Los Angeles California Administrators and executors often need an executor course or an executor checklist of tips about probate and how to manage estate assets or what they should do in probate. This is a short list to help you but covers only the basics of the executor’s duties and responsibilities in California. This is a mini probate executor course to help you avoid some of the common mistakes by executors in California. We offer an extensive probate executor course at our office for those who are not represented by counsel. The duties are the same for executors and probate administrators in California.
People ask: When should I probate a will or open an estate in California? Because the estate must be preserved, a California executor of an estate must not delay filing the petition for probate and must claim the position of the executor within 30 days from the date of death. If you have been named and do not file the proper paperwork in court, under Probate Code 8001 can effectively lose your position.
California Probate Code 8001 provides:
Unless good cause for delay is shown, if a person named in a will as executor fails to petition the court for administration of the estate within 30 days after the person has knowledge of the death of the decedent and that the person is named as executor, the person may be held to have waived the right to appointment as personal representative.