Fiduciary Accounting Services
Fiduciary accounting services that protect your clients, create transparency, and provide you with confidence.
When dealing with trusts and estates, it’s common to encounter complex situations where courts require fiduciary accounting. These scenarios may arise during estate probate, trust administration, beneficiary disputes or legal actions against a trustee.
Partnering with BPM’s Fiduciary Accounting team can help prevent or alleviate many of these disputes. Accurate and timely fiduciary accounting helps uphold the fiduciary’s responsibilities, safeguards the interests of beneficiaries, and supports the legal team responsible for creating and maintaining trusts and estates.
Fiduciary accounting benefits
- Compliance with legal requirements: California law mandates trustees to furnish beneficiaries with an annual accounting. Even when not obligatory, such accounting reassures beneficiaries and demonstrates adherence to the grantor’s intentions.
- Early issue detection: Regular accounting reviews can uncover hidden problems before they escalate, preventing future complications. This proactive approach mitigates risks and ensures smoother trust management.
- Enhanced confidence: Implementing transparent accounting practices can help instill greater trust among beneficiaries, reassuring them that assets are being managed appropriately and shielded from misuse.
- Legal team support: Partnering with BPM’s Fiduciary Accounting team bolsters confidence within your legal team. Ensuring accuracy and compliance minimizes the likelihood of disputes among beneficiaries, enhancing overall trust administration.
How BPM can help
BPM presents a detailed accounting of all transactions associated with trusts, estates, guardianships or conservatorships for court use in California. Our Fiduciary Accounting Services allow the court and beneficiaries to review and approve your actions as a trustee. We can advise that valuations of closely held business interests or other assets meet the strict IRS appraisal requirements for gift or estate tax purposes.
By providing regular accounting, we can reduce the need for costly historical research when a Form 706 is filed. When necessary, we can investigate the trust’s historical records to determine if the trustee has upheld their fiduciary requirements in keeping with the grantor’s desires. Finally, in those cases when litigation is required, BPM provides detailed expert analysis and court testimony if needed.
Our approach
Our Fiduciary Accounting Services at BPM are designed to help ensure compliance and transparency. The following outlines our approach in providing these services:
- Review the trust agreement to understand the nuances of the trust and the grantor’s intentions when they initially set it up.
- Identify and analyze the assets held in the trust to ascertain any instances of comingling or activities contrary to the trust agreement.
- Collect and organize all pertinent documents and information necessary for preparing fiduciary accountings.
- Prepare comprehensive schedules, summaries and specific supplements detailing the trust’s financial activities.
- Adhere to the fiduciary accountancy standards mandated by the Probate Code to maintain legal compliance.
- Provide accurate and transparent accounting documents for beneficiaries, probate court and legal proceedings.
Our comprehensive approach to fiduciary accounting not only helps ensure adherence to legal requirements but also minimizes the potential for disputes among beneficiaries. We understand the unique complexities and subtle nuances of detailed and accurate trust accounting. Integrating BPM’s Fiduciary Accounting Services into your annual trust administration from the start creates transparency and provides you with confidence and peace of mind in your fiduciary role.
We can educate you on the trustee’s responsibilities and manage the day-to-day financial transactions for larger trusts. Our approach provides each stakeholder with an understanding of all financial issues. It also reduces the necessity for costly historical research when a 706 is filed and the chance that disagreements between beneficiaries will result in litigation.
Contact us today to learn more about how our Fiduciary Accounting Services can protect your interests and streamline trust administration.
