AB 586 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Professional fiduciaries.

Summary

Existing law, the Professional Fiduciaries Act, establishes, until January 1, 2028, the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, and requires the bureau to license and regulate professional fiduciaries. The act defines various terms for these purposes. The act requires the bureau to maintain specified information in each licensee's file, and requires a licensee to annually file with the bureau a statement under penalty of perjury containing specified information, including among other things, any licenses or professional certificates held by the licensee. Existing law, the Moscone-Knox Professional Corporation Act, defines and regulates professional corporations. The act provides that a professional organization renders professional services that may be lawfully rendered only pursuant to a license, certification, or registration authorized by, among others, the Business and Professions Code pursuant to a certificate of registration issued by the governmental agency regulating the profession, as specified. This bill would authorize licensees to organize professional fiduciary professional corporations to provide professional fiduciary services, and would prescribe requirements and regulations for those professional corporations to provide fiduciary services. The bill would require a professional fiduciary professional corporation to register with the Secretary of State, as provided, and would require the corporation, its officers, directors, shareholders, and employees rendering professional fiduciary services to be in compliance with the Moscone-Knox Professional Corporation Act. The bill would require the information maintained by the bureau in each licensee's file, and the annual statement filed by a licensee, to include additional information, including information related to whether the licensee is serving with or under a professional fiduciary corporation. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes the bureau to suspend, revoke, deny, or impose other disciplinary action on a professional fiduciary license for specified causes, including, among other things, violating specified laws, rules, or regulations pertaining to duties or functions of a professional fiduciary. This bill would add to that list of causes the failure of a licensee to, in a timely manner, respond to inquiries or produce documents requested by the bureau, including inquiries and documents related to a professional fiduciary professional corporation. Existing law generally regulates probate, guardianship, conservatorship, and other protective proceedings. Existing law defines "professional fiduciary" for these purposes. This bill would include a professional fiduciary professional corporation, described above, in that definition of "professional fiduciary." Existing law prohibits a superior court from appointing a person to carry out the duties of a professional fiduciary unless that person holds a valid, unexpired, and unsuspended license as a professional fiduciary or is exempt from those licensing requirements, as specified. This bill would repeal those provisions and would instead prohibit a superior court from appointing a professional fiduciary as, or permitting a professional fiduciary to continue as, a guardian, conservator, personal representative, or trustee, unless the professional fiduciary satisfies one of specified requirements. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Aug 2025

Assembly Passage

Jun 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Last action Aug 29, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 5 comparisons

What changed between versions

07/09/25 - Amended Senate → 08/18/25 - Amended Senate · 7 edits · Aug 18, 2025

MODERATE

The August 18, 2025 Senate amendment to AB 586 makes several substantive changes to the professional fiduciary regulation framework. Most notably, it removes a provision that would have eliminated the ban on unlicensed persons holding themselves out as professional fiduciaries, adds a new section requiring professional fiduciary corporations to submit corporation-wide reports to the bureau upon request, expands what information must be made publicly available, and tightens licensing requirements for individuals serving through professional fiduciary corporations by requiring them to be 'actively licensed.'

SCOPE

The bill no longer removes the existing prohibition on a person holding themselves out to the public as a professional fiduciary unless they are licensed. The prior version would have eliminated that ban; this version keeps it in place.

REQUIREMENT

New Section 6593.3 requires each professional fiduciary professional corporation to provide a corporation-wide report to the bureau upon request, including names and license numbers of all officers, directors, shareholders, and licensed employees, the entity number, and a client log listing all cases with appointment dates and responsible licensed fiduciaries.

The public disclosure provision in Section 6534(b) was expanded. Previously only paragraphs (2), (4), (7), and (8) of the bureau's records were made available to the public. Now paragraphs (2), (4), (5), (8), (9), and (10) are publicly available, including information about professional fiduciary corporation removals, bankruptcy history, and which corporation a licensee serves under.

ELIGIBILITY

Individuals providing professional fiduciary services on behalf of a professional fiduciary corporation must now be 'actively licensed' with the bureau to qualify as a qualified person under Section 13408 of the Corporations Code. The prior version only required them to be a licensee.

ENFORCEMENT

The bureau's regulatory authority over professional fiduciary corporations was expanded from merely 'promulgate' regulations to 'adopt, repeal, or amend' regulations, giving the bureau broader rulemaking power.

The requirement that licensees indicate on each case whether they are serving under a professional fiduciary corporation 'under penalty of perjury' was removed from the bill's description, though the underlying reporting requirement in Section 6561(13) remains.

DEFINITION

The threshold for being classified as a professional fiduciary when acting as trustee or agent under a power of attorney was clarified from 'more than three' to 'four or more individuals.' This is the same numerical threshold but uses clearer language.

06/26/25 - Amended Senate → 07/09/25 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · Jul 9, 2025

MODERATE

The July 9 Senate amendment to AB 586 restructures how professional fiduciary professional corporations are treated under the law. Instead of defining them as a type of 'professional fiduciary' in the main statutory definition, the bill now handles them through separate registration and compliance requirements. A new discipline section (Section 6584) is added with grounds for license action, including failure to respond to bureau inquiries. Reporting and record-keeping requirements are expanded to track corporate affiliations.

Scope change

The bill narrows the statutory definition of 'professional fiduciary' by removing professional fiduciary professional corporations from it, while simultaneously adding a parallel regulatory track for those corporations through registration with the Secretary of State and compliance with the Moscone-Knox Professional Corporation Act. The practical effect is that professional corporations are no longer themselves 'professional fiduciaries' but are instead regulated as entities whose individual licensees remain subject to the Professional Fiduciaries Act.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'professional fiduciary' no longer includes professional fiduciary professional corporations as a standalone category in paragraph (1)(D). Instead, the bill treats them through separate registration with the Secretary of State and compliance requirements under Article 7. The threshold for trustees and agents under powers of attorney was clarified from 'more than three individuals' to 'four or more individuals' (numerically equivalent but clearer language).

ENFORCEMENT

New Section 6584 establishes grounds for license suspension, revocation, denial, or other disciplinary action. Notably adds as a cause: failure of a licensee to timely respond to inquiries or produce documents requested by the bureau, including those related to a professional fiduciary professional corporation. For corporations, such failures may be referred to the Secretary of State for enforcement.

Section 6593(c) expands the bureau's regulatory authority from 'may promulgate regulations' to 'may promulgate, adopt, repeal, or amend regulations' for professional fiduciary professional corporations, giving the bureau broader rulemaking power.

REQUIREMENT

Section 6534 (bureau file) and Section 6561 (annual statement) are expanded to require tracking whether a licensee is serving under a professional fiduciary professional corporation, including separate asset valuations for corporate cases, reporting of corporate removals for cause, and identification of the corporation on each case.

TECHNICAL

Section 6593.1 clarifies that employees must be 'licensed professional fiduciaries' (rather than just 'licensed fiduciaries') to render professional services through the corporation. Public disclosure provisions in Section 6534(b) are renumbered to reflect the new paragraph structure.

02/12/25 - Introduced → 04/21/25 - Amended Assembly · 5 edits · Apr 21, 2025

MODERATE

The amended version restructures how the bill handles court appointment restrictions for professional fiduciaries in the Probate Code, adding a new Part 9.5 (Section 310) to Division 2 and repealing Section 2340 rather than amending it. It also removes an outdated 2009 licensing provision from Probate Code Section 60.1, adds specific statutory authority for keeping corporation-wide reports confidential, and simplifies the definition structure of 'professional fiduciary' in the Business and Professions Code.

SCOPE

The court appointment restriction for professional fiduciaries was moved from an amendment to Probate Code Section 2340 to a new Part 9.5 (Section 310) added to Division 2 of the Probate Code, with Section 2340 now repealed entirely rather than amended.

REQUIREMENT

Probate Code Section 60.1 no longer contains the outdated provision requiring that 'on and after January 1, 2009, no person shall act or hold himself or herself out to the public as a professional fiduciary unless licensed,' which is now redundant given the Business and Professions Code licensing scheme.

ENFORCEMENT

The corporation-wide report under Section 6593.3(b) is now explicitly classified as an 'investigatory or security file compiled for licensing purposes' under Government Code Section 7923.600, providing a specific statutory basis for its non-disclosure under the Public Records Act rather than simply stating it is not a public record.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'professional fiduciary' in Business and Professions Code Section 6501(f) was restructured from a two-part format with sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) into a single flat list of four categories (A through D), simplifying the statutory structure without changing the substantive criteria.

TECHNICAL

The amendment to Corporations Code Section 13401 now includes the full text of the section with all definitions (professional services, professional corporation, foreign professional corporation, licensed person, disqualified person) rather than only amending the 'professional services' definition.

Floor votes · Assembly Jun 3, 2025

How they voted

77–0

Passed · 2 other

Total votes 79

Jun 3, 2025

D Democratic60

58 Yea 2

96% Yea

R Republican19

19 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Aug 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

In committee: Held under submission.

upper

Aug 25, 2025

Committee

In committee: Referred to suspense file.

upper

Aug 18, 2025

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Aug 7, 2025

Upper · Passed

In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.

upper

Jul 16, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (July 15). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Jul 9, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

upper

Jul 8, 2025

Introduced

From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (July 7).

upper

Jun 26, 2025

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on B. P. & E.D.

upper

Jun 11, 2025

Committee

Referred to Coms. on B. P. & E.D. and JUD.

upper

Jun 3, 2025

Assembly · Passed

Assembly Vote: pass (77-0-2)

assembly

Jun 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1926.)

lower

May 23, 2025

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (May 23).

lower

Apr 30, 2025

Committee

In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file.

lower

Apr 22, 2025

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (April 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Apr 22, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

lower

Apr 21, 2025

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended.

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 1). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

lower

Mar 3, 2025

Committee

Referred to Coms. on B. & P. and JUD.

lower

Feb 13, 2025

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 15.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors