Rothdeutsch Fiduciary Team works with private individuals and the courts to administer conservatorships, trusts and probates.
We provide critical services to seniors, persons with disabilities, and children. We manage matters for clients including :
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We offer financial management services ranging from basic bill paying to estate and investment management.
By definition, a fiduciary is a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another. In the state of California, private professional fiduciaries are licensed by the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau of the Department of Consumer Affairs, enabling us to act on behalf of multiple persons not related to us for a fee. In practice, we most often serve as trustees, probate estate administrators and conservators of the estate and person. Acting in these positions, the responsibilities we undertake are tremendous because of the considerable trust that others place in us to manage and optimize their financial assets, protect their health, safety and quality of life, and ensure that their end-of-life wishes are respected and properly fulfilled. The Rothdeutsch & Associates Team has established a position of prominence in the central California trust and estate community by demonstrating—day in and day out—our abiding commitment to honor the trust others place in us, and by performing our fiduciary duties in a manner that’s professional, competent, savvy, responsive and fundamentally fair to those who offer us their trust.
The Rothdeutsch & Associates Team strives, first and foremost, to ensure that the trust instrument is thoroughly understood and that the actions we take are scrupulously guided by the settlors’ wishes. Accomplishing this requires a broad and deep understanding of the complexities of marshaling of financial assets, optimization of return enjoyed by those assets while maintaining an appropriately balanced investment portfolio, management of obligations of the trust (including routine bill payment), filing of tax returns and resolution of disputes among trust beneficiaries.
Given the current popularity of living trusts for avoidance of probate fees (among many other compelling advantages they offer), the administration of probate estates has become something of a specialty practice for private professional fiduciaries. But for the heirs of decedent estates which don’t include a trust—and often don’t even include a will—the substantial expertise in probate administration offered by The Rothdeutsch & Associates Team can make the difference between a protracted, costly, highly-litigated probate process and an expediently managed estate administration which is fundamentally fair and reflective of the wishes of the decedent. That’s because we understand the complexities of probate administrations and the very special demands of working with the court for resolution and approval of key issues involved—including marshaling and appraisal of estate assets, identification of legitimate heirs of the estate and submission of a petition for account which includes a specific plan for final distribution of assets.
Without question, the greatest position of trust and professional responsibility a private professional fiduciary can undertake is that of conservator of the person and estate of an individual who has lost the capacity to make his or her own decisions regarding issues of placement, personal health, medical treatment and management of personal financial assets. Rothdeutsch & Associates began its practice focusing on conservatorships of the person and estate (and administration of the trusts that often accompany them), so we have a very substantial depth of knowledge with respect to this extraordinarily complex and challenging variety of court-supervised casework. Perhaps most important, we have an enduring commitment to preserving the health and welfare of the persons we conserve according to their wishes as we understand them, and to maximizing their personal autonomy within the limits of their capacities.
The Rothdeutsch & Associates Team is especially committed to administration of this specialized form of trust instrument because of the substantial benefits it provides for disabled persons—specifically the ability of the trustee to make discretionary payments for the beneficiary’s health, education, maintenance and support while preserving his or her eligibility for means-tested public benefits. Our team’s substantial experience with the administration of Special Needs Trusts is fundamental to ensuring that expenditure plans are developed commensurate with the trust’s (often limited) financial assets, the beneficiary’s eligibility for public benefits is preserved and the trust’s assets are protected from invasion by outside creditors.