Tentative Ruling: Conservatorship of James Edward Gernert

Case Number

25PR00363

Case Type

Hearing Date / Time

Tue, 04/07/2026 - 09:00

Nature of Proceedings

Final Accounting and Report

Tentative Ruling

Probate Notes:

Appearances required.

The following is noted for the Court at the hearing:

Petitioner is a private professional fiduciary that was appointed temporary conservator on August 28, 2025, and general conservator on September 9, 2025.  Conseravtee passed away on November 10, 2025.

On February 4, 2026, Petitioner filed a Final Inventory and Appraisal showing that estate assets worth over $5 million had been marshalled. Despite this express list of high value, marshalled estate property, Petitioner now submits a pleading titled an “accounting” that does not comply with Probate Code section 1060, et seq. requirements for a probate accounting, in an effort to request the court to waive the accounting requirement due to the proximity of conservatee’s death to the date of appointment.

Petitioner offers no authority in support of the request for waiver, and curiously cites to Probate Code section 2628 acknowledging that code’s requirement to account.  In fact, section 2628 clearly requires an accounting under every circumstance that does not meet the express exceptions listed in that section:

(a) The court may make an order that the guardian or conservator need not present the accounts otherwise required by this chapter so long as all of the following conditions are satisfied:

(1) The estate at the beginning and end of the accounting period for which an account is otherwise required consisted of property, exclusive of the residence of the ward or conservatee, of a total net value of less than fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).

(2) The income of the estate for each month of the accounting period, exclusive of public benefit payments, was less than two thousand dollars ($2,000).

(3) All income of the estate during the accounting period, if not retained, was spent for the benefit of the ward or conservatee.

(b) Notwithstanding that the court has made an order under subdivision (a), the ward or conservatee or any interested person may petition the court for an order requiring the guardian or conservator to present an account as otherwise required by this chapter or the court on its own motion may make that an order. An order under this subdivision may be made ex parte or on such notice of hearing as the court in its discretion requires.

(c) For any accounting period during which all of the conditions of subdivision (a) are not satisfied, the guardian or conservator shall present the account as otherwise required by this chapter.

(Prob. Code, §2628.)

Further, this Court had a statutory duty to force an accounting when one is not provided. (Prob. Code, §2620.2(a).)  It is difficult to fathom any scenario where a Court could waive an accounting under the circumstances admitted to in the “accounting” that was submitted in this case.  There is no caselaw or statutory authority to do so, and waiving an account under the circumstances here would clearly violate the Court’s duty to complete an independent review of all conservatorship estates.

Therefore, the Court should deny the request for waiver of a full, Probate Code compliant accounting, and order a full accounting of the estate from the date of appointment as temporary conservator (August 28, 2025) to the date of death of the conservatee (Nov. 10, 2025), and stub accounting from the date of death to the date the estate is turned over the personal representative of the decedent’s estate.

Appearances:

The court is open to the public for court business. The court is also conducting hearings via Zoom videoconference.

Meeting ID: 160 543 3416

Passcode: 5053334