Probate Attorney in West Hills

Probate Attorney in West Hills

West Hills has an unusual number of households where three generations live within a few miles of each other, and estates here regularly include grandchildren. That introduces a problem most families have never considered.

A minor cannot receive an inheritance

If a will leaves a share to a grandchild who is under 18, or a beneficiary designation names a minor, the money cannot simply be handed over. A minor lacks legal capacity to receive and manage it.

What happens instead is a second court process on top of the probate. Depending on the amount, that can mean a guardianship of the estate, with a court-appointed guardian filing inventories and accountings until the child turns 18, or a blocked account that nobody can touch without a court order.

Then on the child’s eighteenth birthday, whatever is left is handed over outright. Most parents, asked directly, do not want a large sum going to an eighteen-year-old with no conditions. But that is the default the law supplies when nothing else was arranged.

This is entirely avoidable with planning, which is why it is worth raising even in a probate that is already underway. If there are younger siblings or cousins in the same family, the same problem is coming for them.

Where the money came from matters

The most common route to this is not a will. It is a beneficiary designation on a retirement account or a life insurance policy naming a grandchild directly, usually set up by a grandparent who wanted to be generous and did not know the consequence.

Those assets pass outside the estate entirely, so the probate does not control them, and the insurer or plan administrator will not pay a minor. The family ends up in a guardianship proceeding for an asset that never went through probate at all.

The ordinary parts

Everything else about a West Hills probate is standard for Los Angeles County. It is filed and heard downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, there is no Valley probate court, and the calendar is shared with the whole county. Plan on twelve to eighteen months.

Most of it does not require the family in a courtroom. I handle the filings, and the work happens by phone and video.

Questions West Hills clients ask

My mother left a share to my son, who is 12. What happens? It cannot be paid to him. Depending on the amount that means a guardianship of the estate with court supervision and accountings, or a blocked account, until he turns 18. Then whatever remains is handed to him outright.

It was a life insurance policy, not the will. Does that help? No, and it is the most common route to this. The asset passes outside the estate, so the probate does not control it, but the insurer still will not pay a minor. You can end up in a guardianship proceeding for an asset that never went through probate.

Can we avoid the court process? For money already payable to a minor, usually not entirely. For the rest of the family, absolutely, and it is worth doing now. A trust holds a child’s share and pays it on terms you choose rather than at 18.

Where is a West Hills probate filed? Downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street. Los Angeles County centralizes probate there and there is no Valley probate court.

How long does it take? Plan on twelve to eighteen months. A guardianship of the estate running alongside adds its own timeline and continues until the child turns 18.

Talk to Eric or call 805-244-5291. I serve West Hills and the surrounding San Fernando Valley communities.

For how probate works and what it costs, see probate in California. To keep a child’s inheritance out of court and off an eighteenth birthday, see living trusts in West Hills.