Short answer: Administering a California estate means locating the will, deciding whether probate is required, inventorying and valuing what the decedent owned, notifying creditors, paying debts and taxes, and distributing what remains, either under court supervision or through a small estate procedure if the assets qualify. Formal probate is required once the assets subject to probate exceed $208,850 in gross value, under Probate Code § 13100, and most California probate cases run 9 to 18 months from the date the court appoints a personal representative.
What has to happen first after someone dies?
Whoever physically holds the decedent’s original will has a legal duty to lodge it with the superior court clerk in the county where the decedent lived. That has to happen within 30 days of learning of the death, and the filing fee is $50, under Probate Code § 8200. This obligation exists whether or not you intend to serve as executor and whether or not probate turns out to be necessary.
If the decedent kept the will in their own possession and it cannot be found after death, California law presumes the decedent destroyed it on purpose, meaning it was revoked. That presumption can be rebutted with evidence, but it is the starting assumption under Probate Code § 6124, and it is one more reason to know where an original will is kept and to tell your executor.
Does every estate have to go through probate?
No. If the assets subject to probate are worth $208,850 or less (gross value, before debts), the estate generally qualifies for a personal property affidavit instead of full probate, as long as at least 40 days have passed since death and no probate case is open, under Probate Code §§ 13100 and 13101. Real property other than a primary residence has its own affidavit procedure at a $69,625 threshold, with a six month wait and recording with the county recorder, under Probate Code § 13150. A surviving spouse, domestic partner, or child can also petition to receive a decedent’s primary residence, up to $750,000 in value, without full probate, under Probate Code § 13151.
Some assets skip probate entirely regardless of value: property held in joint tenancy, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, and life insurance or retirement accounts with a named beneficiary. A will does not change any of this. A will only takes effect once a court validates it through probate, so having a will does not by itself avoid probate. The only way to keep an estate out of probate court is a revocable living trust that actually holds title to the assets before death. Ridley Law’s probate page walks through what triggers formal probate in more detail.
How do you identify and value what the estate owns?
Once a personal representative is appointed, California law requires an Inventory and Appraisal, filed on Judicial Council Form DE-160, within four months of receiving Letters from the court. That inventory has to cover everything: real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, business interests, vehicles, retirement accounts, and personal property. Unique or high-value assets, a family business or an unusual piece of real estate, generally need a professional appraisal rather than a guess at value, since the inventory drives both the statutory fee calculation and what beneficiaries eventually receive. If you are trying to estimate whether an estate will land above or below the probate threshold before you get this far, the firm’s probate calculator is a useful starting point.
How does an executor deal with creditors and debts?
The personal representative has to publish notice to creditors in a local newspaper once a week for four consecutive weeks, under Probate Code § 9001, and mail direct written notice to each known creditor within 30 days of learning that creditor exists, under Probate Code § 9051. A creditor then has until the later of four months after Letters were issued or 60 days after direct notice was mailed to file a claim, under Probate Code § 9100. Miss both deadlines and the creditor generally loses the right to collect, though there is a hard outer limit of one year from the date of death regardless of when notice went out.
Debts, taxes, and administration expenses come out of the estate before any beneficiary sees a distribution. That includes the personal representative’s own compensation. For a probate estate, the statutory fee schedule under Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810 pays the executor and the estate’s attorney separately, each calculated on the same sliding scale. On a $1,000,000 gross estate, that schedule produces $23,000 for the executor and another $23,000 for the attorney, for $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs, bond, or any extraordinary compensation for extra work like litigation or selling real property.
What about minor children or an estate that stays open a long time?
If minor children are involved, naming a guardian in a will is one of the most consequential things a parent can do, because it tells the court who the parent wants raising the children if both parents are gone. Without that nomination, the court decides based on its own assessment of the child’s best interest, without the benefit of knowing what the parents actually wanted. This is a decision to put in writing, not to leave to a conversation with family.
Most probate estates resolve within 9 to 18 months of the personal representative’s appointment. If an estate is still open at the 18 month mark, the personal representative generally has to file a status report explaining what remains outstanding. Estates with real property to sell, tax complications, or disputes among beneficiaries tend to run toward the longer end of that range.
What mistakes cause the most problems in estate administration?
The recurring ones are predictable: an original will that sits in a drawer instead of being lodged with the court, beneficiary designations on retirement accounts or life insurance that were never updated after a divorce or a death in the family, a living trust that was signed but never actually funded, meaning assets were never retitled into it, and missed creditor notice deadlines that expose the estate or the personal representative to unnecessary liability. None of these are complicated to avoid. They require someone to actually follow through on paperwork, not just sign documents once and assume the job is done.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
If you are named as an executor or trustee, start by locating the original will and any trust documents before you do anything else, since that determines which process applies. If you are not sure whether an estate qualifies for a small estate procedure or needs full probate, an estate planning attorney can review the asset list and tell you which path applies and what it will cost. Ridley Law’s trust administration page covers the parallel process for trustees handling a funded trust instead of a probate estate.
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