Updated 4-30-26

Dept	Room	Phone	Judicial Officer
002D	629	(213) 633-1023	Judge Gus T. May
004	217	(213) 633-0254	Commissioner Kristen A. Williams
004	217	(213) 633-0254	Judge Brenda J. Penny (SJ- Probate/Mental Health)
005	236	(213) 633-0245	Judge Jessica A. Uzcategui
009	244	(213) 633-0259	Judge Ruben Garcia
011	246	(213) 633-0251	Judge Jonathan L. Rosenbloom (ASJ)
018	308	(213) 633-0518	Judge Charles Q. Clay III
029	240	(213) 633-0249	Judge Michael R. Powell
044	418	(213) 633-0354	Judge Deborah L. Christian
064	400	(213) 745-1864	Judge David J. Cowan
067	614	(213) 633-1067	Judge Daniel Juarez
079	610	(213) 633-1079	Judge Lynn H. Scaduto
099	615	(213) 633-1899	Commissioner Mark S. Priver
600	600	(213) 633-1062	Judge Stephanie C. Santoro

Probate Fees

California has two structures for probate fees. Probate statutory fees are also referred to as probate commissions. Probate extra-ordinary fees are fees charged by the executor and the attorney for certain types of tasks which are not covered by the statutory fees or statutory commissions.

How do you calculate probate fees?

Probate Statutory Fees and Commissions can be found in the Probate Code. You can find an estimate for the executor’s probate fees or commissions here via this estimated probate fee calculator:

APPROXIMATE GROSS ESTATE SIZE	STATUTORY PROBATE FEES IN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA
$100,000.00	$4,000.00
$200,000.00	$7,000.00
$300,000.00	$9,000.00
$400,000.00	$11,000.00
$500,000.00	$13,000.00
$600,000.00	$15,000.00
$700,000.00	$17,000.00
$800,000.00	$19,000.00
$900,000.00	$21,000.00
$1,000,000.00	$23,000.00
$2,000,000.00	$33,000.00
$3,000,000.00	$43,000.00

The general structure of statutory probate fees can be found here:

Probate Code 10800. (a) Subject to the provisions of this part, for ordinary
services the personal representative shall receive compensation based
on the value of the estate accounted for by the personal
representative, as follows:
(1) Four percent on the first one hundred thousand dollars
($100,000).
(2) Three percent on the next one hundred thousand dollars
($100,000).
(3) Two percent on the next eight hundred thousand dollars
($800,000).
(4) One percent on the next nine million dollars ($9,000,000).
(5) One-half of one percent on the next fifteen million dollars
($15,000,000).
(6) For all amounts above twenty-five million dollars
($25,000,000), a reasonable amount to be determined by the court.
(b) For the purposes of this section, the value of the estate
accounted for by the personal representative is the total amount of
the appraisal value of property in the inventory, plus gains over the
appraisal value on sales, plus receipts, less losses from the
appraisal value on sales, without reference to encumbrances or other
obligations on estate property.

Romeo Vitelli wrote a very interesting article called Exploding the Myths about Aging in Psychology Today dated June 1, 2020. It had may interesting points about aging, how people view aging, and how some of the symptoms of aging can be reversed.

I have posted it here with my highlights so you can also enjoy it:

Articles.Aging_.Exploding-the-Myths-About-Aging-_-Psychology-Today

A beneficiary designation or beneficiary change to accounts can certainly thwart your estate plan as described by attorney Mina Sirkin below.:

Here are several ways a beneficiary designation can change your entire estate plan which you need to be aware of when you are thinking of a beneficiary change or designation.

A beneficiary designation can make your estate distribution unequal.

A beneficiary designation can leave assets to someone who is on public benefits and make them lose their benefits.

A beneficiary designation has priority over the will with regards to that particular account.

A person can be manipulated or influenced to change his or her beneficiary designation.

Your designated beneficiary’s spouse will try to control how the beneficiary spends that money. We can help protect your beneficiary in spending habits and in a potential divorce. Ask us.

A beneficiary designation form is not always accepted by the financial institution, bank or life insurance company.

If you fail to update your beneficiary designations, to be consistent with your estate planning intentions, your beneficiaries will feel bad about each other.

If you forget to update your beneficiary designations after a divorce, certain 401K accounts will go to your ex-spouse, despite your intentions. This article also applies to trusts whether or not they are administered by family or professional. A beneficiary alteration can also have an adverse tax impact when it comes to IRA accounts and 401k accounts because only a spouse can continue to defer the tax with a rollover IRA. Other beneficiaries have to pay the tax under the CARES Act.

If there are disputes about your beneficiary designations, the financial institutions may interplead the funds in court or place the funds in court, leading to substantial expenses of litigation to your beneficiaries. Read this great article by a great estate planning attorney, Dennis Sandoval about beneficiary designations here.

To be sure that your beneficiary designations are coordinated with your estate plan, call attorney Mina Sirkin and let our skilled lawyers assist you in your estate plan and beneficiary designations. Call 818.340.4479 for attorneys who help with beneficiary designations.

When a trustee of a trust makes a mistake or error, the ramifications can be great for not only the trustee of the trust but for the beneficiaries and the trust itself. In this article, we explore some of the trustee errors that lead to trust litigation in Los Angeles. Our lawyers can assist you in fiduciary law matters in Los Angeles.

First, you have to ask yourself some questions: What is the main function of a trustee of a trust? The trustee’s main function is to protect the assets of the trust and to make them income-producing for the benefit of the beneficiaries of the trust. Who is a beneficiary of a trust? A beneficiary of a trust is a person who has a right to income or principal of the trust under the terms of the trust.

Top eleven trust management mistakes by trustees of trusts can be categorized in many different ways, but some of them are below:

1. Mixing the assets of the trust with the trustee’s personal assets.
2. Not keeping separate books and records of the trust transactions.
3. Overpaying one beneficiary over other beneficiaries.
4. Favoring one’s own benefits in the trust over the interests of the beneficiaries.
5. Overpaying trustee’s fees in Los Angeles.
6. Not having a diverse portfolio of assets under the Prudent Investor Rule.
7. Not accounting to the beneficiaries.
8. Borrowing from the trust for your personal gain where the trust language prohibits profiting from the trust or where the trust is silent about it.
9. Not getting legal advice from an expert family trust lawyer.
10. Relying on others to manage the trust tasks that cannot be delegated.
11. Not following the terms of the trust or getting court instruction about items that are uncertain. See this interesting 2020 case called Trolan here regarding what the Court can order. Don’t hold up the distribution of the trust assets if you are a trustee, and seek a Petition for Instructions if you are not going to distribute the assets for a reason and ask the Court if that is acceptable.

When you are a trustee of a trust or multiple trusts, you must take action and get advice early in trust administration so that you do not make these common trust mistakes. As a trustee or successor trustee, you are the manager of the trust with tremendous responsibilities.

There are many other errors that can also impact the trust estate distribution:

1. Failing to send the required notification to beneficiaries, heirs and government entities.

2. Making a distribution to early.

3. Not having a Trust Administration plan and timeline.

4. Failing to timely inventory and appraise all the assets of the trust, and failing to inquire about non-trust assets.

5. Failing to make the proper tax allocations and tax elections.

6. Making personal use of trust assets.

7. Failing to prepare early for estate taxes.

8. Failing to keep beneficiaries informed.

9. Failing to keep a trustee’s notebook, and failing to timely account to the beneficiaries.

What happens if you make a mistake as a trustee of a trust?

The Court can issue a judgment against you called a surcharge judgment which can range from reducing your trustee’s fees to outright issuing an order to disgorge profits, money damages against the trustee, and even attorneys fees and costs.

Are there things you can do to save the trust from damage?

If your trustee has made an error, there may be a number of strategies that he or she can employ to fix it, or to prevent damage, or reverse damage. That requires advice from a skilled trustee’s lawyer to implement such remediating steps.

Call Mina Sirkin when you are a trustee or successor trustee looking to find a trust lawyer to avoid mistakes and help you with administration or management of the trust, get solid advice about trust management and administration from our expert with over 27 years of experience in family trusts. We help trustees avoid expensive errors.

Read our related articles below: What is a professional trustee?

#trustee #trustees #errors #mistakes #trusteeerror #trusteemistakes

Professional Trustee

California has two tiers of executor compensation for Los Angeles executors who are named in a will. Let us explore executor fees in Los Angeles Ca. Probate Executors and Probate Administrators are paid the same based on the following two estate fee categories.

Tier 1: Statutory Compensation or Statutory Fees for Executors in California

When calculating fees, Statutory Fees are calculated based on a chart and a formula. The formula for statutory fees in California is rather simple.

PROBATE STATUTORY FEE FORMULA: Inventory + Receipts + Capital Gains – Capital Losses. = The number which you will look up in the chart as the base for statutory fees.

Probate Statutory Fee Calculator: The short sample of the California Statutory Executor Fee Chart or Probate Fee Chart is below: You can find the Statutory Fee Chart here:

APPROXIMATE GROSS ESTATE SIZE	ORDINARY PROBATE FEE IN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA
$100,000.00	$4,000.00
$200,000.00	$7,000.00
$300,000.00	$9,000.00
$400,000.00	$11,000.00
$500,000.00	$13,000.00
$600,000.00	$15,000.00
$700,000.00	$17,000.00
$800,000.00	$19,000.00
$900,000.00	$21,000.00
$1,000,000.00	$23,000.00
$2,000,000.00	$33,000.00
$3,000,000.00	$43,000.00

The statutory fee generally covers the filing of the initial petition for probate, inventory, notice to creditors and the final distribution. If there are difficulties in collecting the assets, or any litigation involved, the fees will increase and extra-ordinary fees will be added to the California Statutory Fees.

Tier 2: Extra-Ordinary Executor Fees in California

Each County in California has a range of hourly rates for executors which they deem as reasonable in the community for family executors and professional executors. We have seen these range from $30-$150 per hour for executor extra-ordinary compensation. #executorfees

How do you know if a task is extra-ordinary?

The Extra-Ordinary fees generally cover sales of real estate, taxes, litigation, and any extra-ordinary efforts to marshal assets. Ask us about specific items.

Call Mina Sirkin, Los Angeles Executor attorney who regularly handles matters involving executor compensation and fees in California. We represent family executors and professional executors including corporate executors. Call our executor lawyer at 818.340.4479 and email us at Info@SirkinLaw.com for a complimentary executor consultation in Los Angeles California. #executorfees #probatefees

In this 2020 case, the Court of Appeal in California affirmed an award of elder abuse attorney fees as remedies without any physical injury, where the jury found that Medico was liable for the misappropriation of Miller’s property, that its conduct was “a substantial factor in causing harm” to Miller, and that plaintiff proved “by clear and convincing evidence that Medico” acted with “recklessness, malice, oppression or fraud.” Under the plain language of the statute, an award of attorney fees is a mandatory form of relief regardless of whether the plaintiff is awarded any other form of relief.

Read the entire opinion here: Arace v. Medico Investments

California Welfare and Institutions Code 15657.5, subdivision (a), states that “[w]here it is proven by a preponderance of the evidence that a defendant is liable for financial abuse, as defined in Section 15610.30, in addition to compensatory damages and all other remedies otherwise provided by law, the court shall award to the plaintiff reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.” (§ 15657.5, subd. (a), italics added.

The Court found that Medico Investments must pay attorneys’s fees in this Elder Abuse case.

Call Mina Sirkin, Attorney at Law for all California Elder Abuse matters at 818.340.4479 or email us: Info@SirkinLaw.com.

UPDATE 5-7-20: The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced in press releases on April 1 and April 14 that driver’s license expirations dates would be extended in California for the following individuals:

• Seniors 70 years of age and older whose noncommercial driver’s licenses expire between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2020, are given a 120-day extension to their driver’s licenses expiration date. The DMV will mail affected seniors a paper extension.
• Californians under 70 who driver’s licenses expire between March 2020 and May 2020 will have their license expiration date extended to May 31, 2020. These drivers also have the option to request a free temporary paper extension online through the DMV’s Virtual Field Office to document extension.

More updates September 10, 2021:

Information for Seniors

New this week, seniors 70 and over can now renew their driver’s license online. This option has been available for those 69 and younger for several months now.What if I just want an extension and do not want to renew my license?

Noncommercial Licenses

California has provided extensions or expanded online renewal eligibility for noncommercial driver licenses (including AB 60 and limited-term) expiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• License holders 69 and younger (Beginning March 1, 2020): Most drivers now qualify for online renewal.
• License holders over the age of 70 (March-December 2020 expirations): Extension valid for one year from original expiration date. Beginning December 6, 2020, eligible to renew online or by mail for expirations March 2020 through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Need information about senior law in California, call attorney Mina Sirkin at 818.340.4479.

Elder Law Burbank

Elder Law Burbank Ca: Caring for your family at different stages of life is the largest part of the practice of Elder Law serving the Burbank elder and probate community. Elder Law attorneys, we often counsel clients in multi-disciplinary legal areas including but not limited to elder abuse and probate. Our attorneys provide service to Burbank residents with all areas o elder law including the following areas of law:

Estate Planning (Wills and Trusts): Our Elder Law & Estate Planning practice focus of preparing a plan of action for management of assets during incapacity and for distribution of the assets at death for residents in Burbank and Hollywood Hills.

Preparation of Power of Attorney Documents: Power of attorney documents are created as means to assist in decision by appointing an agent to make decisions for the principal.

Preparation of Advance Heath Care Directives: When it is time for making health care decisions, this document serves as a statement of your authority to allow someone else to make health care decisions for you when you are no longer able to do so yourself.

Trust Administration: After a person dies (of even when he/she is incapacitated), the assets in a trust need to be managed and then distributed upon death. This process is called trust administration.

Probate Administration: When there is no trust, or when a trust is not funded, this court process allows for distribution of assets at death and admission of the will in court.

Conservatorships & Elder Law: Conservatorships are protective proceedings where an adult requests powers from the court to care for another adult.  A Los Angeles Conservatorship is a complex process that requires expert advice.

Medi-Cal Planning and Asset Protection: We assist clients in obtaining Medi-Cal benefits and create strategies for asset protection for our clients to retain their most valued possessions.

Guardian Ad Litem:  Many times, an incapacitated person who is also elderly has rights to claims in lawsuits.  Our Guardian Ad Litem can help protect the disabled in lawsuits.

Financial Elder Abuse Law: Since 1993, our lawyers have helped thousands of people protect themselves against Financial Elder Abuse. Abuse of elders is unfortunately very common and many times connected to a probate estate by litigation. We help recover assets of elderly in probate and civil court where the assets have been taken by another person, or used for a wrongful purpose.   Financial abuse of elders is also often litigated in estates and wills contests.

Call Mina Sirkin, Specialist Attorney at 818.340.4479, Elder Law Burbank Ca “Elder Law Burbank”. Call us about elder abuse law.