must be in proper form. You will need to meet with an attorney to assist your family with this process.
Consider this - look at the draft documents you have. The attorney's name should be on there somewhere. Contact the attorney's office. If your father executed the documents then the attorney should have a signed copy in his or her file.
To get in the box, do a Small Estate Affidavit under Probate Code section 13101 (google it for the form). It can't be signed until 40 days after the death.
Also, under California Probate Code section 331 (google it, print it out and take it to the bank) you can get into the box under supervision for the purpose of looking for a will and/or trust documents, which can be copied for you.
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