Court Accounting Training Class Contra Costa County
Court accounting is a legal duty for all Guardians, Conservators, and Probate Executors or Probate Administrators.
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These groups of persons are also commonly referred to as “fiduciaries”.
What does it mean to be a fiduciary? This is the highest legal duty of one party to another, being a fiduciary requires being bound ethically to act in the other’s best interests. A fiduciary might be responsible for general well-being, but often the task involves the financial duty to manage the assets of another person, or of a group of people.
These fiduciaries are authorized by the court to manage the assets that they do not own. The fiduciary is acting like a bank holding assets of another. Trustees that voluntarily (or involuntarily) submit court accounting also required to follow the specific requirements of the California Probate Code. The CA Probate Code provides for judicial supervision of fiduciaries handling the assets of third parties.
The duties of a court appointed: Guardian, conservator of the estate, Executor of a Probate Estate, and Trustees under Supervision of the Court are to do the following tasks:
- Manage the person’s or estate finances.
- Locate and take control of all assets.
- Collect the person’s or estate income.
- Make a budget to show what the person or estate can afford.
- Pay the person or estate’s bills.
- Responsibly invest the person or estate’s money.
- Protect the person or estate’s assets.
- Account to the court and to the person or estate beneficiaries for the management of the assets.
Read the Handbook for Conservators to learn more about conservatorships, guardianships, probate executors and trustees’ under supervision of the court.
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Court Accounting Procedures
Conservators, Executors and Trustees of the estate must file an account of the fiduciary estate one year after appointment and at least once every two years after that. The account includes a written report to the probate court explaining what the conservator of the estate has done to manage the estate and-particularly if he or she is requesting compensation what the conservator of the person has done to care for the conservatee. The report should also describe the conservatee’s current circumstances and is accompanied by accounting schedules that show what the conservator has done and the current condition of the estate in dollar figures. This report also asks the judge to approve the conservator’s actions in managing the estate and in caring for the conservatee and to approve any other requests the conservator makes, such as for orders approving compensation for the conservator and for his or her lawyer. For this reason, the report is sometimes called a petition, or a petition and report.
Legal Advice: You should get legal advice anytime you are unsure about the meaning or significance of a legal issue.
Avoid These Serious Court Accounting Mistakes!
- Never mix your own investments and money with the conservatee’s. Even though it may seem convenient at the time to deposit a check made out to the conservatee into your own bank account, it could get you into trouble. The conservatee’s assets should be kept in accounts in your name as conservator of the estate, using the conservatee’s social security number.
- Don’t manage the conservatorship estate so that you or your family or friends profit from it. For example, if you were to sell the conservatee’s car to your son for less than what it was worth without getting a judge’s approval, you would be violating your duty as conservator of the estate. Similarly, you may not give your friends the conservatee’s furniture or other possessions, nor may you move into the conservatee’s home without paying fair rent.
- Never borrow money from the estate. You must not use estate funds or the estate’s credit to get loans or credit for yourself, even if you will inherit the estate when the conservatee dies.
- Do not give yourself or anyone else a gift from estate funds without getting a judge’s approval first.
- Do not pay yourself or the conservator of the person fees from the estate without a judge’s approval first.
- Don’t pay fees with estate funds to your lawyer, to the lawyer for the conservator of the person, or to the lawyer for the conservatee, without getting a judge’s approval first.
Watch an online Court Accounting Training Class by Rex Crandell Firm
Rex Crandell Firm hosts a few Court Accounting Training Classes each year – give our office a call today at 925-934-6320 if you would like information on the next upcoming class!
