When the account is due
Under California Probate Code §2620, the conservator or guardian of the estate files an account one year after appointment and at least every two years after that, and more often if the court orders. Under rule 7.575 of the California Rules of Court, only the Summary of Account, GC-400(SUM)/GC-405(SUM), must be on the Judicial Council form. The other standard account forms are optional, but schedules prepared without them must use the same categories, give the same information and follow the same general format (rule 7.575(e)(5)–(6)).
The GC-400 standard account
The GC-400 series is the Judicial Council’s set of California conservatorship accounting forms, and it lays out the standard account for conservators and guardians. The account opens with the Summary of Account, GC-400(SUM), supported by schedules that:
- Group receipts and disbursements into the form’s subject-matter categories, each subtotaled
- Show cash and non-cash assets separately
- List check numbers, and the date of the order authorizing each fee or distribution
Rule 7.575 of the California Rules of Court applies the standard account to conservatorships and guardianships, even where the forms themselves are not used.
Standard account or simplified account?
Rule 7.575 makes the standard account, GC-400, the default. A conservator or guardian may file the simplified account, GC-405, only when all of these are true:
- The estate’s appraised value, not counting the conservatee’s or ward’s personal residence, is less than $500,000
- The estate holds no income-generating real property
- The estate holds no interest, whole or partial, in a trade or business
- The court has not ordered a standard account
Even then, if the simplified receipts schedule, GC-405(A), or the simplified disbursements schedule, GC-405(C), would be longer than five pages, the standard receipt or disbursement forms must be used for that part; the rest may stay simplified (rule 7.575(d)(2)).
Every other estate files the standard GC-400 account. That is the account Balanced generates.
A complete GC-400 example
See a complete sample GC-400 account, schedule by schedule, or download the free GC-400 accounting template in Excel.
An automated way to generate it
Balanced is a new kind of conservatorship accounting software: automated California fiduciary accounting technology. Add the conservatorship or guardianship estate’s PDF bank and brokerage statements, and Balanced returns the account in the GC-400 layout as one fully editable Excel workbook, each account reconciled to its own statements and the summary balanced to the penny:
- The Summary of Account, with every schedule linked to it
- Receipts and disbursements grouped into the form’s categories and subtotaled
- Cash and non-cash assets at the beginning and end of the period
- Securities carried lot by lot, with gains and losses computed from carry value
Each row cites the statement and page it came from. Name the matter “Conservatorship of ...” or “Guardianship of ...” and Balanced uses the GC-400 format automatically. $699 per accounting.