Burbank Living Trust: Protecting Entertainment Industry Estates
Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Burbank's courthouse on East Olive Avenue does not hear probate. An estate from Burbank goes to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, and on a house at the city's typical value of $1,176,932 the statutory attorney and executor fees add up to $49,538.64. Our office is in Burbank, on West Olive Avenue, and an attorney-prepared living trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
To keep a Burbank home out of probate, sign a revocable living trust and record a deed with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder that moves the home into it. A house left in your own name at Zillow's August 2026 typical Burbank value of $1,176,932 would be probated at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, where Probate Code §10810 and §10800 allow the attorney and the executor $49,538.64 between them. The trust is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple.
Key Takeaways
The Burbank Courthouse at 300 E. Olive Avenue does not hear probate. Los Angeles County probate is filed in the Central District, and almost every case is heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street.
Zillow put the typical Burbank home value at $1,176,932 on August 31, 2026. The statutory fees on that gross value are $24,769.32 for the attorney and the same for the executor, $49,538.64 in all.
Burbank is a city of its own, not part of the City of Los Angeles, and it has no special city transfer tax rate. A deed into your own revocable trust owes $0.00 in documentary transfer tax.
Burbank has no county recording office. The closest one that records deeds is in Van Nuys, about seven miles west in a straight line.
Studio and production work brings assets a deed never touches: residuals, royalties, copyrights, stock awards and guild or union plans. Each needs its own step.
Our office is in Burbank, at 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300. The trust is $400 single or $500 for a couple, and a deed is $100 per property.
Which Court Hears a Burbank Probate
Courthouse
Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Stanley Mosk Courthouse
Address
111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone
(213) 830-0800, the court's listed number for the Stanley Mosk Courthouse; the call centers answer from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
Department
Assigned by the court when the petition is filed; check the court's website for the department on your case before any hearing
Not here
Burbank Courthouse, 300 E. Olive Avenue, does not hear probate
People in Burbank sometimes expect an estate to be handled at the courthouse on East Olive Avenue. That building does not hear probate. Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.3 assigns probate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship filings to the Central District, and almost every Los Angeles County probate case is heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse on North Hill Street, roughly nine miles from the Burbank Courthouse as the crow flies. Probate Code §7051 places the case in the county where the decedent was domiciled, so a Burbank resident's estate is a Los Angeles County case even when the death happens out of state. The court's one filing exception is the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster for North District matters, and since February 2, 2026 those cases are also heard at Mosk.
A probate case opens with a petition for letters, which costs $435 to file under the statewide fee schedule that took effect January 1, 2026. Notice is published, a probate referee appointed by the court values the property for the inventory, creditors get at least four months to file claims, and the case ends only when a judge signs an order approving the final distribution. When an heir or a creditor contests something that needs a long trial, the court sends it to Department 64 of the Metropolitan Courthouse, 1945 S. Hill Street, under an assignment that took effect September 15, 2025. Every petition, inventory and account in the file is open to the public.
Property that sits in a funded trust skips all of that. The successor trustee you name takes over under the trust document, gathers the assets, pays the last bills and taxes, gives the notices the Probate Code requires of a trustee, and signs a trustee's deed for the Burbank house when it is time to distribute. Our article on Los Angeles County probate judges and departments covers the downtown courtrooms.
Recording a Trust Deed for a Burbank Home
Recorder
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
Nearest office
Van Nuys, 14340 W. Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, CA 91401, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
Main office
12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90650, open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Lancaster (44509 16th Street West, Suite 101) and LAX/Courthouse (11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard, 6th Floor) also record documents.
By mail
Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250
Phone
(800) 201-8999
Recording fee
$15.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each page after it, plus county program fees on a deed: $7.00 for fraud notification and $2.00 under AB 1466. A quitclaim deed that is not subject to transfer tax also pays the $10.00 District Attorney real estate fraud fee, which rose from $5 on June 1, 2026.
SB 2 fee
$75.00 per document under Government Code §27388.1, capped at $225 per transaction, unless an exemption is stated on the document or on the county's SB 2 cover page
PCOR
A deed recorded without a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report can be charged $20.00 more under Revenue and Taxation Code §480.3(b)
A signed trust does not, by itself, change who owns your house. Ownership moves when a deed from you, as owner, to you, as trustee, is recorded. The deed has to carry over the legal description and Assessor's Parcel Number from your current vesting deed word for word. If your Burbank home is a condominium or townhome, its legal description usually combines a unit number, a recorded condominium plan and a fractional interest in the common area. Drop one of those pieces and the trust can end up holding less than you own.
The Preliminary Change of Ownership Report travels with the deed. It has a box for a transfer into a trust the owner can revoke, and Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says that transfer is not a change in ownership, so the Los Angeles County Assessor keeps your Proposition 13 base year value. The living trust property tax guide goes through the reassessment rules.
On the SB 2 fee: our trust transfer deeds claim the owner-occupier exemption in Government Code §27388.1(a)(2) on the face of the deed, so the $75 is usually not charged on a deed moving your own home into your trust. It is charged on rentals, second homes and vacant land, up to $225 per transaction. A Burbank duplex you rent out, or a condominium you bought for a grown child and lease to tenants, pays it.
Burbank is not part of the City of Los Angeles. When Los Angeles annexed much of the San Fernando Valley in 1915, Burbank had its own water wells and stayed independent, and that still shows up in transfer tax. The county's documentary transfer tax page lists five cities with their own rates, Culver City, Los Angeles, Pomona, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica, and Burbank is not one of them, so a Burbank sale pays only the standard $0.55 per $500 that the county recorder collects. The house across the line in Toluca Lake or North Hollywood is inside the City of Los Angeles and pays that city's rate on a sale. For a deed into your own revocable trust none of this matters: nothing is sold, the tax is $0.00, and the deed states the Revenue and Taxation Code §11930 exemption on its face, as the county requires.
We prepare the deed and the PCOR for $100 per property, and you record them at Van Nuys, Norwalk or another county recording office, or by mail. Recording fees change on January 1, 2027, when AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) raises the Government Code §27361(a) fee from $10 to $15.00 for the first page and from $3 to $4.00 for each additional page, with county program fees still added. The Registrar-Recorder's notice dated September 24, 2026 says the new base fee will apply to documents received on or after January 1, 2027, subject to Board approval and required notice, and that the county will drop its penalty print, nonconforming page, referencing and indexing fees. New county totals were not posted when we checked on October 6, 2026. The trust transfer deed guide explains the form itself.
What Probate Would Cost on a Typical Burbank Home
Zillow's Home Value Index gave a typical Burbank home value of $1,176,932 for August 2026 (Zillow research data through August 31, 2026), and the table below uses that number. Probate Code §10810 sets the estate attorney's ordinary fee as a sliding percentage of the gross estate: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% of the next $9 million. Gross means the loan balance is not subtracted, so a Burbank house with a large mortgage is charged as if it were owned free and clear. Probate Code §10800 lets the executor claim the same amount.
Filing fee: $435 for the first petition, the statewide amount; Los Angeles County is not one of the counties that charge more.
Probate referee: one-tenth of one percent of the appraised property under Probate Code §8961, about $1,177 on this house.
Creditor period: four months after letters are first issued (Probate Code §9100), so no estate closes sooner.
The California probate fees guide walks through each charge. The small estate procedures do not reach a typical Burbank house: the Probate Code §13100 affidavit is limited to $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and the §13151 primary residence petition to $750,000. At $1,176,932 the typical home is over both, and even a §13151 petition for a smaller condominium is still a filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court. For a comparison of a trust, a transfer on death deed and joint tenancy on a house, see how to avoid probate on a California home.
Burbank Property, Studio Pay and Your Trust
An independent city of about 107,000
Burbank incorporated on July 8, 1911, and the 2020 Census counted 107,337 residents on 17.32 square miles of land. Glendale is its neighbor to the east, the Los Angeles neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Toluca Lake lie to the west, Griffith Park is to the south, and the Verdugo Mountains form the northern edge. The city kept its own water supply in the years when its neighbors joined Los Angeles, was among the first 13 cities to join the Metropolitan Water District in 1928, and still runs its own utility, Burbank Water and Power. One small practical result: when a successor trustee takes over a Burbank house, the water and electric account is changed with a city department, not with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
The firm's office is on West Olive Avenue
The Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene are at 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505. Rozsa Gyene has been licensed to practice law in California since 2000 (State Bar #208356). The office address does not change how a Burbank trust works: the deed is still recorded by the county, and the documents are signed before a notary. You do not need an office appointment to complete the questionnaire or sign.
Studio paychecks and the assets a deed does not reach
The city's Popular Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 lists Burbank's principal employers as Warner Bros. Discovery, The Walt Disney Company, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, the Burbank Unified School District, the City of Burbank, Nickelodeon, Netflix, the payroll company Cast & Crew, and Deluxe Shared Services. Warner Bros., NBC and Disney ended up close together along the southern edge of the city, in what is now called the Media District. People who work in film, television, music and animation often own assets that do not show up on a title report:
Residuals and royalties. The right to future payments is personal property. The assignment of personal property in our package moves your personal property into the trust, and the questionnaire asks you to list each source of residuals and royalties. Payors have their own procedures, so expect your successor trustee to send each one a death certificate and a certification of trust before checks are reissued.
Copyrights you own. Under 17 U.S.C. §201(d) a copyright can be transferred by any means of conveyance, which includes a transfer to your trust. Work you made as an employee is usually a work made for hire, and under §201(b) the employer, such as the studio, is treated as the author and owns the copyright unless a written agreement signed by both of you says otherwise, so in most cases there is no copyright of yours to transfer.
Termination rights. When an author has licensed or sold a copyright on or after January 1, 1978, in a work that is not a work made for hire, 17 U.S.C. §203 lets the author, and after death the widow or widower, children and grandchildren, end that grant during a five-year window that generally opens 35 years after the grant. The statute gives the dead author's termination interest to those relatives in fixed shares and says termination may be effected notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, including an agreement to make a will. Your trust cannot redirect it; only if none of those relatives are living does it go to the executor, administrator, personal representative or trustee.
Guild, union and studio retirement plans. Pensions, 401(k) plans and IRAs pass by the plan's beneficiary form. 29 U.S.C. §1055 applies to ERISA pension and 401(k) plans set up by private employers or unions; government and church plans are outside ERISA under 29 U.S.C. §1003(b), and IRAs are not covered. Under §1055, if you are married and want someone other than your spouse to get the survivor benefit, or the account in a 401(k) plan, the spouse has to consent in writing, witnessed by a plan representative or a notary.
Stock awards. Restricted stock units and options follow the employer's plan documents. Vested shares already in a brokerage account can be retitled to the trust or given a transfer on death beneficiary; unvested awards pay out under the plan's own death rules.
The Rancho Equestrian District and horses
The Rancho, roughly bounded by Griffith Park, Victory Boulevard, Olive Avenue and Alameda Avenue, is zoned so residents can keep horses, and many of its homes have stables. Part of the Rancho extends into Glendale. Two trust points follow. First, check which city your parcel is actually in by reading the vesting deed, not the mailing address; either way the county records the deed and neither city has a special transfer tax rate. Second, a horse is personal property that the trust can leave to a named person, and Probate Code §15212 allows a trust for the care of an animal, with money set aside for feed, board and veterinary bills and a caregiver you choose. Our pet trust guide explains how such a provision works.
Magnolia Park, postwar houses and the Mills Act
Magnolia Park, bounded by West Verdugo Avenue, Chandler Boulevard, Hollywood Way and Buena Vista Street, is mostly houses built in the 1940s for returning World War II veterans. A house bought decades ago often has a taxable value far below market, which matters under Proposition 19 (see below). Burbank also adopted a Mills Act program in 2010, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, after completing a citywide historic resources survey in 2009. A Mills Act contract lasts at least ten years and binds every successor in interest of the owner under Government Code §50281, so a contract property moved into your trust keeps the contract, and your successor trustee and beneficiaries take it with the same preservation duties. File the recorded contract with your trust papers.
Most Burbank households rent
Of the 43,644 occupied housing units the 2020 Census found in Burbank, 41.9% were owner-occupied and 58.1% were rented. A renter with no real estate may not need a trust to avoid probate. If everything you own in California outside of joint accounts and beneficiary designations is worth $208,850 or less, your heirs can usually collect it with a Probate Code §13100 affidavit once 40 days have passed since the death. A trust still has two advantages for a renter: the successor trustee can act right away instead of waiting, and the trust and power of attorney cover the years when you might be alive but unable to manage your own accounts. If you own Burbank rental property, list each parcel separately. Each needs its own deed, each pays the SB 2 fee, and your successor trustee will need the leases and deposit records to keep collecting rent.
The Verdugo Fault and the foothills
The Verdugo Fault runs through the city just south of the Verdugo Mountains, about 1.5 miles from the civic center. The 1971 San Fernando earthquake damaged masonry fences and chimneys in Burbank, and the city's finance department put Burbank's losses from the 1994 Northridge earthquake at $61.8 million. The northern part of the city climbs into the Verdugo foothills, and in 2025 the State Fire Marshal released new fire hazard severity zone maps for the local responsibility areas of Los Angeles County, which local agencies had to adopt by ordinance within 120 days. A trust does not change your insurance, but it decides who can deal with the insurer. After the deed records, ask your carrier to show you as trustee on the homeowner's and any earthquake policy, and keep the declarations pages with the trust so a successor trustee can file a claim. The funding guide lists the other accounts to retitle.
When your children inherit the house
A living trust avoids probate. It does not prevent reassessment. Under Proposition 19 a child who inherits a parent's home keeps the parent's taxable value only if at least one inheriting child moves in as a primary residence and claims the homeowners' exemption within one year, with the BOE-19-P claim filed with the Los Angeles County Assessor within three years. The exclusion is limited to the parent's taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027, and market value above that sum is added to the assessment. Take a house worth the typical Burbank value of $1,176,932 on the date of death, inherited before February 16, 2027 by a child who qualifies: $1,176,932 minus $1,044,586 is $132,346, so the limit adds to the assessment only if the parent's taxable value is under $132,346, which can happen with a house bought decades ago. The trust can say which child may keep the house and how the others are paid. See the Prop 19 inheritance guide.
How to Create and Fund a Living Trust in Burbank
Fill in the questionnaire onlineTell us who is in your family, which Burbank parcels you own, where your bank, brokerage and retirement accounts are, and any residuals, royalties or copyrights you receive. Name a successor trustee and, for minor children, a guardian. Your answers save as you go.
Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews the documentsA California attorney licensed since 2000 drafts your trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive, certification of trust and assignment of personal property from your answers, and reviews the full set before you receive it.
Sign in front of a notary and two witnessesThe trust and the power of attorney are signed before a California notary public. The pour-over will needs two adult witnesses watching at the same time. The signing instructions walk through both.
Record a trust transfer deed for each parcelA deed from you to yourself as trustee is recorded with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, at the Van Nuys or Norwalk office, another county recording office, or by mail, with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. The deed for the house you live in claims the SB 2 owner-occupier exemption; a rental or second home pays the $75 fee.
Move bank and brokerage accounts into the trustTake your certification of trust to each bank, credit union and brokerage and have the account retitled to you as trustee, or name the trust as payable on death beneficiary where the institution offers it. Vested shares from a studio stock plan sitting in a brokerage account are handled the same way.
Update beneficiary forms and tell your payorsPensions, 401(k), 403(b) and IRA accounts and life insurance follow their beneficiary forms, not the trust, so check each one. Keep a list of every residual, royalty and union plan payor with your trust papers so your successor trustee knows whom to contact.
Advance health care directive with HIPAA authorization
Certification of trust
Assignment of personal property
Personal property memorandum
Funding instructions
The package is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple, and a deed for your Burbank home or any other parcel is $100 per property. Call (818) 337-4071 with questions. The office is at 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505. For other ways to get a trust and what they cost, see what a California living trust costs.
Frequently Asked Questions: Burbank Living Trusts
Where is the probate court for Burbank estates?
Not in Burbank. The Burbank Courthouse at 300 E. Olive Avenue does not hear probate. Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.3 sends probate cases to the Central District, and almost all Los Angeles County probate cases are heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, in downtown Los Angeles, about nine miles from the Burbank Courthouse in a straight line. Assets held in a funded living trust pass without a case there.
How much does probate cost for a Burbank home?
Zillow's typical Burbank home value was $1,176,932 on August 31, 2026. On that gross value Probate Code §10810 allows the estate attorney $24,769.32, and §10800 allows the executor the same amount, $49,538.64 together. A mortgage does not lower the figure, because the fee is based on value, not equity. The $435 first petition fee and a probate referee commission of about $1,177 come on top. A living trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
Can a living trust hold entertainment industry residuals and royalties?
Yes, in most cases. The right to future residual and royalty payments is personal property, and the assignment of personal property in our package transfers your personal property to the trust. Copyrights you own can be transferred the same way. Two limits apply: each guild, studio or payroll company has its own paperwork before it will pay a successor trustee, and copyright termination rights under 17 U.S.C. §203 go first to the surviving spouse, children and grandchildren the statute names, and your trust cannot redirect them.
Does Burbank have its own transfer tax like the City of Los Angeles?
No. Burbank is a separate city, and it is not one of the five Los Angeles County cities with their own special transfer tax rate (Culver City, Los Angeles, Pomona, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica). A Burbank sale pays the standard rate of $0.55 for each $500 that the county recorder collects. A deed of your home into your own revocable trust is not a sale, so the documentary transfer tax on it is $0.00, with the Revenue and Taxation Code §11930 exemption stated on the deed.
Where do I record the deed for my Burbank house?
With the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. Burbank has no recording office. The closest county office that records documents is at 14340 W. Sylvan Street in Van Nuys. The main office is at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk, and deeds can also be recorded at the Lancaster and LAX/Courthouse offices or mailed to the Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250.
Is your office in Burbank?
Yes. The Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene are at 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505, and the phone number is (818) 337-4071. Rozsa Gyene has been licensed to practice law in California since 2000 (State Bar #208356). You do not have to come to the office: the questionnaire is online and the documents are signed before a notary.
Does my union or studio pension go into my living trust?
Usually not. A pension, 401(k) or IRA passes to the beneficiary named on the plan's own form, not under your trust or will. Under 29 U.S.C. §1055, which reaches ERISA pension and 401(k) plans set up by private employers or unions (not government or church plans, and not IRAs), a married participant who wants someone other than the spouse to receive the survivor benefit needs the spouse's written consent, witnessed by a plan representative or a notary. Check each form when you sign your trust.
Does a living trust stop Prop 19 reassessment when my children inherit my Burbank home?
No. A trust avoids probate, not reassessment. Under Proposition 19 a child keeps your taxable value only if at least one inheriting child makes the home a primary residence and claims the homeowners' exemption within one year. The exclusion is capped at your taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027, and the BOE-19-P claim goes to the Los Angeles County Assessor within three years.
