What is the notice to creditors?

What is the notice to creditors?

Attorney Gadi Zohar explains:

Notice to creditors is a very important part of the probate process.

Now there can be a notice to creditors also in a trust administration that’s a little different right now I’m going to be talking about it in the probate process.

In probate creditors get notice in two general ways. First, there’s a newspaper notice that’s printed in that is deemed by the law to give notice to the entire world of your probate.

That’s very important because if you did give proper notice to creditors and someone didn’t come forward, and perhaps you didn’t know about them, but you honestly didn’t know about them, they can also be foreclosed from filing a creditor’s claim later because you provided that newspaper notice.

The other notices are a direct notice that’s given to a creditor on a specific form provided by the California Judicial Council. And that notice sets up a time period where a creditor has to make their creditors claim, an administrator or executor decides whether the creditors claim is appropriate and then pays it or doesn’t pay it accordingly.

It’s a very important part of the probate process, and it’s really important to have a knowledgeable estate planning or probate attorney assist you with giving creditors notice.