California

Trust and Estate Guides

What Does a California Estate Plan Cover?

A California plan typically combines a will, often a revocable living trust, a financial power of attorney, and an advance health care directive — plus attention to how assets are titled and what beneficiary designations say. California imposes no state estate tax, so only federal rules apply, and the federal basic exclusion is $15,000,000 per person for 2026. California also scales court involvement to estate size: for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the Judicial Council’s published limits include $208,850 for the personal property affidavit and $750,000 for a petition concerning the decedent’s California primary residence.

Key Takeaways

• Five things carry a plan: a will, often a trust, a financial power of attorney, a health care directive, and correct titling.
• California has no state estate tax; the federal exclusion is $15,000,000 per person for 2026.
• Summary succession limits turn on the date of death and were adjusted on April 1, 2025.
• Where formal probate is required, attorney and representative compensation follows a statutory schedule applied without subtracting mortgages.
• A trust governs only what is actually transferred into it, which is where most plans fail.

The Documents a California Plan Usually Contains

That last row is where plans most often fail in practice. A trust governs only what has been transferred into it, and a retirement account or life insurance policy generally passes to whoever is named on the beneficiary form regardless of what a will says.

California’s Tax Position

California imposes no state estate tax. According to the California State Controller’s Office, the state death tax credit was eliminated effective January 1, 2005, and no California Estate Tax Return has been required for decedents dying on or after that date.

Federal rules still apply. Per IRS guidance for tax year 2026, the basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person, so most estates fall well below it.

For families under that threshold, the tax questions that actually arise tend to be different ones: property tax reassessment when California real property changes hands, and the income tax basis a recipient takes, which affects capital gains if the asset is later sold. Those interact, and a step that helps with one can affect another.

How Much Court Involvement an Estate Faces

California provides summary succession procedures for smaller estates. Their limits are adjusted every three years under Probate Code section 890 and turn on the date of death rather than the filing date. Per Judicial Council Form DE-300, revised April 28, 2025, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025:

Two points about that table. The $750,000 figure came from Assembly Bill 2016 and applies only to a petition concerning the decedent’s primary residence in California — rental, vacation, and commercial property fall outside it. And the Judicial Council states these amounts will next be adjusted on April 1, 2028.

Estates that do not fit a summary procedure generally go through formal probate. Where they do, attorney compensation for ordinary services follows a graduated statutory schedule under Probate Code section 10810, the personal representative is entitled to compensation on the same schedule under section 10800, and the percentages are applied to the appraised value of estate property without reference to encumbrances — so a mortgage does not reduce the figure the percentages are calculated on. Our California probate page sets out the schedule and a worked example.

What Trusts Do, and What They Do Not

A revocable living trust holds assets transferred into it and directs how they are managed during life and distributed at death. It can address what happens if you become unable to manage your own affairs, and it can allow distributions to be staged rather than paid outright.

What it does not do is govern anything that was never transferred into it. An unfunded trust directs nothing, and this is the single most common failure in an estate plan. Retitling real property, accounts, and business interests is the step that makes a trust function, and it is the step most often left undone.

If you have been named successor trustee of a California trust, the most time-sensitive obligation is the statutory notification: it must be served within 60 days of the trust becoming irrevocable, and serving it starts the 120-day window in which the trust can be contested. Our trust administration page covers what the notification must contain and what beneficiaries are entitled to receive.

Where Plans Commonly Go Wrong

• The trust is never funded. Assets stay in the individual’s name, and the trust governs nothing.
• Beneficiary designations contradict the plan. Retirement accounts and insurance pass by designation, not by will, and an outdated form overrides careful drafting.
• No backups are named. A single trustee, executor, or agent with no successor creates a gap exactly when it matters.
• Out-of-state or generic forms are used. California’s execution requirements are specific, and errors usually surface after death when they can no longer be corrected.
• Reassessment is not considered. California’s rules on property tax reassessment when real property changes hands can produce a significant ongoing cost, and whether any exclusion applies depends on the facts.
• Nothing is updated. Marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, a move into or out of California, and significant changes in assets all warrant a review.

Guides by Topic

These guides explain the topics that come up most in estate planning, probate, taxes, and asset protection. Each is written for families rather than lawyers.

Start here

• California estate planning — what a plan covers, the documents, and how to choose between a will and a trust.
• What is an estate plan? — a short video overview of what a plan includes.
• When should you create an estate plan? — the life events that signal it is time.

Trusts and wills

• Revocable living trust — how the most common planning tool works and what it requires.
• Living trust vs. will — how the two documents differ and what each does.
• Who needs a living trust? — the trade-offs, and the situations where one is worth considering.
• A/B trust — how married couples can use a two-part structure, and what it requires.
• Separate property trusts — how spouses who keep separate property can hold it.
• Qualified domestic trust — used where a surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen.
• Life insurance trust — how an irrevocable trust can hold a policy, and the trade-offs involved.
• What is staged distribution? — releasing an inheritance by age or milestone rather than all at once.

Property and mechanics

• Property title — why how you hold title matters, and how it interacts with a trust.
• Moving property in and out of a trust — the steps to fund a trust and to take property back out.
• Mortgages and living trusts — transferring a mortgaged home into a trust.
• How taxes work in a living trust — the income tax treatment while you are alive.
• Deeds upon death — the revocable transfer on death deed, what property qualifies, and the execution and recording requirements.

Families and children

• Estate planning with minor children — the guardianship, trust, and beneficiary decisions involved.
• Choosing a guardian — how to name the person who would raise your children.
• Estate planning for single parents — the steps that matter most when raising children on your own.
• Estate planning for same-sex families — planning considerations for spouses, partners, and their children.
• What would your child want? — six factors from a child’s perspective.
• Trustees vs. financial agents — who does what, and under which document.

Administration, tax, and disputes

• Trust administration — the 60-day notification, the 120-day contest window, and trustee duties.
• California probate — when it is required, the current thresholds, the statutory fee schedule, and timelines.
• Estate tax and asset protection — the current federal figures, which families the estate tax reaches, and what planning tools do and do not do.
• Tax planning — how transfer tax exposure is analysed, and the trade-offs of each approach.
• Asset protection — what these structures can and cannot do, and why timing governs.
• Charitable planning — using charitable structures to support causes, and what each commits you to.
• Qualified personal residence trust — how a residence can be transferred while retaining use for a term.
• IRA trust — naming a trust as an IRA beneficiary, and the rules that follow.

Our California trust and estate page covers the practice as a whole, including contested matters and multi-state estates.

Talk to a Lawyer

These guides are a starting point, not legal advice for your situation. The firm’s trusts and estates practice is led by Alan D. Khalfin and Robert B. Vaksman. Initial consultations are free.

Details about the office are on our San Mateo office page. When you are ready to talk it through, call 650-250-0705 or schedule a consultation.

This page provides general information about California and federal law and is not legal or tax advice; reading it or contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Tax rules change and apply differently to different situations. Every situation is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Reviewed by Alan D. Khalfin, Partner and Managing Attorney, Vaksman Khalfin, PC (admitted in California). Last reviewed: 08/25/2026