Successor Trustee in California: What to Do First

Someone named you successor trustee, which means you are the person now in charge of their trust after their death. Your job is to gather what they owned, pay what they owed, tell the right people, and hand out what is left the way the trust says to. You do not have to know how to do all that today. You have to take a few careful first steps and not sign anything you do not understand.

So here is the short version. Secure the house. Order more death certificates than you think you need. Find the trust and every amendment to it. Then send the required notice to the beneficiaries and heirs, because that one has a clock on it. Everything after that is paperwork, patience, and getting advice before you move money. This page walks through what you are facing and what a lawyer takes off your plate.

What a successor trustee is, and what it is not

You are not the owner of any of this. You are the person holding it and handing it out under the rules in the document. You manage the trust assets for the people who are supposed to receive them, you keep clean records, and you stay neutral even when family does not.

You are also not an executor, and the difference matters. A trustee runs a trust. An executor runs a will through probate, the public court process after death when there is no trust holding the property. If everything was titled in the trust, you may never see the inside of a courtroom. If something was left out, you might, and we will get to that.

Your first 90 days as successor trustee

1. Secure the home and the property. Lock it up, make sure the homeowner’s insurance stays in force, and do not let anyone start carrying things out of the house, even relatives who say they were promised something.
2. Order at least ten certified death certificates from the county. Every bank, brokerage, and title company will want an original, and reordering later is slow.
3. Find the trust document and every amendment and restatement to it. The version that controls is the most recent valid one, so you need all of them, not just the first one you find.
4. Read the trust to confirm you are in fact the named successor trustee and that the prior trustee has died or stepped down. That is what gives you authority to act.
5. Make a list of every asset: real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, vehicles, and the one account nobody knew about. Watch the mail for a month, statements surface things.
6. Find out how each asset is titled. An account in the trust’s name passes under the trust. An account in the person’s own name may not, and that changes the path.
7. Send the Probate Code section 16061.7 notice to all beneficiaries and to the deceased person’s heirs. This is required, it commonly goes out within 60 days of death, and it starts a 120-day window for anyone to contest the trust.
8. Open a trust bank account using the trust’s tax ID number so you are never mixing trust money with your own. Keep every receipt.
9. Get date-of-death values for the real estate and the investment accounts. You will need real numbers, not guesses, for taxes and for the beneficiaries.
10. Pay only what you clearly have authority to pay: the mortgage, property insurance, utilities to protect the house, and reasonable funeral costs. Hold off on distributing anything to beneficiaries until debts and taxes are sorted.
11. Keep a running file of what came in, what went out, and why. Beneficiaries are entitled to an accounting, and a clean file is your protection.
12. Talk to an attorney before you retitle property, sell the house, or write a check to a beneficiary. The early moves are where people create problems that are expensive to undo.

What you can and cannot pay for before you have authority

This trips people up. Before you have clear authority and a trust account, be careful with money. You can generally keep the lights on: mortgage, insurance, and utilities that protect the home, plus reasonable funeral and burial costs. What you should not do is pay out gifts, reimburse yourself for vague expenses, or hand a beneficiary their share early because they are asking. Debts and taxes come before distributions. Pay in the wrong order and you can end up personally on the hook for the difference.

When the house was never put in the trust

This is the most common broken thing, and you may already be living it. A trust only avoids probate for assets actually titled in it. People sign the trust, then never retitle the house into it, so at death the house sits outside the trust in the person’s own name. It was supposed to be caught and was not.

California has a faster fix than full probate for exactly this. It is called a Heggstad petition. If the records show the person clearly meant the house to be in the trust, for example they listed it on the trust’s schedule of assets but never recorded the deed, a lawyer can ask the court to confirm the house belongs to the trust. It is a court petition, but usually far shorter and cheaper than opening a full probate. Whether it works depends on the paperwork the person left behind, which is why finding every document matters.

When the estate qualifies for a simpler path

Not every estate needs the full process. California has shortcuts, and they have changed recently, so use current numbers.

If what is left outside the trust is personal property and no real estate, and it is under $239,700 (the limit for deaths on or after April 1, 2026), the heirs can often collect it with a small-estate affidavit, a sworn form, instead of going to court at all. And since April 1, 2025, a deceased person’s primary residence worth up to $750,000 can pass through a simplified court petition rather than full probate. That one is for the primary residence only, not a rental or a second home. Both of these can turn a year-long process into a much shorter one, when the estate fits.

How long this really takes, and why it stalls

A straightforward trust administration in California often runs several months to a year. If part of it has to go through probate, expect roughly one to two years, because that is how long the court process tends to take (current as of 2026). What drags it out is rarely the law. It is the missing account statement, the beneficiary who will not return calls, the house that was never retitled, the tax return that has to clear, the appraisal you are waiting on. Most delays come from things being incomplete, not contested. Getting organized early is the biggest thing in your control.

How Eric helps you finish this without becoming the expert

You learned the hard way that an old trust can fail to do the one thing it was for, and that you can do everything right and still get stuck in court because of a deed nobody recorded. You do not need to become an expert on any of this. That is the job you hire out.

Eric Ridley has practiced California estate work since 2010. He will tell you which path your situation needs, send the section 16061.7 notice correctly and on time, file a Heggstad petition or the simplified residence petition if the house was left out, keep the order of payments straight so you are not personally exposed, and handle the beneficiaries and paperwork so you can stop carrying it all in your head. You stay the trustee. He does the heavy lifting.

The first conversation is a free 60-minute consultation with Eric, by phone or Zoom. Bring the trust and whatever statements you have found. Call (805) 244-5291. Ridley Law is in Port Hueneme and serves Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles Counties, plus the rest of California by phone and Zoom.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Successor trustee FAQs

What does a successor trustee actually have to do in California?

Gather and protect the trust’s assets, notify the beneficiaries and heirs in writing using the Probate Code section 16061.7 notice, pay the deceased person’s valid debts and taxes, keep records, and then distribute what is left the way the trust directs. You act for the beneficiaries, not for yourself, and you keep the trust’s money separate from your own the entire time.

How long does it take to settle a trust in California?

A clean trust administration often takes several months to a year. If an asset has to go through probate, plan on roughly one to two years (current as of 2026). Most of the delay comes from missing paperwork, slow beneficiaries, appraisals, and tax returns, not from the trust itself.

The house was never put in the trust. What now?

You may not need a full probate. If the records show the person meant the house to be in the trust but the deed was never changed, a Heggstad petition asks the court to confirm the house belongs to the trust. It is usually faster and cheaper than full probate. Whether it works depends on the documents the person left behind, so bring everything to the first meeting.

Do I have to go through probate if there is a trust?

Only for assets that were left outside the trust. A trust avoids probate for property actually titled in it. A will does not avoid probate; it is just the instruction sheet the court follows. So if everything was moved into the trust, you likely avoid court. If the house or an account was left in the person’s own name, that piece may need a court step, though often a simplified one.

Can I get paid as the trustee?

Usually, yes. California allows a successor trustee reasonable compensation for the work, and many trusts say so directly. Keep careful records of your time and expenses, take the fee in the right order relative to debts and distributions, and get advice before you pay yourself so it is clean and defensible.

For more, see how trust administration works in California, the full list of a successor trustee’s duties, fixing a house left out of the trust with a Heggstad petition, settling a parent’s estate when there is a will and no trust, the difference between a trustee and an executor, California’s small-estate shortcuts, and the probate fee calculator if part of the estate is headed to court.

Written by Eric D. Ridley. Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law, serving Ventura County since 2010. Learn more about Eric →