Committee advances bill to give public administrators enforcement power when banks delay access to estates
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Summary
The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted to send AB1660 to the floor after the author agreed to amend a mandatory penalty to judicial discretion. Supporters said banks routinely delay access to accounts for public administrators; bankers warned penalties are not the right fix amid modern fraud risks.
Assemblymember Schiavo’s AB1660, which would create a judicial enforcement mechanism to compel financial institutions to comply with lawful requests from county public administrators, advanced out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a motion to re-refer to the Banking Committee.
Supporters, including county public administrators and the California Association of Public Administrators, Guardians and Conservators, described repeated delays by banks when officials present a certificate of authority. "We go in and we say, ‘Hello, I'm the public administrator.' Here's my badge," said Lisa Perroft, chief deputy LA County Treasurer-Tax Collector and principal deputy public administrator. Perroft testified that staff sometimes wait entire shifts in bank branches and that delays can stretch "one to three years," creating unpaid bills and disruptions to care for vulnerable people.
Trent Smith of the association said sponsors had tried voluntary remedies—training, standardized forms and outreach—for years and proposed the bill as a limited enforcement option if banks failed to respond. "We wanted to have something hanging out there as a little bit of a hammer if they didn't comply," he told the committee.
Opponents, including the California Bankers Association, urged caution. "Our members oppose the new penalties," said Chris Schultz, noting that banks face heightened fraud and scam risks and that many institutions now route requests to centralized legal units rather than a local branch manager. Schultz suggested updating the statute or creating standardized processes rather than imposing fines.
Committee members pressed both sides on the statutory language and practical effects. Vice Chair Senator Macedo proposed the motion to "do pass and re-refer to banking," and the author committed on the record to amend the bill to change a mandatory penalty to judicial discretion (changing "shall" to "may") so judges could withhold penalties where a financial institution has a legitimate fraud concern.
The committee recorded that the motion passed and the bill will move forward with the agreed amendment and continued negotiations between sponsors and industry groups.
What happens next: AB1660 will be re-referred to the Banking Committee for additional consideration of implementation and any further statutory modernization.