Prohibited Beneficiary - Exceptions

As discussed in the previous post certain types of people can be prohibited beneficiaries.

It should be quite obvious that the reason for this law is to protect a dependent adult from any scrupulous handling by a care custodian who could easily take advantage of someone and cause them to name that care custodian as the whole beneficiary of estate assets. This is a very easy situation to occur considering how much time the care custodian would be spending with the dependent adult while taking care of their daily health and social needs. There have been many cases where a care custodian has convinced the one they are caring for to write or re-write their estate documents to benefit themselves and not the true loved ones of the decedent.

However, there may be times when a dependent adult is sound of mind enough to actually want to make legitimate bequests to a care custodian. Under the California Probate Code Sections 21351(b), 21384, a valid transfer may still be made if an independent attorney provides a certificate of independent review. The attorney must inform the dependent adult of the need for this certificate or else he/she can be held liable for malpractice. And do not forget, this attorney cannot otherwise be involved in drafting any of the original estate documents. So, if you wish to go the route of obtaining a certificate of independent review, you will need to hire a completely separate unrelated attorney from the one that drafted your estate documents.

For more information about transferring estate assets to beneficiaries that might otherwise be prohibited from receiving them under California Probate Law, please contact a professional Estate Planning Attorney.


*This blog entry was not written by an Attorney and should not be constituted as professional legal advice.