Most people facing this are an adult child or a surviving spouse, a few weeks past the funeral, holding a stack of mail and a role nobody trained them for. Siblings may be asking what happens to the house, and a bank may be asking for paperwork that seems to assume the answer is already known. The path forward depends on facts that may not be clear yet: whether there is a will or a trust, how the home was deeded, and what the accounts say. This page explains how each of those facts points to a path, so the next conversation, with family or with a professional, starts from solid ground.
What 'Settling an Estate' Actually Means
An estate is everything a person owned at death: real property, meaning land and buildings such as the family home, and personal property, meaning everything else, including bank and investment accounts, vehicles, furniture and jewelry. Settling it means collecting those assets, paying what is validly owed and transferring the rest.
California has three main paths. Full probate is a court-supervised case in the Superior Court. Trust administration is the private handling of assets held in a living trust. Simplified procedures, which the courts call summary succession, let smaller estates or particular assets pass with less court involvement. Which path applies turns on three things: whether there is a will, a trust or neither; how title to each asset was held; and the value of the assets subject to each procedure.
The people involved hold distinct roles. An executor is the person a will names to carry out its terms. An administrator is the person the court appoints when there is no will or no named executor who can serve. Personal representative is the term covering both. A trustee manages trust assets, and a successor trustee is the person who takes over when the original trustee dies. An heir inherits under the law when there is no will, and a beneficiary is named in a will, a trust or an account. These roles are not interchangeable, and the Probate Code sets different rules for each. The California estate settlement guide follows the whole process from start to finish.
When Probate Is Required in California
Probate, as the California Courts guide to property after someone dies describes it, is the legal process to transfer or inherit property after the owner has passed away. The same guide notes that an estate may need probate even when there is a will. Probate is generally needed for assets that were in the parent's name alone, with no beneficiary designation, joint tenancy or trust, when their value is above the limits for the simplified procedures.
The case is filed in the Superior Court of the county where the parent lived at death. If the parent lived outside California but owned real property here, the case is filed where that property is located. The usual sequence runs like this:
- A petition asks the court to open probate and appoint a personal representative.
- The court appoints the executor named in the will, or an administrator.
- The personal representative gives notice to creditors.
- The estate's assets are inventoried and appraised.
- Valid debts, expenses and taxes are paid.
- A petition for final distribution is filed.
- The court orders the remaining property distributed.
The Probate Code governs the personal representative's duties at each step, including notifying creditors and acting loyally toward heirs and beneficiaries. When there is no will, Probate Code section 8461 sets the order of priority for appointment as administrator. It begins with a surviving spouse or domestic partner, then children, then grandchildren, then other issue (descendants), then parents, and the list continues. When there is no will, Probate Code section 6402 generally passes the part of the estate that does not go to a surviving spouse, or the whole estate if there is no spouse, to the parent's issue first.
Probate is public. The will and the inventory become court records. Whether any estate or income tax is owed is a question a CPA or a tax attorney reviews.
California's Simplified Procedures for Smaller Estates
For a family, the simplified procedures can mean collecting a bank balance or transferring a modest home without a full probate case. Each procedure has its own conditions: the type of asset, a value ceiling, sometimes a waiting period, and who may use it. The California Courts page on simple transfer procedures explains that these limits are updated every three years and that the limit that applies depends on the date of death.
- Affidavit for collection or transfer of personal property. Under Probate Code section 13100, once 40 days have passed since the death, a successor may collect money owed to the parent, receive tangible personal property and have accounts or securities transferred without letters or probate, if the gross value of the parent's California real and personal property stays within the limit. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, that limit is $208,850, according to the Judicial Council's form DE-300 listing the maximum values.
- Petition to determine succession to the decedent's primary residence. This is a court petition for the parent's main California home. The DE-300 form lists a gross-value limit of $750,000 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025.
- Affidavit for real property of small value. This covers California real property within a lower ceiling, which DE-300 lists at $69,625 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025.
Some property is left out when these values are counted. Probate Code section 13050 excludes, among other things, joint tenancy property, property in a trust the parent could revoke, multiple-party accounts to the extent they belong to a surviving party or payee, and registered vehicles.
A surviving spouse or domestic partner has a separate path, the spousal or domestic partner property petition. Under Probate Code section 13650, it asks the court to find that administration is not necessary for property passing to the surviving spouse.
These procedures involve no court supervision of an ongoing administration and are usually quicker and less costly than probate, but they are available only when the assets and circumstances qualify.
Trust Administration: When a Parent Left a Living Trust
A revocable living trust, the kind a parent can change during life, becomes irrevocable at the parent's death. The successor trustee named in the trust document then has authority to act. In the ordinary case, trust administration does not go through the Superior Court, and the trust document stays private.
The successor trustee's work includes notifying beneficiaries, inventorying trust assets, paying valid debts and expenses, filing required tax returns and distributing assets under the trust's terms. Notice is set by statute. Under Probate Code section 16061.7, the trustee serves a notification on each beneficiary and on each heir of the parent. It is due within 60 days after the trust becomes irrevocable. For a person the trustee did not know about at that time, it is due 60 days after the trustee learns of that person. If the trustee's office was vacant, the 60 days runs from the date the new trustee begins serving. The notification includes the trustee's name, address and telephone number, and it tells recipients they may request a copy of the trust's terms. The full list of required contents is in the statute.
The trust controls only assets titled in the trust's name. An account or a house the parent never moved into the trust may still need probate or a simplified procedure. A parent's plan can therefore require both a trustee and a personal representative: the trustee handles trust assets, and the personal representative handles the probate estate.
Disputes among beneficiaries or concerns about a trustee's conduct are a different matter, handled by an attorney who litigates trust and probate cases.
Debts, Creditors, and What Heirs Are Responsible For
Heirs and beneficiaries generally do not personally inherit a parent's debts. Debts are paid from the estate's assets before anything is distributed. This is often the first worry an adult child brings to the table, especially with credit card statements still arriving.
In probate, the personal representative notifies known creditors and publishes a notice to creditors, and creditors have a limited period to file claims. If the assets are not enough to pay every debt, the estate is insolvent. The Probate Code then sets the order in which debts are paid, and heirs receive what remains, which may be nothing.
Secured debts follow the property. Whoever inherits a house takes it subject to the mortgage. Federal law limits when a lender can call the loan due. For a loan on residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d) bars a lender from exercising a due-on-sale clause upon transfers including a transfer to a relative resulting from the borrower's death, a transfer on the death of a joint tenant, and a transfer where the borrower's spouse or children become owners.
A surviving spouse is in a different position. California's community property rules affect what the spouse owns and owes. Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, may also have a recovery claim against an estate for benefits it paid.
Real Property: Transferring a Parent's Home
How the home passes depends on how title was held at death:
- Sole ownership. The home passes through probate or, if it qualifies, a simplified procedure.
- Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. The survivor typically records an affidavit of death of joint tenant.
- Living trust. The successor trustee transfers or manages the home under the trust.
- Transfer-on-death deed. The deed was recorded during life and names who receives the home.
Bank accounts work in a similar way. Under Probate Code section 5302, sums in a joint account belong to the surviving party unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent, and a payable-on-death account generally goes to the named payee.
A personal representative or trustee with authority to sell may sell the home to pay debts or to divide the proceeds. In probate, whether a sale needs court confirmation depends on the authority the court granted. A personal representative with authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act may be able to sell without a confirmation hearing, while other sales go through court confirmation. The inherited house guide and the comparison of keeping, renting or selling cover the decision itself.
Property tax. A transfer from parent to child can lead the county assessor to reassess the home. Rev. & Tax. Code section 63.2 excludes qualifying parent-child transfers on or after February 16, 2021, from reassessment, subject to several conditions:
- The home must have been the parent's principal residence.
- It must become the child's principal residence within one year.
- The child must file for the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption within a year.
- A value limit applies. The county assessor publishes the current figure.
The claim for the exclusion is generally due within three years after the transfer, or earlier if the property is transferred to a third party or the child stops living there. A claim is also timely if it is filed within six months after the mailing of a supplemental or escape assessment notice. A later claim can still be considered if the home has not been sold to a third party, but it applies only from the lien date of the year in which it is filed. The county assessor's office reviews these claims.
Income tax. Under 26 U.S.C. § 1014(a), inherited property's basis, the starting figure for measuring gain on a later sale, is generally its fair market value at the date of death, with alternate valuations in some elections. A CPA, enrolled agent or tax attorney reviews how this applies. Real property and personal property differ in procedure, in reassessment and in valuation, so each asset is worth looking at separately.
What to Do in the First Weeks After a Parent Dies
The first weeks are mostly about finding documents and protecting what exists. The estate settlement checklist lays the full list out in order.
- Locate the will, the trust and any beneficiary designations. These documents decide which path applies. Under Probate Code section 8200, unless a petition for probate is filed sooner, whoever holds an original will delivers it to the clerk of the Superior Court within 30 days after learning of the death, and sends a copy to the named executor or, if the executor cannot be found, to a beneficiary.
- Order certified death certificates. The county vital records office issues them, and banks, the court and government agencies ask for them.
- Secure and list the assets. This includes the home, accounts, vehicles and belongings. The personal representative or trustee has a duty to protect estate assets from loss.
- Notify the Social Security Administration and pension or benefit payers. These payers need to know about the death so payments can be handled correctly.
- Hold off on distributions and informal debt payments. Until it is clear which debts are valid, early payouts can create personal liability for a personal representative.
Probate petitions and trust notices carry deadlines that run from the death, from appointment or from another event, as each rule states. The professionals families commonly work with include a probate or estate attorney for the legal steps, a CPA or enrolled agent for tax filings, and the county assessor's office for property tax.
