The other $10,000 would have been the personal representative's (executor's) fee. On such a small estate the risk that the time far exceeds the percentage fee outweighs the possible benefit of the time being less than the percentage fee. But not only would many lawyers not want to negotiate fees on a $300,000 estate, many lawyers wouldn't want to handle a $300,000 estate absent an existing relationship with the decedent, the family, the named executor, or the referring lawyer.

There are some lawyers in California who will limit their fees to a time basis rather than the statutory fee. So that statutory fee on a $300,000 estate is $10,000 rather than $20,000. The statutory attorney's fee in California is 4% on the first $100,000, 3% from $100,000 to $200,000, 2% from $1 million to $10 million, 1% from $10 million to $25 million, and reasonable compensation above $25,000. That's why we have estates and executors. There aren't any cash bequests or estate taxes, and with only one beneficiary there isn't any problem of one beneficiary not wanting to contribute toward paying any debts, income taxes or funeral expenses.īut for larger amounts it would often be better to provide for the beneficiaries in trust rather than outright, and with more than one beneficiary you have to make sure that debts, expenses, taxes and cash bequests are paid. I am not sure why anyone in California would want an investment account’s assets subject to probate.įor such a small amount passing to one beneficiary outright a TOD account is just fine. Not a bad way for the attorney to make $20k. For his fee in handling the probate, the attorney is entitled to 7% of the account balance - probate fees are set by the court.

In California, the consequences of my uncle having only one of his two Fidelity accounts set up as TOD resulted in the assets in the non-TOD account being passed to my father - my uncle’s sole heir - through my uncle’s will.

Estate planning checklist 2018