The Cost of Dying in California (2026): Funeral, Probate, and Estate Settlement Costs With Sources

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated September 2026.

This page collects the sourced, dated figures behind the real cost of dying in California: national funeral and burial costs, the state fee for a death certificate, and every statutory probate cost by estate size. Every figure links to the primary publisher it came from, whether that is the National Funeral Directors Association, a California state agency, or the Probate Code itself. We review this page every year and update it when a statute, fee schedule, or survey changes.

Cite this page: Ridley Law, “The Cost of Dying in California (2026): Funeral, Probate, and Estate Settlement Costs With Sources,” ridleylawoffices.com/cost-of-dying-california/, September 2026.

Key findings

• The national median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial was $8,300 in 2023, and a funeral with cremation ran $6,280, per the National Funeral Directors Association’s most recent General Price List Study.
• A certified copy of a California death certificate costs $26 as of January 1, 2026, per the California Department of Public Health’s Vital Records fee schedule.
• On a $1,000,000 estate, California’s statutory attorney fee and personal representative fee each come to $23,000, a combined $46,000 before the probate referee’s commission and court filing fees, under Probate Code § 10810 and § 10800.
• The probate referee’s commission runs 0.1 percent of the non-cash property appraised, with a $75 floor and a $10,000 cap, under Probate Code § 8961 and § 8963.
• Filing the first petition to open a California probate costs $435 statewide as of January 1, 2026, per the Judicial Council’s statewide civil fee schedule.
• Formal probate in California “typically takes 9 to 18 months and can sometimes take even longer,” per the California Courts Self-Help Guide.

Funeral and burial costs

The National Funeral Directors Association surveys funeral homes nationwide for its General Price List Study. Its most recent published study, released December 2023, is the most current primary data available as of this page’s review date.

Service	National median cost	Source
Funeral with viewing and burial (metal casket, no vault)	$8,300	NFDA, 2023 GPL Study
Funeral with cremation (alternative container and urn)	$6,280	NFDA, 2023 GPL Study

We found no California-specific funeral cost figure from a primary publisher with a stated methodology, current enough to meet this page’s citation standard. The California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau publishes consumer guidance and enforces disclosure rules, but does not publish its own statewide average or median cost survey. Until one exists, the national NFDA figures above are the best sourced numbers available.

Two layers of law protect a consumer shopping for funeral services. The FTC’s Funeral Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 453) requires a funeral home to give you a General Price List to keep, itemizing prices for individual goods and services, the first time you ask in person about arrangements or prices. The FTC states plainly: “You must give the General Price List to such individuals to keep.” California’s own Business and Professions Code § 7685 requires a similar written price list and a price range for caskets, enforced by the state’s Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.

Death certificates in California

A certified copy of a death certificate from the California Department of Public Health costs $26 per copy. The fee rose $2 on January 1, 2026 under Assembly Bill 64 (Chapter 662, Statutes of 2025). County recorder offices also issue certified copies, so check the county’s own fee before ordering there. Banks and title companies usually want a certified copy, not a photocopy, so budget for more than one.

Probate costs by estate size

California sets attorney and personal representative compensation by statute, as a percentage of “the value of the estate accounted for by the personal representative.” That value starts from the inventory and appraisal, which lists property at its full value, so a mortgage on a house does not reduce the fee base. The table below shows the statutory fees at six estate sizes, plus the probate referee’s commission and the court’s filing fee. Figures are rounded to the nearest dollar; see sources.csv for the arithmetic behind each cell.

Gross estate value	Statutory attorney fee	Statutory personal representative fee	Probate referee commission	First paper filing fee	Combined total (referee at maximum)
$250,000	$8,000	$8,000	up to $250	$435	$16,685
$500,000	$13,000	$13,000	up to $500	$435	$26,935
$750,000	$18,000	$18,000	up to $750	$435	$37,185
$1,000,000	$23,000	$23,000	up to $1,000	$435	$47,435
$2,000,000	$33,000	$33,000	up to $2,000	$435	$68,435
$5,000,000	$63,000	$63,000	up to $5,000	$435	$131,435

Source for the attorney fee column: Probate Code § 10810. Source for the personal representative fee column: Probate Code § 10800, the identical percentage schedule, paid separately. Both are computed on the same statutory tiers: 4 percent of the first $100,000, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000, 1 percent of the next $9,000,000, and 0.5 percent of the next $15,000,000 of “the value of the estate accounted for by the personal representative.”

The probate referee commission column shows the maximum if the referee appraised the full estate value: 0.1 percent, with a $75 minimum and a $10,000 maximum, under Probate Code § 8961 and § 8963. In practice the referee appraises only non-cash property. Cash, bank and brokerage accounts, and similar liquid items are appraised by the personal representative directly under Probate Code § 8901 and pay no referee commission. An estate that is mostly cash will land near the $75 floor; an estate that is mostly real property or a closely held business will land closer to the figures shown.

The filing fee column reflects the $435 fee to file the first petition for letters of administration or letters testamentary, set statewide by the Judicial Council’s Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 (item 124), and does not change with estate size. The combined statutory total adds these four columns. It does not include extraordinary fees for litigation or a sale of real property, publication costs, a probate bond premium, or any attorney fee above the statutory schedule that a court may approve for extraordinary work.

How long probate takes

California’s courts describe formal probate this way: “The entire process typically takes 9 to 18 months and can sometimes take even longer,” according to the California Courts Self-Help Guide.

What this means in California

These are statutory costs, not a bill from any one law firm. An estate under California’s small estate limits may avoid formal probate entirely; see our page on the California small estate affidavit for the current thresholds and process. For an estate that must go through formal probate, our guide to what probate actually costs in California and our California probate fee calculator walk through the same statutory schedule used above with your own numbers. If you want to see the math applied to a single, common estate, our page on what probate costs on a $700,000 house works through a real example. For the broader data picture, see our California probate statistics page. A court may require a probate bond, which is waived only if the will waives it or all beneficiaries waive it in writing, and the court can still require one; its premium adds to the figures above. Most of these costs, and the delay that comes with them, are what a properly funded living trust is designed to avoid.

Related pages on this site

• What Probate Actually Costs in California
• California Probate Fee Calculator
• What Probate Actually Costs in California on a $700,000 House
• California Probate Statistics (2026)
• California Small Estate Affidavit 2026
• Probate Timeline California: Complete Guide for 2026
• Probate Bonds in California: Cost, Requirements, and Waivers
• Who Has the Right to Decide Cremation or Burial in California?

Methodology

Funeral cost figures come from the National Funeral Directors Association’s most recent General Price List Study, published December 2023 and confirmed on NFDA’s own site. No newer NFDA study was available as of this page’s review date. We searched for a California-specific funeral cost survey from a named organization with a stated methodology and found none current enough to cite; the California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau publishes consumer rights guidance but not its own cost survey. The death certificate fee comes from the California Department of Public Health’s own Vital Records fee page, current as of January 1, 2026. All probate fee figures come from the text of the California Probate Code, fetched directly from the state legislature’s official site, and the Judicial Council’s statewide civil fee schedule effective January 1, 2026. The probate timeline figure is quoted exactly from the California Courts Self-Help Guide; no other timeline figure is used on this page.

We did not include trust administration fees, any law firm’s hourly rate, or California’s small estate dollar limit on this page; the small estate limit changes and is covered, with citations, on our small estate affidavit page linked above. All sources were checked in September 2026. We review this page annually and sooner if a cited statute, fee schedule, or survey changes. To report an error, email eric@ridleylawoffices.com.