Estate Planning Attorney in Roseville, CA
If a median-priced home in Roseville goes through full probate, the statutory attorney’s and executor’s fees alone amount to about $32,400. This figure comes from California’s Probate Code section 10810, which is charged on the full value of the home, including the mortgage, and the case is heard in the Hon. Howard G. Gibson Court House on Justice Center Drive.
A handful of properly signed and funded documents make that bill unnecessary. Filippi Law Firm, P.C. builds estate plans for Roseville families, keeping the house, accounts, and hard decisions out of court.
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Without a Plan, Your Estate Goes to the Gibson Courthouse
The Placer County Superior Court handles probate through its Civil Division at the Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse, 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville. If you lived in Roseville when you died, your estate will be filed there, regardless of where your children may reside.
Here’s what that means for the people you leave behind:
- The file is public. Your will, the petition, and the inventory of what you owned all became court records. Anyone can look them up.
- A judge supervises every step. Your executor can’t touch an account until the court issues letters. A probate referee appraises the house and a probate examiner reviews each filing before the hearing. If there is one mistake, the hearing will be continued.
- Nothing closes quickly. Creditors have four months after the Letters issue to file claims under the Probate Code § 9100. Most Placer County estates take between nine and eighteen months. Our Roseville probate page goes through that process stage by stage.
The typical home value in Roseville is around $658,000. Newer homes in Fiddyment Farm, Westpark and Sierra Vista often go well beyond this. Most families are one house away from probate here, whether they consider themselves wealthy or not.
What AB 2016 Changed, and What It Didn’t
Assembly Bill 2016 gives modest estates a genuine shortcut. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, families can transfer a primary residence worth up to $750,000 through § 13151 petitions instead of full probate.
| Procedure | Covers | Deaths 4/1/2022 – 3/31/2025 | Deaths on or after 4/1/2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Estate Affidavit (§ 13100) | Bank accounts, vehicles, investments | $184,500 | $208,850 |
| Petition to Determine Succession (§§ 13151–13154) | Decedent’s primary residence only | $184,500 | $750,000 |
| Affidavit re Real Property of Small Value (§ 13200) | Low-value real property | $61,500 | $69,625 |
Helpful, yes. However, in Roseville, it runs out quickly:
- The $750,000 limit is measured at the time of death, not today. After five years at 3%, a $660,000 home would become roughly $765,000.
- Only a primary residence qualifies. A rental property, second home, or lot in Lincoln will not qualify.
- There is still a court process, with filing fees, notices to heirs, and an appraisal by a referee.
- If you are alive but unable to manage your affairs, it will not help at all.
AB 2016 provides a safety net, but it is not a plan.
The § 10810 Statutory Fee Schedule, in Dollars
California is one of the few states that determines attorney fees for probate cases based on a formula rather than by the hour. The Probate Code, Section 10810, sets the fee for attorneys. Section 10800 provides the personal representative with an equal amount.
Here are the percentages:
4% of the first $100,000
3% of the next $100,000
2% of the next $800,000
1% of the next $9 million
0.5% of the next $15 million, and an additional amount determined by the court for amounts over $25 million
Applied to the range most Roseville estates actually fall into:
| Gross estate value | Attorney fee | Executor fee | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| $300,000 | $9,000 | $9,000 | $18,000 |
| $500,000 | $13,000 | $13,000 | $26,000 |
| $750,000 | $18,000 | $18,000 | $36,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $23,000 | $23,000 | $46,000 |
| $1,500,000 | $28,000 | $28,000 | $56,000 |
| $2,000,000 | $33,000 | $33,000 | $66,000 |
What a Roseville Estate Plan Includes, Document by Document
“Estate plan” can mean anything from a one-page will to a binder. Our plan for Roseville homeowners usually includes eight pieces, each of which does a specific job.
Revocable Living Trust
Hold your home and major accounts. You stay in control as a trustee, and at your death, a successor trustee will transfer everything without going to court.
Trust Transfer Deed
Moves title to your Roseville home to the trust, recorded with Placer County Recorder, along Trust Transfer Deed Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. This is a skip online kit.
Pour-Over Will
Catches anything left outside the trust. It’s also where you can nominate a guardian for minor children.
Durable Power of Attorney
Someone should pay bills, manage accounts and deal with the IRS if they can. California’s statutory form is a starting point, but ours goes further.
Advance Health Care Directive
Your health care agent’s name and records of your treatment wishes are under Probate Code § 4701.
HIPAA Authorization
Let’s have doctors speak with the people you choose, even before anyone has to make a decision.
Certification of Trust
A short summary that banks and title companies accept in place of the full trust under § 18100.5. Your family’s details remain private.
Beneficiary Designation Review
Retirement accounts and life insurance are passed to beneficiaries, not through your trust. We check each one to make sure it matches the rest of the plan.
Why Roseville Families Call Jim Filippi
Before he practiced law, Jim Filippi was a California police officer. That career ended during a narcotics detail when a suspect trapped him in a vehicle and accelerated, dragging him down the street. The injuries healed, but the career did not return.
What he found next was estate law. And the connection was not as strange as it sounded. Both jobs were about showing up for people on their worst day of the year. Clients handing over their parents’ files were not signing documents; they were trusting someone with something their family had spent a lifetime building.