Author: Dustin Wetton
New court legislation in San Diego has caused the prices of filing for probate to increase in San Diego. As of the beginning of this month, the cost to file a probate filing with the court is $395. The filing cost is just the amount needed to create a probate case, it does not include the probate code regulated attorney fees, court fees, and examiner fees also associated with probate.
Yet before indulging into these costs, let’s reflect again on what exactly probate is. The probate court is a court designed to distribute and administer a person and their properties once that person dies. This is done for every individual that does not have a trust. Even if that person has a will, they still encounter and run through the gamut of the probate process. The only way to avoid probate is to have a valid trust established.
Thus, for purposes of this article, let’s say that there is no trust established by the deceased person. To initiate the process of distributing their assets, the remaining loved ones will have to file a petition for probate and incur the recently increased costs in San Diego of $395. This is just the initial filing fee. Once the documents are gathered and an examiner or attorney is appointed, then the court will add additional fees to the process. These fees are regulated by the probate code. One such fee is the court fee. The court fee ranges from $1,000 to $3,000 dollars, depending on the amount of complexity with the case. The other fee, the more costly one, is the attorney or the examiner fee. This fee is determined by the probate code by matching a certain percentage with the amount of the estate. For instance, if the estate values at $100,000, the attorney fee is 4%. This percentage heavily increases as the estate increases. The attorney fee can quickly reach $25,000. Determining the value of the estate is done by valuing all real and personal property of the deceased person, thus, it adds up fast when there is a car, jewelry, a house, and even clothing.
Therefore, with all the fees associated with probate, either the estate itself will foot the probate bill and thus disinherit some beneficiaries, or the remaining loved ones will have to pay the fees. Yet, as mentioned above, the probate process can be side-stepped through an established valid trust and estate plan. Further, the probate court only administers to the deceased person and their assets, a whole different court and different fees will be in addition to the cost of probate if there are any minors left behind. To best side-step these fees and costs, an estate plan is needed. Contact us at (619) 796-2381 to setup a free 30-minute consultation to start your estate planning.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this blog, email us at blog@lauruslaw.com.
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