On June 9, 2026, the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau of the California Department of Consumer Affairs issued License No. 1654. It carries my name. With it, Fiduciary Continuum Management Services is open.
I would rather this first post be useful than ceremonial. If you found your way here, there is a fair chance someone in your family needs the kind of help that is hard to provide alone: a trust that has to be administered, a parent who can no longer manage money safely, an estate that has to be settled while everyone is still grieving. So instead of an announcement, let me explain what this license actually is, why California created it, and how you can check the license of anyone you are considering for this work. Including me.
What the license is
California regulates this profession under the Professional Fiduciaries Act, passed in 2006 as part of a larger package of conservatorship and guardianship reforms. The Legislature’s reasoning was plain. A growing number of Californians cannot fully manage their own affairs or resist fraud and undue influence, and the people hired to step in for them hold real power over money, property, and daily life. Before the Act, that power came with almost no oversight.
The Act created the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau inside the Department of Consumer Affairs and made a license the requirement for anyone who serves professionally, for people who are not family, as a conservator, guardian, trustee, or agent under a durable power of attorney. Earning the license takes pre-licensing education, a background investigation, and a licensing examination. Keeping it takes continuing education and annual reporting to the Bureau, including the cases a licensee holds.
None of that guarantees good judgment. What it guarantees is accountability: a regulator with the power to investigate complaints and discipline a licensee, and a public record you can read before you ever pick up the phone.
Why the title is protected
In California, “professional fiduciary” is not a self-awarded title. The Act reserves it for people who hold an active license from the Bureau, and using it without one is unlawful. That protection exists because the families who need a fiduciary are usually meeting one for the first time, under pressure, with no easy way to tell careful from careless. The title is supposed to mean something before you have learned to judge for yourself.
This is also why I waited. This website was built over months, but it stayed closed to the public until the license was in hand. The work deserves that kind of exactness, and frankly, so does the law.
How to verify a fiduciary, any fiduciary
Before you hire anyone for this role, take five minutes and do this:
- Go to the Department of Consumer Affairs license search at search.dca.ca.gov.
- Search the person’s name under the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, or search their license number directly.
- Read the record. You are looking for three things: the license status says Active, the expiration date is in the future, and there is no disciplinary history you have not heard about from the fiduciary directly.
You can read my record here. License No. 1654, issued June 9, 2026, expiring June 30, 2027, status Active. If a fiduciary ever hesitates when you ask for their license number, that hesitation is your answer.
Many professional fiduciaries also hold credentials beyond the state license. I am a National Certified Guardian (NCG No. 16552, through the Center for Guardianship Certification) and a Certified Dementia Practitioner, and my first career was in clinical practice as a dentist. Those are verifiable too, through the organizations that issued them, and you should feel free to verify rather than take anyone’s word.
What this practice does
Fiduciary Continuum Management Services serves California families as trustee, successor trustee, conservator, agent under power of attorney, and personal representative, with particular depth where aging, dementia, and family distance make the work delicate. The practice is based in San Marcos and serves clients statewide, coordinating with family wherever they live. The services pages describe each role in plain language, and the guides walk through the decisions families face most often.
One thing this practice does not do: practice law. Attorneys draft trusts, wills, and powers of attorney, and advise on what your situation calls for. A fiduciary administers what the documents create. The two roles work side by side, and choosing a fiduciary is a decision worth making together with your estate planning attorney.
The first step in any matter is a conversation, held in strict confidence. If that would help your family, you can request a consultation whenever you are ready.