Absolute Trust Talk

If you’re someone who is serving in the role of trustee, executor, conservator, or guardian, acting as a personal representative for someone’s estate in California, did you know that the state has specific guidelines for probate accounting? According to section 16062, the California probate code requires representatives to provide an accounting at least once a year. The purpose is usually two-fold: to show beneficiaries what assets exist, how they’ve been handled, how much is left to be divided up, and to show the individual in control of the money is doing their job.   “Unlike giving a few specific documents to your CPA to prepare for a tax return, we need everything - every transaction that happens within a trust estate or conservatorship. It’s a lot of information.” The problem is that most people whose names are tasked with the role of trustee or conservator have no idea how to prepare this type of formal accounting. Even for those confident in their accounting skills, the process is technical, tedious, a