California Partition Law Blog
The California Multi-Party Account Law governs financial accounts with multiple endorsers and beneficiaries, such as joint accounts, pay on death accounts, and Totten trust accounts. The law ensures transparency and protection for account holders by outlining how these accounts are managed, how funds are distributed on death, and the rights of each involved party. Understanding how California’s Multi-Party Account Law protects account holders and financial institutions helps prevent disputes and ensures the account holder’s intentions are respected at the time of distribution.
What is CAMPAL?
California’s Multi-Party Accounts Law (“CAMPAL”) regulates the ownership interest of individuals with joint bank accounts. (Prob. Code, § 5100.) The California Legislature enacted CAMPAL in 1990; now, CAMPAL applies to all accounts existing on, and established after, July 1, 1990. (Prob. Code, § 5205.)
Commercial real estate is property being operated to generate business revenue through rental income or capital gains. Because it is meant to generate revenue if it is residential property, it must be used as rental housing to still be considered commercial real estate. It is not personal property.
Yes. Judgments should properly name the fiduciary in their representative capacity when the fiduciary is involved in legal proceedings on behalf of a trust, estate, or other entity. Fiduciaries, such as trustees or executors hold a position of legal responsibility to manage and protect the interests of the beneficiaries or estate that they represent. Ensuring that fiduciaries are properly named and identified in their representative capacity clarifies their role in the proceeding and helps eliminate confusion about personal and official liability. Overall, properly naming fiduciaries in their representative capacity safeguards the fiduciary and the trust or estate they manage by providing clear understanding of the 
Dividing property following divorce or dissolution proceedings can be complicated under family law principles. If the property has appreciated in value, this can make dividing it more contentious and complicated.
In determining the value of property, a property owner can seek out a broker’s opinion of value. A broker’s opinion of value, also caller a broker’s price opinion is an assessment of a property’s value. This assessment is done by a real estate broker, often for free to get the property owner’s business.
In California, the typical trust administration takes between 12 to 18 months to complete. The process can take significantly less time, ranging between 4 to 5 months, when distribution terms are straightforward. Oppositely, the distribution time frame can also take longer than 18 months depending on factors, like outstanding debts or real estate sales, which can cause significant delays in the distribution process. Ultimately, the asset distribution timeline relies heavily on the complexity of the estate and the trustee’s ability to carry out the trust’s terms.
California businesses are required to register with the Secretary of State to legally conduct business in the state. The specific requirements a business must meet when registering with the Secretary of State vary depending on the type of business, but all businesses, regardless of type are required to file a Statement of Information. If the registering business is a Limited Liability Company, Corporation, or Limited Partnership, its Statement of Information will appear in public searches on the California Secretary of State Website. The California Secretary of State’s public business search platform is intended to ensure uniform legal compliance of all businesses operating in California while providing free public access to the information. 
Discovery is an important tool for parties in a lawsuit to get information to prepare for trial and to decide what issues to focus on in a case. In California, the rules governing discovery are laid out in the Civil Discovery Act in Title 4 of the Code of Civil Procedure. These discovery rules apply to civil lawsuits and special proceedings of a civil nature (Code Civ. Proc. § 2035) Probate proceedings are special proceedings, so these discovery procedures are equally applicable. (Estate of Joseph (1897) 118 Cal. 660, 663.) This is important because it allows parties to use deadlines and other discovery tools to their advantage in a probate proceeding.
Probate sales are a unique real estate opportunity for buyers to purchase real property from the court after its owner died. 
In California, title is determinative in some instances. This means that a court’s characterization of property in a marital dissolution proceeding determines the division of the property between spouses. How a property is titled may also affect the property’s protection from creditors, taxes, and the probate process. Understanding how and when title is determinative is important because married individuals may hold title in various forms affecting their interests in dissolutions.