Article
How California Is Fine-Tuning Trust and Estate Administration
Wealth Management
by Jacob V. Phillips
Private Client Services Associate Jacob Phillips authored an article for Wealth Management discussing two trust and estate related laws recently passed in California, AB-565 and AB-1521. The article summarizes the key provisions of each law and explains the benefits they offer in the context of trusts and estates.
Excerpts:
On July 14, 2025, California enacted AB-565, which changed the notice rules for trust actions to allow for “virtual representation,” the principle by which one beneficiary can represent another beneficiary similarly situated to them with regard to notice of actions involving a trust. AB-565 rewrites California Probate Code (CPC) Section 15804, bringing California into greater conformity with both the Uniform Trust Code and the 47 other states that already use some form of virtual representation. However, the effects of the new rules likely won’t be immediate, and practitioners are expected to proceed with caution.
Among a suite of more substantive changes to the law, AB-1521 added a new item to the list of duties of a personal representative administering an estate. For estates for which letters are issued on or after Jan. 1, 2026, under the revised Probate Code Section 9202, a personal representative must within 90 days of the issuance of letters notify the California Director of Child Support Services (the agency responsible for enforcing child support orders) if the personal representative knows or has reason to believe the decedent had an existing child support obligation at the time of their death. The bill also provides that a local child support agency then has four months to assert a claim after receiving notice of the decedent’s death.
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