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Closing a practice, or making sure someone can: the duties that outlive it.

The retention statutes say nothing about what happens to a client’s file when the therapist dies, retires or closes. The duties around that silence are not silent: seven years of records, the client’s right to them on a clock, the Board’s 30-day address rule, the license’s inactive and retired states, the corporation’s final return, and an ethics code that names a professional will. Twelve items, each with its source; four to do now while nothing is wrong.

The list →

7 years the records duty that survives the practice30 days to give the Board the new address0 data sent · private by default

The list

Twelve items: four for the closure you did not plan, eight for the one you did.

The first four are the professional will, written while the practice is running. The rest are the planned closure, sale or retirement. Section numbers are the LMFT ones with the LCSW, LPCC and LEP parallels named in the rule text; the ethics citations are to the CAMFT Code of Ethics, which is public and binds its members.

Item and rule	Source	Goes deeper
Name, in writing, who takes the records and who tells the clients The CAMFT Code of Ethics (1.3, Treatment Disruption) lists “providing for a professional will” among the practices that keep care undisrupted, and 1.7 (Abandonment) requires a therapist who cannot continue to help each client arrange continuation. No statute requires the document; the records duty below is what makes it necessary. Name a licensed custodian for the files and a person to contact clients, and give each a signed copy.	CAMFT Code of Ethics 1.3, 1.7	Client records in California: what the statutes say, and where they are silent
Write down where every record is and how the custodian gets in The seven-year retention duty (B&P §4980.49; §4993; §4999.75; §4989.51) does not end with the practice, and failing to keep records is unprofessional conduct (§4982(v)). The will names the EHR, the paper files, the backups and the email, and how the custodian obtains access; CAMFT 2.3 requires that records be stored and transferred “in ways that protect confidentiality”, so the credentials travel sealed, not in the will’s body.	B&P §4980.49, §4982(v)	Where the records live, and what seven years of storage costs
Leave the custodian the client roster and the notification script The custodian must be able to reach every current client, tell them what happened, and help them continue elsewhere (CAMFT 1.7). A current roster with contact preferences, a short script, and a list of colleagues who take referrals is the whole of it. The roster is a record: it stays with the files, under the same confidentiality.	CAMFT Code of Ethics 1.7	The referral request builder
Read the liability policy’s death, disability and retirement terms An occurrence policy covers past work whenever the claim arrives; a claims-made policy answers only while it is in force, so ending it means buying the extended reporting period (“tail”), which several carriers waive on death, disability or retirement. The site’s comparison lays each carrier’s published terms side by side. The will names the carrier and policy number so the custodian can report a claim.	Carrier policy terms	Therapy liability insurance in California, compared
Give clients notice, help each one continue, and record it No California section fixes a notice period for closing a practice; the ethics duties are the standard (CAMFT 1.4 Termination, 1.7 Abandonment): sound clinical judgment, and assistance with “clinically appropriate arrangements for continuation of treatment”. The record shows the notice, the referrals offered and the client’s choice.	CAMFT Code of Ethics 1.4, 1.7	The referral request builder
Keep every file seven years and keep answering requests on the clock Seven years from the date therapy terminated; for a minor, seven years from the 18th birthday (B&P §4980.49 and the LCSW, LPCC and LEP parallels). A former client’s written request is still answered in five working days for inspection and 15 days for copies (H&S §123110), whoever holds the file. The calculator dates both.	B&P §4980.49; H&S §123110	The records-request deadline and retention-date calculator
Keep the good faith estimates six years A good faith estimate is part of the patient’s record and a copy must be available for six years from the date it was provided (45 CFR §149.610(f)(1)). It travels with the file.	45 CFR §149.610(f)(1)	The good faith estimate generator
Choose the license’s resting state: inactive, retired, or expired Inactive: half the renewal fee each cycle, no continuing education, no practice, restorable on request with 18 or 36 CE hours depending on the time left in the cycle (B&P §4984.8; §4997; §4999.112). Retired: no renewal, no practice, the unabbreviated word “retired” beside the title, restorable once and only within three years (§4984.41; §4997.1; §4999.113). Letting it expire is the third path; §4984.4 sets the time limit for renewing an expired license.	B&P §4984.8, §4984.41	The LMFT renewal checklist
Tell the Board the new address within 30 days “Each person or professional corporation regulated by the board shall maintain a current mailing address with the board and shall notify the board within thirty (30) days concerning any change of address giving both the old and new addresses” (16 CCR §1804). The corporation is named in the rule; it reports too.	16 CCR §1804	The compliance calendar
Take down or correct every advertisement and directory profile An advertisement must be accurate as to license and status (16 CCR §1811), and a retired licensee’s title carries the word “retired” directly before or after it (§4984.41(d)). Directory profiles that stay up after a closure advertise a practice that does not exist.	16 CCR §1811; B&P §4984.41(d)	The advertising checker
Close the professional corporation on the state’s terms The Franchise Tax Board’s steps: file any delinquent returns, file the final return with the Final Return box checked and “final” written at the top, cease doing business in California after the final taxable year, and file the dissolution with the Secretary of State within 12 months of the final return. A suspended corporation must be revived first. FTB Publication 1038 is the guide.	FTB Tax News, June 2021; FTB Pub. 1038	What incorporating costs, and what it obliges
End the payer contracts and the business associate agreements, in writing Panel contracts and business associate agreements have their own notice terms; the contract is the source and this page states none. What is general: a record of each termination, and the EHR or storage vendor’s agreement kept in force for as long as it holds the records the seven-year rule covers.	The contracts themselves	The records-storage comparison, including who holds the security duty

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What the will names

Seven things a professional will has to say for the custodian to act.

No California statute prescribes the document; the CAMFT Code of Ethics names it, and the records duty makes it necessary. This is the content, not the form.

01The custodian of records, and a second if the first cannot serve.

A licensed professional who agrees in writing. The records duty is the reason the document exists; everything else in it serves this name.

02The person who contacts clients, and the words they use.

May be the custodian or another trusted person. A script, the roster’s location, and the colleagues who take referrals.

03Where the records are, and how they are opened.

EHR, paper, backups, email, voicemail; the credentials sealed separately and updated when they change.

04The liability carrier and policy number.

So the custodian can report a claim under whatever the policy provides after the practice ends.

05The money: fees owed, fees to refund, the business account, the corporation.

Who may collect what is owed, who refunds prepayments, and who files the corporation’s final return.

06The Board, the payers, the directories.

The address of record within 30 days; the panel contracts and BAAs ended; the profiles taken down.

07Signature, date, witnesses, and where the original lives.

The formalities that make it enforceable are a question for your own attorney and vary; this page does not state them. Tell the custodian where the signed original is.

What no statute says

Three silences, stated as silences.

Where the law stops

No California section fixes how much notice a closing practice owes its clients; the ethics standard of sound clinical judgment and assistance with continuation is what governs. No section names who may hold a deceased therapist’s records, only that they must be kept and produced. No section requires a professional will. Each of those is answered by the reader, the ethics code and the reader’s own attorney, and a confident-sounding invented rule would be worse than the silence. The records page reaches the same finding from the other side.

Then what

The pages this list leans on.

The other direction

Opening a private practice: the checklist

Sixteen items between a license and a first client; several of them are undone here.

The file

The records-request deadline calculator

Five working days, fifteen days, and the retention date from termination or a minor’s 18th birthday.

The policy

Liability insurance, compared

What each carrier publishes about death, disability and retirement.

Court paper after the fact

Subpoenaed as a California therapist

The custodian may be the one who receives it; the privilege is still the client’s.

Where every figure came from

Sources.

The Board’s statutes and regulations

The ethics code and the federal rule

Closing the corporation

Section numbers are the LMFT Act’s; the LCSW, LPCC and LEP parallels are named in each item. The CAMFT Code of Ethics binds CAMFT members and is quoted from its public text. Nothing here is legal advice, and the formalities that make a professional will enforceable are for your own attorney.