Short answer – A California beneficiary has the right to be told the trust or estate exists, to get a complete copy of the trust or will, to see where the money went, to receive what the document leaves them, and to ask the probate court to step in when the trustee or executor won’t do those things. For a trust, those rights start when the trust becomes irrevocable, usually at the death of the person who made it. For a will, they start when a probate is opened. Most of them have to be asserted in writing, and several expire on a deadline.
Your rights switch on at a specific moment
Say your mother died in March, your brother is the successor trustee of her living trust, and by June you’ve heard nothing about the trust or the house.
Under California law it’s already late. The trust became irrevocable the day your mother died, and that one event started every right on this page. Your brother had 60 days to send you a formal notice. You’re entitled to a full copy of the trust the moment you ask for one. And a 120-day deadline that can end your right to challenge the trust hasn’t started, because it runs from a notice he hasn’t sent.
While a living trust is still revocable and the person who can revoke it is competent, Probate Code § 15800 gives that person the rights a beneficiary would otherwise hold, and the trustee’s duties run to them alone. You can ask a parent to show you their trust. Nobody can make them, and the trustee owes you no accounting and no copy (§ 16069). That changes if the settlor loses capacity. Once no one who holds the power to revoke is still competent, § 15800(b) gives the trustee 60 days to send a notice and a complete copy of the trust to the beneficiaries who would receive distributions if the settlor had died that day, and the duty to account shifts to them. Under § 15800(c), incompetency is established by the method the trust itself specifies or by a court’s determination. More on that in whether you can see a parent’s trust while they’re alive.
A trustee’s conduct before the death can still be challenged afterward. In Estate of Giraldin (2012) 55 Cal.4th 1058, the settlor had named someone else as trustee, and the California Supreme Court held that once the settlor dies, the beneficiaries can sue that trustee for breaching the duties owed to the settlor during the settlor’s lifetime, to the extent the breach harmed the beneficiaries. A trustee who drained the trust then has reduced what the beneficiaries inherit now.
From the date of death forward, each right below runs on its own deadline. Most are triggered by a written request, and one kind of court petition enforces them.
In the first 60 days you’re owed a notice, and a full copy if you ask
When a death makes a trust irrevocable, § 16061.7 requires the trustee to serve a written notification within 60 days. It goes to every beneficiary of the irrevocable trust and to every heir of the person who died, which means a child who was left out of the trust still gets one. The notice has to identify the settlor and the date of the trust, give each trustee’s name, address and phone number, state where the trust is being administered, and tell you that you’re entitled to a true and complete copy of the terms of the trust on request. The person who made the trust can’t waive this requirement, and § 16061.7(i) voids any attempt. If you’ve already received one, see what to do after a § 16061.7 notice.
The copy you’re entitled to is the whole instrument. Probate Code § 16061.5 says the trustee “shall provide a true and complete copy of the terms” of the irrevocable trust to any beneficiary or heir who asks. Section 16060.5 defines those terms to include amendments, signatures, disclaimers, and any written directions to the trustee that affect who gets what. A trustee who sends only the paragraph with your name in it hasn’t complied. If the trust was completely restated, though, you get the restatement and later amendments, and the superseded versions aren’t included. When only part of a trust became irrevocable, as with a married couple’s trust after the first death, your copy covers the irrevocable part. The surviving spouse’s revocable share stays private.
A trustee who skips the notice pays for it. Section 16061.9 makes the trustee responsible for the damages, attorney’s fees and costs the failure causes a beneficiary, unless the trustee made a reasonably diligent effort to comply. The notice and the copy are usually the first things to ask for, and a trustee who answers quickly and completely usually handles the accounting the same way. See copy of the trust and the 120-day notice for how to make the request.
That notice starts the clock on challenging the trust
The notice carries a warning in bold type, and missing the deadline it describes ends your right to challenge the trust. Under § 16061.8, a person served with the notice can’t bring an action to contest the trust more than 120 days after service, or more than 60 days after a copy of the trust is delivered to them during that 120-day period, whichever is later. The statute applies whether the trustee served the notice on time or late. The clock runs from proper service of the notice. Hearing about the trust from a cousin doesn’t start it.
A contest is a different kind of case from a dispute with the trustee. It says the document itself, or an amendment to it, shouldn’t be enforced because of forgery, lack of capacity, undue influence or fraud. These claims come up most often when a trust was changed shortly before the settlor died and the change favored one beneficiary over the others. You don’t have to be named in the final version to bring one. In Barefoot v. Jennings (2020) 8 Cal.5th 822, the California Supreme Court held that a person written out of a trust by a late amendment can petition the probate court to challenge that amendment. The court left open whether an heir who was never a beneficiary under any version can do the same. The First District Court of Appeal has since held, in Hamlin v. Jendayi (2024) 105 Cal.App.5th 1064, that two sisters who would have inherited without the trust, and were never named in it, had standing to contest it in probate court.
Many trusts include a no-contest clause that disinherits anyone who challenges the trust. California enforces those clauses narrowly. Under Probate Code § 21311, a no-contest clause applies to a direct contest only when it was brought without probable cause, and asking for the copy, the accounting or the information described on this page isn’t a contest at all. See no-contest clauses in California and the deadlines for a trust contest. I refer trust and will contests to litigation counsel, and the referral costs you nothing, but the 120 days run whether or not you’ve found a lawyer.
Once a year, an accounting of what came in and what went out
The accounting is how you find out whether anything else went wrong. Under § 16062, the trustee has to account at least once a year, when the trust ends, and when the trustee changes. Section 16063 requires the account to show receipts and disbursements of principal and income, the trust’s assets and liabilities at the end of the period, what the trustee was paid, and what the trustee’s agents were paid along with their relationship to the trustee. A promise to send something soon isn’t an accounting, and neither is a one-page summary without those items. See compelling a trust accounting for the required format.
Who gets the annual accounting depends on where you stand in the trust. Section 16062 gives it to beneficiaries to whom income or principal is required or authorized to be distributed currently. If your share only arrives after someone else’s death, such as a stepparent’s, you’re a remainder beneficiary and the annual accounting isn’t automatic. You can still get the information. In Esslinger v. Cummins (2006) 144 Cal.App.4th 517, the Court of Appeal held that a remainder beneficiary can request information under § 16061 and, if the trustee refuses, petition the court for that information or a particular account, which the court has discretion to order.
A trust can waive the accounting, and many do. Even then, under § 16064, a court can compel an account on a showing that a material breach of trust is reasonably likely to have occurred. See when a trust waives the accounting.
Receiving an accounting starts deadlines of your own. Under § 16460, you have three years to bring a claim for anything the account adequately discloses. A trust can add an earlier step. If the trust sets an objection period of at least 180 days and the trustee sends the account with the bold-type notice § 16461 requires, you have to deliver a written objection to the trustee within that period. Miss it and you’re barred from raising the items the account adequately disclosed, although the trust can’t release a trustee from an intentional, grossly negligent or bad-faith breach, or let the trustee keep a profit from one. Object on time and the three years still apply to that objection. Read the cover letter before you file the accounting away. How to object to a trustee’s accounting covers what an objection looks like.
After a death, beneficiaries often want the records going back years, and there the right is weaker. In Babbitt v. Superior Court (2016) 246 Cal.App.4th 1135, the settlors were their own trustees, and the Court of Appeal held that the probate court couldn’t order the surviving trustee to account for the years the trust was revocable where nobody claimed the deceased settlor had been incapacitated or unduly influenced. So where a parent served as their own trustee, the accounting starts at the death unless someone claims the parent was incapacitated or unduly influenced. Where someone else was trustee during the parent’s lifetime, Giraldin applies, and the Babbitt court read it as giving beneficiaries the right to demand an accounting from that trustee for the earlier period.
Between accountings, the trustee still has to answer you
You don’t have to wait a year for the next accounting to learn what’s happening. Probate Code § 16060 puts a standing duty on the trustee to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed about the trust and its administration, and § 16061 requires the trustee to answer a beneficiary’s reasonable request for information relevant to that beneficiary’s interest. Is the house listed? Has the brokerage account been retitled? What is the trustee’s attorney being paid? Those are fair questions, and the trust can’t waive your right to ask them (§ 16068). See the trustee’s duty to inform and account.
Put the request in writing and date it. Under Probate Code § 17200(b)(7), a beneficiary can petition the court to compel information or an account once the trustee has failed to provide it within 60 days after a written request, so long as none was provided in the six months before the request. A phone call doesn’t start that 60 days.
What the trustee tells you can then be checked against the trustee’s other duties. The trustee has to administer the trust solely in the interest of the beneficiaries (§ 16002), deal impartially with all of them (§ 16003), and stay out of transactions where the trustee’s own interest conflicts with yours (§ 16004). That matters most when the trustee is also a beneficiary, which is the usual arrangement in a family. A sibling serving as trustee can’t favor their own share in deciding what gets sold or who gets the house.
Getting paid, and what a trustee can’t make you sign
You’re entitled to what the trust gives you, on the terms it gives it. A trustee has to administer the trust according to the instrument (§ 16000), so an outright gift gets distributed, and a share held until age 30 stays in trust until then. What you aren’t entitled to is instant payment. The trustee has debts and taxes to settle first, may hold a reasonable reserve for expenses, and under § 16061.9(c) may take into account that the 120-day contest period hasn’t run when deciding the timing of distributions. In my practice an uncontested trust administration takes six to nine months. When beneficiaries get paid lays out the sequence.
When the check is ready, it often comes with a release attached. Probate Code § 16004.5 says a trustee may not require a beneficiary to relieve the trustee of liability as a condition of making a distribution the trust requires. A trustee can ask for a voluntary release, can ask you to approve an accounting, and can hold back an amount that’s reasonably in dispute. The trustee can’t refuse to pay you what the trust requires until you sign. See receipts and releases before you sign one.
If the trust directs a distribution and the trustee won’t make it, a petition to compel distribution is the remedy. Delay with a stated reason, such as an open tax return or a house in escrow, is ordinary administration. Delay with no explanation and no end date is something else.
If you inherit under a will, the court file does much of this work
A beneficiary of a will, and an heir when there’s no will, has the same core rights. The Probate Code counts both as beneficiaries (§ 24). The difference is that a probate runs through the court, so much of what a trust beneficiary has to request is filed with the clerk, where you can read it.
Whoever holds the original will has 30 days after learning of the death to deliver it to the superior court clerk (Prob. Code § 8200). When someone petitions to open the probate, a copy of the will is attached to the petition (§ 8002), and every heir and every person named in the will must be given notice at least 15 days before the hearing (§ 8110). That notice tells you that you can examine the court file and request special notice (§ 8100). Do both. A request for special notice under § 1250 means the executor has to send you each later petition, inventory, account and status report as it’s filed.
The executor, called the personal representative in the Probate Code, then works against court deadlines you can check. The inventory and appraisal listing what the estate owns and what it’s worth is due within four months after letters issue (§ 8800), and you can object to an appraisal you think is wrong (§ 8906). Within one year after letters, or 18 months if a federal estate tax return is required, the personal representative has to either petition for final distribution or file a report explaining why the estate can’t close (§ 12200). If more than a year passes with no account, the court must order one on your petition (§ 10950). You get notice of the hearing on every account (§ 11000), and for cause you can contest any matter in it (§ 11001).
A beneficiary doesn’t always have to wait for the estate to close to receive something. Once two months have passed after letters issue, a beneficiary can petition for a preliminary distribution (§§ 11600, 11620), and the court will order it if it can be made without loss to creditors or injury to the estate (§ 11621). A cash gift of a fixed amount that isn’t paid within a year of the death starts earning interest (§ 12003). And if you believe the will itself is invalid, the window is short. After a will is admitted to probate, an interested person generally has 120 days to petition to revoke it (§ 8270).
For the full sequence see probate in California and the probate timeline. A California probate usually takes twelve to eighteen months in my practice. For an executor who isn’t doing the job, see removing an executor.
| Event | Deadline | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Trustee serves notice after a death makes the trust irrevocable | 60 days | Prob. Code § 16061.7(f) |
| Beneficiary or heir contests the trust | 120 days after the notice is served, or 60 days after a copy of the trust is delivered during that period, whichever is later | § 16061.8 |
| Trustee accounts to current beneficiaries | At least once a year | § 16062(a) |
| Trustee answers a written request before a petition to compel can be filed | 60 days | § 17200(b)(7) |
| Beneficiary objects to an account sent with a § 16461 notice | 180 days, or longer if the trust says so | § 16461(c) |
| Beneficiary sues over a breach an account adequately discloses | 3 years after receiving the account | § 16460(a) |
| Custodian delivers the original will to the court clerk | 30 days after learning of the death | § 8200(a) |
| Executor files the inventory and appraisal | 4 months after letters issue | § 8800(b) |
| Executor petitions for final distribution or files a status report | 1 year after letters, or 18 months if an estate tax return is required | § 12200 |
| Interested person petitions to revoke probate of a will | 120 days after the will is admitted | § 8270(a) |
When a written request isn’t enough
The trust rights above are enforced by petition in the probate division of the superior court. Under, § 17200, a beneficiary can ask the court to compel a copy of the trust, compel information or an account, instruct the trustee, review the trustee’s fees, remove the trustee, or order the trustee to make good a breach. The right petition depends on which of those duties the trustee is failing.
Petition to compel an accounting
Used when the trustee hasn’t answered a written request within 60 days. See our accounting page for the process.
Petition to remove a trustee
Probate Code § 15642 lists the grounds, which include a breach of trust, unfitness, failing or declining to act, and excessive compensation. The court can also suspend a trustee’s powers while the petition is pending. Removing a trustee covers the grounds and procedure, and some trusts let the beneficiaries remove a trustee without going to court.
Petition for surcharge
A trustee who commits a breach is chargeable with the loss it caused, with interest, and with any profit the trustee made from it (§ 16440). See surcharge actions against a trustee and trustee breach of fiduciary duty.
Petition to compel distribution
Used when a trustee is withholding, without a reason the trust or the law supports, assets a beneficiary is entitled to.
Petition to interpret or modify the trust
Used when the trust’s language is ambiguous, or circumstances have changed enough that the court should direct how it’s administered.
Cost is the practical limit on these petitions. The trustee generally defends with trust funds, which means partly with your inheritance, and you pay your own lawyer. Fee-shifting exists but it’s narrow. Under § 17211, if you contest an account and the trustee’s opposition was without reasonable cause and in bad faith, the court can make the trustee pay your costs and attorney’s fees personally. The same statute runs the other way against a beneficiary whose contest was in bad faith. Details are in who pays the trustee’s legal fees.
The probate side has parallel tools in a petition for an account under § 10950, objections to an account for cause under § 11001, and removal of the personal representative for waste, mismanagement or long neglect of the estate (§§ 8500, 8502).
A slow trustee isn’t always a trustee in breach
A first-time trustee with a full-time job and a grieving family can be behind schedule without being in breach. The question that separates the two is whether you made a clear, dated, written request and got real information back within a reasonable time, or got silence and excuses. That record is also what a judge will look at. A documented pattern of ignored requests supports removal and a breach claim. A single late letter doesn’t. In many families one firm letter from a lawyer, citing the sections above, produces the trust and the accounting without anyone going to court.
Working with Ridley Law
If you’re a beneficiary who isn’t getting straight answers about the document, the accounting, or a distribution, I can tell you whether what you’re seeing is ordinary administration or something a court should look at. My work for beneficiaries is trust administration and negotiated resolution, and a petition to the probate court when talking doesn’t settle it. Will and trust contests, and anything headed to trial, I refer to litigation counsel.
Book my 30-minute call or call (805) 244-5291. The call is free, by phone or Zoom, anywhere in California.
Frequently asked questions
When must a trustee notify beneficiaries of a trust?
Under Probate Code § 16061.7, a California trustee must serve a written notification on the beneficiaries and the deceased settlor’s heirs within 60 days after a death makes the trust irrevocable. The notice must give each trustee’s name, address and phone number, state where the trust is administered, and tell the recipient they can request a true and complete copy of the terms of the trust.
Are beneficiaries entitled to a copy of the trust document?
Yes. Once a California trust becomes irrevocable at a settlor’s death, Probate Code § 16061.5 requires the trustee to give a true and complete copy of the terms of the irrevocable trust to any beneficiary or heir who asks. That includes amendments. It doesn’t include versions replaced by a complete restatement, or a portion of the trust that’s still revocable.
What is a beneficiary’s right to a trust accounting?
Under Probate Code § 16062, a California trustee must account at least annually, on a change of trustee, and at the termination of the trust, to each beneficiary currently entitled or eligible to receive distributions. If the trustee doesn’t answer a written request within 60 days, the beneficiary can petition the court under § 17200 to compel the account.
Can a beneficiary force a trustee to make a distribution?
If the trust directs a distribution and the trustee is unreasonably withholding it, a beneficiary can file a petition to compel distribution. Reasonable delays for tax matters, creditor claims, or asset liquidation are normal; indefinite delays without explanation are not.
What happens if a trustee ignores beneficiary rights?
Stonewalling isn’t just frustrating, it can itself become evidence supporting a breach of fiduciary duty claim, grounds for removal, or both, depending on the pattern. California courts don’t look favorably on trustees who treat beneficiary rights as optional.
What rights does the beneficiary of a will have in California?
A person named in a California will is entitled to notice of the probate petition at least 15 days before the hearing (Prob. Code § 8110), can read the will and the court file, can request special notice of every later filing (§ 1250), can object to the inventory or the executor’s account, and can petition for an account if a year passes without one (§ 10950).
How long does a beneficiary have to contest a trust in California?
Under Probate Code § 16061.8, a person served with the trustee’s notification has 120 days from service to contest the trust, or 60 days from the date a copy of the trust is delivered to them during that 120-day period, whichever is later.
Handling a trust or estate after a death?
A free 30-minute call with Eric Ridley. You’ll hear what has to happen, what it costs, and what you can safely do yourself. Ridley Law handles California trust administration and uncontested probate on clear, quoted fees.
Want a straight read on where you stand?
Talk to Eric. A free 30-minute call, no pitch. He’ll tell you where you’re exposed, what it would cost to fix, and what you can skip.
Talk to Eric