Most people facing this job were handed it without warning. A parent has died, or a spouse, and someone in the family has been named executor or successor trustee, or has simply become the person everyone calls. Siblings want updates, mail keeps arriving, and there is a house that someone has to look after. The worry underneath is usually the same: what if I get this wrong and it costs the family, or costs me?
This page walks through the errors that come up most often in California, grouped by where they happen: in probate, in a trust, with the house, and in the paperwork and conversations around it all.
What Estate Settlement Involves — and Why Mistakes Happen
Estate settlement is the work of gathering what a person owned when they died, paying what they owed, and passing the rest to the people entitled to it. It is a chain of tasks, many with deadlines, that few people have done before.
An executor is the person named in a will to handle the estate. When there is no will, or the named executor cannot serve, the court appoints an administrator. Either one, once appointed by the court, is called the personal representative. A successor trustee is the person named in a trust to take over managing it after the person who created it dies.
These roles follow two paths. Probate is the court-supervised process for property that has to pass through the court. Trust administration settles property held in a trust, generally without a court case. The rules and the mistakes differ, and some families deal with both at once.
Grief adds pressure: decisions get rushed to calm relatives, or put off because the paperwork feels unbearable, and both are where most errors begin. The California estate settlement guide lays out the full sequence of steps in order.
Mistakes That Delay or Derail the Probate Process
Acting too early is the first trap. Under Probate Code section 8400, a person has no power to administer the estate until appointed personal representative, and the appointment becomes effective only when the court issues letters, the document that proves that authority. A named executor may, before then, pay funeral expenses and take necessary steps to maintain and preserve the estate, but generally nothing more. Probate is opened by petition in the superior court, and the California Courts' Guide to property after someone dies explains that the judge appoints the personal representative. When there is no will, Probate Code section 8461 sets an order of priority for appointment as administrator, starting with a surviving spouse or domestic partner, then children, then grandchildren, and continuing through other relatives to the public administrator, creditors and any other person.
A related early step is the will itself. Under Probate Code section 8200, unless a petition for probate is filed first, whoever has the will must, within 30 days after learning of the death, deliver it to the clerk of the superior court and deliver a copy to the named executor (or, if the executor cannot be found, a named beneficiary), and a custodian who fails to do so is liable for resulting damages.
Once letters issue, the Judicial Council's Duties and Liabilities of Personal Representative (DE-147) lists the duties that are most often missed, including:
- Keep estate money separate. The form says estate funds go in an account titled as an estate account and are never deposited in a personal account.
- File the inventory and appraisal. The form says this is due within four months after letters are first issued, and that a court-appointed referee values the property unless the court waives that appointment.
- Mail notice to known creditors. The form says this is due within four months after appointment, and within 90 days to the State Director of Health Services if the decedent received Medi-Cal.
- Wait for court permission before paying fees. The form says the personal representative may not pay fees to themselves or their attorney without a prior court order.
Leaving an asset off the inventory, or paying heirs before creditors have had their chance to make claims, creates the kind of shortfall a personal representative can be asked to cover. Probate Code section 9600 requires the personal representative to use "ordinary care and diligence," judged by all the circumstances of the particular estate.
Mistakes That Affect Trust Administration
A trust avoids the court, but it does not avoid duties. The most common missed step is the trustee's notice. Under Probate Code section 16061.7, when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because a settlor (the person who created the trust) dies, the successor trustee must serve a notification on each beneficiary and on each heir of the deceased settlor. It must be served no later than 60 days after the death, or 60 days after the trustee learns of a person entitled to notice who was not known at the time. If the trustee's office was vacant on the date of death, the 60 days run from when the new trustee begins to serve.
The notice has required contents, including the settlor's identity, the trust's date, each trustee's name, address and phone number, the place where the trust is administered, and a statement that the recipient can request a copy of the trust's terms. It also carries a statutory warning about the time to contest the trust.
The second mistake is treating the trust as family money the trustee happens to control. Probate Code section 16004 says the trustee has a duty not to use or deal with trust property for the trustee's own profit or any purpose unconnected with the trust, and not to take part in a transaction where the trustee's interest is adverse to a beneficiary's.
Other errors repeat across trust administrations: distributing before the trust's debts and taxes are dealt with, not keeping receipts for every transaction, and assuming every asset was actually in the trust. An asset left in the decedent's own name may have to go through probate or a simplified procedure even though a trust exists. That is also why the successor trustee and the executor are separate jobs: one estate can have both, with different duties and different deadlines.
Property and Title Mistakes
A house is usually the largest thing a family inherits, and it is where an early misstep tends to last longest. California treats real property (land and buildings) differently from personal property (money, accounts, cars, belongings), both in probate and in the simplified procedures for smaller estates. Those simplified procedures include the affidavit for collection or transfer of personal property, the petition to determine succession to the decedent's primary residence, the affidavit for real property of small value, and the spousal or domestic partner property petition.
Assuming the will controls everything. Title often decides who gets property, not the will. Probate Code section 13050 excludes from the small-estate value property the decedent held as a joint tenant and property in a trust the decedent could revoke, among other items. For bank accounts, Probate Code section 5302 provides that sums in a joint account generally belong to the surviving party, that a payable-on-death account generally goes to the named payee, and that these survivorship rights "cannot be changed by will." Before anything is sold or refinanced, title has to be cleared in the survivor's or the estate's name.
Missing the assessor filing. The State Board of Equalization's Change in Ownership FAQ says that after a death with no probate, the change in ownership is reported within 150 days of the date of death, and in a probated estate at the same time the inventory and appraisal is filed.
Overlooking reassessment. Whether a transfer at death is reassessed depends on who inherits and how. The same BOE page says transfers between spouses at death are excluded automatically. For a parent-to-child transfer on or after February 16, 2021, Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2 excludes a principal residence only when it becomes the child's principal residence within one year, the child files for the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption within a year, and a claim is filed with the assessor. The exclusion is limited when the home's value exceeds its taxable value plus one million dollars. The claim is generally due within three years of the transfer, or before a transfer to a third party, or when an eligible transferee no longer occupies the home, whichever is earlier. The county assessor's office handles the claim and publishes its current forms.
Selling without understanding basis. Under federal law, an heir's tax basis (the starting figure for measuring gain) in inherited property is generally reset to its fair market value at the date of death. A CPA, enrolled agent or tax attorney reviews how that applies to a particular sale. The tradeoffs of holding or selling are set out in keep, rent or sell, and the broader steps in inheriting a house in California.
Communication and Record-Keeping Mistakes
Silence causes more family trouble than almost any legal error. A trustee or executor who goes months without a word, even while working hard, can look like someone hiding something. Short written updates, sent to every beneficiary at once, keep everyone working from the same facts, even where the law does not require them.
Records matter just as much. DE-147 tells a personal representative to keep complete and accurate records of each financial transaction and to save receipts, because the court reviews the account and may ask to see them. A trustee keeps the same habits for the same reason. A simple written log of every asset found, every bill paid and every decision made, with the date, becomes the backbone of the final accounting.
Original documents are easy to lose in a cleanout. The original will, the trust and any amendments, deeds, recent bank and brokerage statements, and the last several tax returns are worth setting aside before anyone sorts the house. The estate settlement checklist lists what to gather.
When the person in charge is also a beneficiary, the role still comes first. An executor or trustee who inherits acts for all the beneficiaries, not for their own share. Where heirs or beneficiaries are already in conflict, or misconduct is suspected, the matter becomes a contested one for an attorney who litigates trust and probate cases, and this page does not cover how to pursue or defend one.
When to Involve a Professional — and Which Kind
Different mistakes belong to different professionals, and knowing which one handles which question saves time.
- Probate attorney. Opens and closes a probate estate, prepares the petitions, and advises the executor or administrator on court procedure, notices and the inventory.
- Trust administration attorney. Advises a successor trustee on duties, the trustee's notice, accountings and distributions.
- CPA or enrolled agent. Prepares the decedent's final income tax return and the estate's or trust's income tax return, and reviews basis on inherited assets; a tax attorney handles the more complex questions.
- County assessor's office. Takes the change in ownership filing and any reassessment exclusion claim, and publishes the current forms.
- California Courts. The Judicial Council's Guide to property after someone dies explains general probate procedure and when a simple process may be used.
The State Bar of California, at calbar.ca.gov, is the licensing body for California attorneys, and its site offers attorney license information and lawyer referral services. The self-help guide also notes that a lawyer's fees can usually be paid from the property in the estate. For county offices in one area, the San Diego County estate guide shows how the local probate court, recorder and assessor fit together.
