Short answer: California law does not actually define a “simple will” or a “complex will.” Every valid will, however detailed, still has to go through probate before it does anything. If the estate holds more than $208,850 in gross probate assets, that means formal court probate under Probate Code § 13100 regardless of how many pages the will runs. What changes as a family’s situation gets more complicated is not the length of the will. It is whether a will is even the right document, or whether the family needs a funded revocable living trust instead.
What actually makes a will “simple” versus “complex”?
People usually mean a short document when they say “simple will”: it names an executor, names guardians for minor children, and leaves everything outright to a spouse or the children in equal shares. A “complex will” usually means a longer document that tries to do more, staggering distributions by age, carving out property for a child from a prior marriage, or attaching conditions to an inheritance. Neither is a defined legal category. Both are still wills, and both still have to be admitted to probate before an executor can distribute anything under them.
Does a longer, more detailed will let a family skip probate?
No. A will, by itself, does not avoid probate. It only takes effect once a court validates it through the probate process, and that is true whether the will is one page or thirty. Only a properly funded revocable living trust moves assets to beneficiaries outside of probate.
The cost of that distinction is not small. Once an estate’s gross probate assets exceed the $208,850 threshold under Probate Code § 13100, California calculates the executor’s fee and the estate attorney’s fee separately, using the same statutory schedule under Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810. On a $1,000,000 gross estate, that schedule produces $23,000 for the executor and another $23,000 for the attorney, or $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs, bond, or any extraordinary fees for selling real property or handling litigation. A more detailed will does not reduce that number. Keeping the asset out of probate in the first place does.
When does a California family actually need more than a basic will?
A handful of situations tend to call for more planning than a basic will provides:
- A blended family, where a parent wants to protect children from a prior marriage without accidentally disinheriting them or a current spouse
- A child or other beneficiary who cannot responsibly manage a lump sum, whether because of age, disability, or a pattern of financial trouble
- A family business where leadership and ownership need to transfer without stalling operations while probate runs its course
- Real property in more than one location, or assets a family wants to keep entirely private rather than filed as part of a public court record
In most of these situations, the tool that actually solves the problem is a living trust with the right sub-trust provisions, not a longer will. A trust’s terms control distribution directly, without waiting on a court calendar. A will can include similar terms, called a testamentary trust, but that trust does not exist and cannot act until probate has run its full course, which commonly takes 9 to 18 months in California.
What happens if a family skips planning and relies on intestacy instead?
If someone dies without a valid will in California, the intestate succession statutes decide who inherits, not the decedent’s wishes. Under Probate Code § 6401(a) and (b), a surviving spouse takes all of the couple’s community property. Separate property is split differently: the surviving spouse gets all of it if there are no surviving children, parents, or siblings; half if there is one child or that child’s descendants, or no children but a surviving parent or sibling; and one third if there are two or more children, under Probate Code § 6401(c). Stepchildren who were never legally adopted, and unmarried partners, generally inherit nothing under these rules, regardless of how close the relationship was. Dying without a will does not avoid probate either. An intestate estate above the small estate threshold still goes through full, court-supervised probate under the same statutory fee schedule described above.
Does the federal estate tax make a complex will necessary?
For the large majority of California families, no. The 2026 federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person, or $30,000,000 for a married couple, made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. California itself has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. A family with a house, some retirement accounts, and ordinary savings is not going to trigger federal estate tax no matter how the will is drafted. The planning that actually matters for most families is who gets named as executor and guardian, how property is titled, and whether probate can be avoided altogether, not sophisticated tax language in the will itself.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
Start by asking what you are actually trying to prevent: probate delay and cost, an unequal or contested distribution, or a beneficiary who needs protection from their own decisions. A basic will answers almost none of those on its own. If any of them apply to your family, talk with an estate planning attorney about whether a funded living trust, not a longer will, is the document that actually gets you there.
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