When someone dies and there is a revocable living trust — there are three questions that come to mind immediately:

1. Does a notification need to go out? California Probate Code Section 16061.7 requires that a notification be served when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable, upon change of trustee or other event stated in the Code. This notification is always required when a revocable living trust is involved and one of the settlors (or creators of the trust) has died.

2. Does a Certification of Trust need to be prepared? If there are assets out there other than real estate, will the successor trustee need to marshal those assets? Get them out of the name of the trustee who has died and into the name of the surviving co-trustee who will now be the sole trustee or will a new trustee be stepping up to the role? If so, a Certification of Trust pursuant to California Probate Code Section 18100.5 may be needed to present to others to retitle assets properly.

3. Does an Affidavit of Death of [Co-]Trustee need to be prepared? Where the revocable living trust holds title to real estate, the property should have been transferred to the trustees of the revocable living trust when the trust was created. The trustees at that time was likely to be the settlors (or creators of the trust) and if one or both of the settlors has died — an Affidavit of Death should be prepare and recorded against the real estate to clear title so that everyone is on notice that the trustee(s) has died and that the trustee(s) are either the surviving co-trustee now serving as sole trustee or successor trustee(s) are now in holding title of the real estate.

These three questions are my first threshold questions when assisting clients in the beginning stages of trust administration where a loved one has died and there is a revocable living trust. It is important to seek legal advice and legal representation regarding trust administration if you are not sure of your role as a surviving co-trustee, successor trustee or even a beneficiary when someone with a revocable living trust has died.

Of course, there are other questions that may also immediately come to mind like, but that’s not the topic of this post:

4. Do we have a high net worth trust and/or estate where federal estate taxes may be an issue? [And would a state inheritance tax also be an issue?]

5. Do we have a trust that requires an allocation or a split into subtrusts following the death of one spouse?

6. Do we need to obtain an Federal EIN for tax purposes?

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Estate Planning, Probate and Trusts involve complex areas of law. Individual circumstances must be considered before any advice can be given.  The general information above is not to be construed as legal advice, which can only be given after consideration of the unique facts of each matter. Please seek the advice or counsel of your attorney, financial advisor or CPA as it may be appropriate.