Probate Code 2620 is the section covering accountings by a conservator or guardian of the estate in California. The filing goes in on Judicial Council forms, the GC-400 series for conservatorships and GC-405 for guardianships, with account statements attached. Here is what the document contains and how the pieces fit.
What is in the filing?
The Summary of Account, GC-400(SUM)/GC-405(SUM), at the center. Around it, one form per schedule: property on hand at the start, receipts, gains on sales, disbursements, losses on sales, property on hand at the end, liabilities, other credits.
Account statements from the institutions holding estate assets, covering the closing date of the period.
How do the schedules fit together?
Each schedule totals up to the summary, and the summary balances.
Non-cash assets carry the value from the Inventory and Appraisal, form DE-160/GC-040. That figure holds until the asset is sold or a later appraisal changes it. When an asset sells, the return of carry value is not a receipt. The gain or loss over carry value goes on Schedule B or D, and the cash appears in property on hand at the end.
What causes issues?
Two sides that do not balance.
Disbursements that cannot be tied to the conservatee. A payment to a family member, a large cash withdrawal, an unfamiliar vendor, without a note explaining it.
Missing account statements.
Assets appearing mid-period that were never inventoried.
What makes it manageable?
Records kept during the period. Transactions categorized monthly, questions flagged when they come up, the explanation attached while it is still available. The accounting then reflects what happened instead of what can be reconstructed two years later.
Streamline Bookkeeping prepares conservatorship accountings and keeps the records between filings. More on the conservatorship accounting page.
*Bookkeeping services only. Not legal or tax advice. When an accounting is due comes from the court’s order and the attorney on the matter.*
