Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Hello. Thank you for providing this service. Many of us are put in this confusing situation and have no direction. My question is this, what paperwork is to be included when payment is made to a beneficiary. Is a copy of the whole will to be included or just the part that pertains to them...thank you in advance.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Usually if you are talking about a Will, then unless the Estate is under $150,000 you need to go to Court and Probate the Estate. You would then send the beneficiary copies of the various pleadings as you work through the Probate process. Either way you typically want the Beneficiary to sign a receipt.
Sometimes people refer to Wills and Trusts interchangeably. If you are the successor Trustee, then you should have served a formal notice on all beneficiaries along with a copy of the Trust. Then after the time for contesting the Trust has passed, you would make the distributions as specified. You should also ask the beneficiary to sign a receipt under this scenario.
You should probably meet with an attorney at least for a consultation to be sure you are handling things appropriately as you can be personally liable if you do something incorrectly.
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