The Journal10 min read
California Probate Administration and Inheritance Law Explained
How California probate administration works: appointment, the four-month inventory, creditor claims, statutory fees, small-estate routes, and who inherits without a will.
Probate administration is the court-supervised settlement of a California estate: a personal representative is appointed, the property is inventoried and appraised, creditors are paid, and what remains is distributed by court order. The Probate Code fixes the deadlines and the ordinary fees, and several routes let smaller or well-planned estates avoid the process entirely.
This brief explains the process as the statute describes it, in order, and links each step to the section that governs it. It is general legal information about California law, not advice about any particular estate. For a deeper treatment of each stage, California Inheritance Law, a resource of Corcoran Smith Law Corp. listed in the California Attorney Registry's Affiliate Marketplace, explains the Probate Code section by section.
What is probate administration in California?
Title to a decedent's property passes at death, but the property remains subject to administration and to the rights of creditors and beneficiaries. Probate is the proceeding that identifies and clears those competing claims so that an heir who already owns a house in principle can sell, refinance, or record it in practice.
Any interested person may open the proceeding. Probate Code section 8000 allows a petition at any time after the death asking the court to determine the date and place of death, appoint a personal representative, admit the will to probate, or both. Where there is no will, section 8461 ranks who is entitled to appointment as administrator: the surviving spouse or domestic partner first, then children, grandchildren, other descendants, parents, siblings, and so on down to creditors and any other person.
Nothing happens on the strength of the will alone. Under section 8400, no one has power to administer the estate until appointed and issued letters, and the appointing order must carry a capitalized warning saying exactly that. A person named executor may, before letters issue, pay funeral expenses and take necessary measures to preserve estate property, and nothing more. The person who holds the original will has a separate duty: section 8200 requires the custodian to deliver it to the clerk of the superior court within 30 days of learning of the death, and a custodian who fails to do so is liable for the damages that failure causes. California Inheritance Law walks through the petition and the letters and the personal representative's duties once appointed.
Does every estate need probate?
No. Probate reaches only property that passes through the estate, and the answer is decided asset by asset, by how each one was titled on the day of death. Assets held in a funded living trust, property held in joint tenancy, accounts with a pay-on-death or beneficiary designation, life insurance with a named beneficiary, and real property under a recorded transfer on death deed pass outside probate regardless of value. Property passing outright to a surviving spouse can be confirmed by a spousal property petition without full administration.
Two dollar-limited procedures cover what remains. Under section 13100, once 40 days have passed since the death, a successor may collect personal property by affidavit when the qualifying gross value of the decedent's California property does not exceed the statutory limit, adjusted every three years under section 890. Under section 13151, a successor may petition the superior court to determine succession to the decedent's primary residence when its gross value does not exceed the limit for that procedure, again after 40 days. The Judicial Council publishes the current figures on form DE-300: for a death on or after April 1, 2025, the affidavit limit is $208,850 and the primary-residence limit is $750,000; for a death between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2025, both limits were $184,500. The next adjustment is scheduled for April 1, 2028. Both limits are measured on gross value, before deducting a mortgage.
The registry's answer on when a California estate can skip probate covers the affidavit route; California Inheritance Law's guides on whether you need probate and the small estate affidavit work through the titling question asset by asset.
What are the stages of a California probate?
Every statutory deadline in a probate runs from the day letters issue, not from the day of death. The stages, in the order the code sets them:
| Stage | What happens | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Will lodged | The custodian delivers the original will to the court clerk within 30 days of learning of the death | Prob. Code § 8200 |
| Petition | An interested person asks the court to appoint a representative, admit the will, or both | § 8000 |
| Letters issue | The appointment becomes effective; only now can the representative act | § 8400 |
| Inventory and appraisal | Everything the estate holds, listed and valued with a probate referee, filed within four months of letters | § 8800 |
| Creditor notice and claims | Known creditors receive notice; a claim is due by the later of four months from letters or 60 days from the notice | §§ 9050, 9100 |
| Claims allowed or rejected | The representative allows or rejects each claim in writing; a creditor has 90 days to sue on a rejected claim | §§ 9250, 9353 |
| Final distribution | Once debts are paid or provided for, the court orders distribution | § 11640 |
| Outer benchmark | The representative petitions to distribute or reports status within one year of letters, or 18 months when a federal estate tax return is required | § 12200 |
Most California estates are administered under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, which lets a representative with full or limited authority handle routine matters without a hearing. Even then, section 10501 reserves certain acts for court supervision, among them the representative's and the attorney's compensation, the settlement of accounts, and preliminary and final distributions.
How long does California probate take?
The statute describes an ordinary probate this way. Once letters issue to a general personal representative, section 8800 requires a combined inventory and appraisal of the estate's property within four months, with the court able to allow more time where reasonable. Section 9100 gives creditors until the later of four months after letters or 60 days after notice of administration to file a claim. Section 12200 then expects the representative either to petition for final distribution or to report on the status of administration within one year of letters, or within 18 months if a federal estate tax return is required. Real property sales, tax filings, missing heirs, and any contest add time beyond that benchmark, which is why a year to eighteen months is a common outcome and a contested estate runs longer. Reviewed against these sections on September 12, 2026.
The registry's answer on how long probate takes in California and California Inheritance Law's probate timeline both track the same three deadlines.
What does probate cost in California?
Ordinary compensation is not negotiated; it is fixed by statute on an identical sliding scale for the personal representative under section 10800 and for the estate's attorney under section 10810: four percent of the first $100,000, three percent of the next $100,000, two percent of the next $800,000, one percent of the next $9,000,000, one half of one percent of the next $15,000,000, and a reasonable amount fixed by the court above $25,000,000.
Two features of the schedule surprise families. First, the base is the appraised value of the inventory, plus gains and receipts, less losses, "without reference to encumbrances or other obligations on estate property" in the words of section 10810(b). A house appraised at $800,000 with a $600,000 mortgage counts at $800,000. Second, the estate pays the schedule twice, once to the representative and once to the attorney. On a $1,000,000 estate the ordinary fee is $23,000 for each, $46,000 combined, before any extraordinary fees the court may allow for work such as selling real property or litigation, and before court filing fees, the probate referee's appraisal fee, and publication costs.
The registry's answers on what probate costs and how probate attorneys are paid set out the schedule; California Inheritance Law explains the fee schedule and offers a probate fee calculator that returns the statutory amount for a given estate value.
Who inherits in California when there is no will?
Intestate succession decides. Under section 6401, the surviving spouse takes the decedent's one-half of the community property, so the spouse ends up with all of it. The spouse's share of separate property depends on who else survives: the entire estate if the decedent left no children, parents, siblings, or their descendants; one half if the decedent left one child or the descendants of one deceased child, or no children but a parent or the parent's descendants; and one third if the decedent left more than one child, or one child plus the descendants of another.
Whatever does not pass to a spouse follows the order in section 6402: to the decedent's descendants, taking equally when of the same degree; if none, to the parents; if none, to the parents' descendants; then to grandparents or their descendants. California Inheritance Law's guide to intestate succession works through the shares with examples.
What if the estate is held in a living trust instead?
A funded living trust replaces probate with trust administration, which has its own clocks. When a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because the settlor has died, section 16061.7 requires the trustee to serve a statutory notification on each beneficiary and each heir. Service starts the contest deadline of section 16061.8: an action contesting the trust must be brought within 120 days of service, or within 60 days of delivery of the trust's terms during that period, whichever is later. The trustee then owes the fiduciary duties of the Trust Law, including the duty to account.
The registry's answers on what a trustee owes beneficiaries, the trust contest deadline, and assets left out of a living trust cover the trust side. California Inheritance Law explains trust administration and the 120-day deadline, and its deadline check computes the date from the day the notification was served.
What does the public record show about a probate attorney?
Any attorney with an active California license may handle probate and trust administration. The public roll maintained by the State Bar of California shows whether a license is active and whether public discipline has been recorded, and the California Attorney Registry indexes that roll so each attorney's page states where every fact came from. The registry's estate planning and probate roster lists attorneys by county, and its guide to verifying a California attorney's license explains how to read the record before a first meeting. The registry issues no ratings or rankings and does not select an attorney for anyone.
Frequently asked questions
What is probate administration in California? Probate administration is the court-supervised settlement of a decedent's estate under the California Probate Code: a personal representative is appointed and issued letters (Probate Code section 8400), the estate is inventoried and appraised within four months (section 8800), creditor claims are resolved (sections 9100 and 9250), and the court orders final distribution (section 11640).
How much does probate cost in California? Ordinary compensation is set by statute. Probate Code sections 10800 and 10810 give the personal representative and the estate's attorney each four percent of the first $100,000 of the estate, three percent of the next $100,000, two percent of the next $800,000, one percent of the next $9,000,000, and one half of one percent of the next $15,000,000, measured on the appraised value without deducting mortgages or other debts.
When can a California estate skip probate? For a death on or after April 1, 2025, a successor may collect personal property by affidavit under Probate Code section 13100 when the qualifying gross value does not exceed $208,850, and may petition under section 13151 to succeed to the decedent's primary residence when its gross value does not exceed $750,000, in each case after 40 days. Trust assets, joint tenancy property, and accounts with a named beneficiary pass outside probate regardless of value.
Who inherits in California when there is no will? Probate Code section 6401 gives the surviving spouse the decedent's half of the community property plus all, one half, or one third of the separate property depending on which other relatives survive. Under section 6402, what does not pass to a spouse goes to the decedent's children or their descendants, then parents, then the parents' descendants, then grandparents and their descendants.
Sources
- Probate Code § 8000, § 8200, § 8400, § 8461, § 8800, § 9050, § 9100, § 9250, § 9353, § 10501, § 10800, § 10810, § 11640, § 12200, § 13100, § 13151, § 6401, § 6402, § 16061.7, § 16061.8, California Legislative Information, read September 12, 2026.
- Form DE-300, Maximum Values for Small Estate Set-Aside and Disposition of Estate Without Administration, Judicial Council of California, Rev. April 28, 2025.
- California Probate Administration: Steps, Timeline, Cost, California Inheritance Law, a resource of Corcoran Smith Law Corp.
Legal information, not legal advice. This brief provides general legal and professional information; it is not a substitute for counsel on a specific situation, and reading it creates no attorney–client relationship.