“We don’t have aspirations to be the biggest or the busiest fiduciary firm in California . . . But we do aspire to bring our very best service to each case that we accept.”
~ Matt Bickel
We are proud to be in a profession with many other private fiduciaries who share our commitment to values of integrity and excellence. But the manner in which we came into the profession is different that most other fiduciaries and as a firm, we operate differently than most others. We believe these differences are distinctives, which you may find to be advantages, if your circumstances match with our focus and specialization.
- We are lawyer-led. Bruce was drawn to the fiduciary profession after more than twenty years in a traditional law practice. (His wife still wonders why.) It wasn’t a big step, as he continued his emphasis in estate and trust administration. Legal advice, analysis and guidance are necessary in trust and estate administration. It is nice to have that counsel in-house; and it is even nicer for the trusts when that legal component is provided at fiduciary rates which are much lower than attorney rates. (And, thus, the quandary of Bruce’s wife.)
- We are Fresno’s oldest fiduciary office. “Oldest” isn’t always an advantage, but when examining a learning curve, the experience which comes from decades in the trenches can be very beneficial.
- We only handle trust and estate administration. We are strategically simplified and focused in the scope of our work. Our expertise and full attention is devoted to the financial aspects of trusts and estates, and the concomitant relationship with beneficiaries of the trust assets. We do not serve as “health care agents” or “conservators of the person,” but we work collaboratively with other fiduciaries in those roles.
- We have spent our entire careers in the trust and estate field. The fiduciaries in our office began their professional careers in the field of trust and estate administration. It is our chosen profession. For us, this has been a lifetime endeavor (although one of us has a longer lifetime than the other).
- We have a trained and experienced support staff. In our office, it is possible to delegate responsibilities among our staff which increases efficiency and expediency.
- We bill on a time basis, with bracketed rates. We believe that there should be a relationship between “the time worked” and “the amount charged.” So, we bill on a time basis instead of a percentage of the size of the estate. Here again, our support staff works to the advantage of the trust because we can charge lower rates for the tasks and projects assigned to staff members. See below for a more detailed discussion of our fee structure.
- We are inter-generational – Part I. Bickel Fiduciary Group will not fold upon the death of Bruce Bickel. (We picked on him because he is the oldest person in the office.) Julie is 16 years younger than Bruce, and Matt is 13 years younger than Julie. These younger generations of fiduciaries assure a succession plan for Bickel Fiduciary Group and provides continuity for the cases which we administer.
- We have a primary focus on cases which involve friction among the beneficiaries or in which the sensitivities of the beneficiary are a priority. We have been doing this for a long time. We can understand and anticipate the feelings and resentment that beneficiaries may have, against other beneficiaries, or against a Trustee who stands between them and “their” money.
- We are inter-generational – Part 2. Review #8 above. Because we always seek to establish a relational rapport with the beneficiaries we serve, sometimes we bring in the grey-haired fiduciary (that would be Bruce); other times we turn to our Gen X and Millennial fiduciaries (that would be Julie and Matt). Our goal is to use the diversity of our team to achieve compatibility with our beneficiaries.
- We carry errors & omissions insurance. We carry fiduciary liability insurance covering work performed by our fiduciaries and the staff working at their direction. We believe this is an appropriate expenditure for every professional fiduciary to ensure that a trust is not financially damaged by an error committed by the fiduciary. Not all professional fiduciaries have such coverage. Family-member fiduciaries almost never have it. In addition, each of our fiduciaries can be bonded for a particular case, if required by the Court or requested by the beneficiaries.
How Our Fee Structure Works
We’ve never liked the fee arrangement adopted by banks and trust companies which impose a minimum account size and then charge fees which are based on a percentage of the gross value of the trust assets. In that arrangement, there is no direct relationship between the fee and the amount of work which was performed.
Because our fiduciary practice arose out of a traditional law office, we believe that a more appropriate billing structure is to charge for services based on a time basis. So, like most attorneys, our charges are determined by hourly rates of the timekeeper who rendered the service.
Each staff member has an hourly rate that is determined by the experience of the timekeeper and by the sophistication and complexities of the matters handled by the timekeeper. The more complicated the work, the higher the rate. Conversely, the less complicated the activity, the lower the hourly rate.
These rate brackets work to the financial benefit of the trusts and estates that we administer. Instead of charging the same flat for whatever work is performed and regardless of who does the work, our office employs our large staff so we are can pass the benefit of the lower rates to the trusts and estates for which we work.
Some of our cases are subject to “continuing Court jurisdiction.” This means that our fees must be reviewed and approved by the Court. In these cases, we apply the same rate brackets which have consistently been accepted and approved by Courts throughout California.
Behind the Scenes: Bruce Bickel
After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Redlands as a Theatre Arts major, Bruce Bickel entered the entertainment industry as a standup comedian. But his show-biz career was short-lived because he wasn’t very funny (and audiences couldn’t tell if he was actually standing up). Like most failing comedians, Bruce became a lawyer.
For more than 25 years, Bruce specialized in estate planning, probate and trust law, and he was designated by Law & Politics magazine as one of Northern California’s “Super Lawyers” in that field. During that time, in 1989, a judge requested that Bruce serve as the Trustee of an $8 million trust for a 6-year old child severely injured in a car accident. That appointment began a career shift for Bruce, who now works exclusively as a professional trustee, guardian and conservator. So, Bruce is still a lawyer — and he’ll always be one — because in that boring profession, he is considered hilarious.
Behind the Scenes: Matt Bickel
In his fiduciary role, Matt Bickel oversees the sale of assets from the trust estates when appropriate and necessary.
In a year, Matt might sell multiple houses and vehicles, and parcels of ag property and a commercial building or two. That might sound rather mundane… until you see the assets that he has sold.
[Hint: The classic cars have a combined appraised value in excess of $3 million.]
Behind the Scenes: Julie Ross
Julie is often the hub of the office as she usually has primary responsibility for financial operations. This means that her desk is the starting point for every check issued from the many trusts that we administer. Each check will be signed by the respective Trustee (whether Bruce, Matt or Julie), but she is the one who handles the logistics, paper documentation and digital records.
By our conservative estimates, Julie has issued over 76,000 checks at the Bickel Fiduciary Group. So, you’d think that in her personal life, her husband would be responsible for writing the checks for paying their bills. But he says that she is so good at it, he doesn’t want to compete with her.
Past Awards & Honors
