Probate Timeline California: Complete Guide for 2026

Quick answer: A clean California probate runs twelve to eighteen months and costs about $46,000 in statutory fees on a $1,000,000 gross estate, even when the house carries a $700,000 mortgage. The four-month creditor claim window sets the floor on how fast any probate can move. The one year people have heard about is a reporting deadline under Probate Code § 12200, not a finish line.

Here are the twelve steps, in order, with what each one actually takes.

What probate costs before you start

The arithmetic surprises people, so it goes first. The personal representative and the estate’s attorney are each entitled to a statutory fee, calculated separately on the same schedule and based on the estate’s gross value rather than its net value after debts. Probate Code § 10800 sets the representative’s compensation and § 10810 gives the attorney an identical fee. The schedule is 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, 1% of the next $9,000,000, and 0.5% of the next $15,000,000, with a reasonable amount set by the court above that.

The fee runs “without reference to encumbrances,” so a mortgage does not reduce it. On a $1,000,000 gross estate that produces $23,000 for the executor and a separate $23,000 for the attorney, which is $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs, bond, or any extraordinary fees. For a worked example, see what probate costs on a $700,000 house.

1. Find the will and lodge it with the court

Whoever has the original will must deliver it to the clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the estate would be administered within 30 days of learning of the death, and mail a copy to the executor named in it. That is Probate Code § 8200. The fee is $50 under Government Code section 70626(d).

Lodging is not opening probate. It is a separate, required filing, and it happens whether or not a probate case is ever opened.

2. File the Petition for Probate

Judicial Council form DE-111, filed in the county where the decedent lived. It names the person asking to be appointed, identifies the heirs and beneficiaries, estimates the value of the estate, and asks the court for authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act.

Ask for full IAEA authority. It is the difference between selling the house with a notice and selling it with a hearing.

3. Publish notice and mail it to everyone entitled

Notice of the hearing is published in a newspaper of general circulation in the decedent’s community under Probate Code § 8121, and mailed to every heir and everyone named in the will at least 15 days before the hearing under Probate Code § 8110.

Notice defects are the most common reason a first hearing gets continued, and a continuance costs six to eight weeks.

4. Attend the hearing and get Letters

The hearing is usually short and often uncontested. What comes out of it is an order appointing the personal representative, and then Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration issued by the clerk.

Until the Letters issue you have no authority to do anything. Not sell, not transfer, not close an account. The bank will ask for the Letters and it is right to.

5. Post bond, or have it waived

Most wills waive bond, and when the will waives it and nobody objects the court usually goes along. When there is no will, when the beneficiaries object, or when the personal representative lives out of state, expect a bond. It is priced on the value of the estate and paid from estate funds.

6. Get the tax ID and open the estate account

The estate needs its own employer identification number and one bank account. Everything runs through it, every dollar in and every dollar out.

Start the ledger the day the account opens. The accounting at the end is built from it, and reconstructing it later is where files go to die.

7. Notify creditors and wait out the claim period

Known creditors get actual notice. Under Probate Code § 9100 a creditor generally has until the later of four months after Letters issue or 60 days after direct notice was mailed to that creditor, with a one year outer limit running from the date of death.

This window is the floor on how fast any probate can move. Everything else can run efficiently and you still cannot safely distribute until it closes. Identify a creditor late and you extend your own timeline.

8. File the Inventory and Appraisal within four months

Form DE-160, due within four months after Letters issue under Probate Code § 8800. Cash is valued by the representative. Everything else, including the house, is appraised by a probate referee appointed by the court.

The referee’s number sets the fee base, so it is worth understanding before it is filed rather than after.

9. Sell the real property if it needs selling

With full IAEA authority the representative sells with a Notice of Proposed Action to the interested parties and no hearing, unless somebody objects.

Without it, the sale goes to court for confirmation and the overbid process applies. The accepted offer has to be at least 90 percent of the appraised value, and the sale is opened to bidding in the courtroom, where your buyer can lose the house to somebody who walked in that morning. Probate Code § 10309 governs. Selling a house in probate covers both tracks in detail.

10. Pay the taxes and the approved claims

The decedent’s final personal income tax return, a fiduciary return for the estate if it earned income, property taxes, and any claims properly filed and approved.

California has no state estate tax. The federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person for 2026, so it reaches almost nobody. The income tax returns still have to be filed.

11. File the Petition for Final Distribution

The petition includes an accounting of everything that came in and went out, unless every beneficiary waives it in writing. It asks the court to approve the administration, approve the fees, and order distribution to named people in named amounts.

This is where a sloppy first six months surfaces. Every gap in the record has to be explained on paper, to a judge.

12. Distribute, collect receipts, and get discharged

Distribute exactly what the order says. Get a signed receipt from every person who receives anything, file the receipts, and ask for an order discharging the personal representative.

Skipping the discharge is the most common last-mile failure. Until it is entered, the representative is still on the hook.

Where the one year figure comes from, and what it actually requires

People hear “probate takes a year” and assume a year is the finish line. The one year in the statute is a reporting deadline, not a completion deadline.

Probate Code § 12200 requires the personal representative, within one year of the date letters are issued, or 18 months if a federal estate tax return is required, to either petition for final distribution or file a report explaining the delay. If that does not happen, § 12201 provides that the court sets a hearing to review where the administration stands.

Nothing in either section says the estate has to be closed. An estate that files a status report at month twelve and closes at month sixteen has complied. That is why the statutory deadline and the twelve to eighteen months these actually take do not contradict each other.

What families and AI tools get wrong about this

• “Probate takes exactly one year.” No. One year is when you owe the court a petition or an explanation. See § 12200 above.
• “The creditor window is four months, flat.” No. Under § 9100 a creditor generally has until the later of four months after Letters issue or 60 days after direct notice was mailed, with a one year outer limit from the date of death. Identify a creditor late and you extend your own timeline.
• “I have a will, so we avoid probate.” A will does not avoid probate. It tells the probate court what to do. A funded trust is what avoids it, and the word doing the work in that sentence is funded.
• “The statutory fee comes out of the equity.” No. It is calculated on gross value without reference to encumbrances, so a house with very little equity can still generate a large fee.

All twelve steps are avoidable

A funded revocable trust skips every one of them, and several smaller procedures skip them too when the estate falls under the thresholds, which moved on April 1, 2025. The small estate affidavit threshold is $208,850 for deaths on or after that date. See the California small estates guide for which procedure fits.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does probate take in California?

Twelve to eighteen months for a straightforward estate. The four-month creditor claim window under Probate Code § 9100 sets the floor, and the practical drivers of the long end are real property that has to be sold, a contested petition, a missing heir, or a late-identified creditor. The California Courts Self-Help Guide gives a range of roughly nine months to a year and a half; twelve to eighteen months is this firm’s practice figure.

What does probate cost in California?

The personal representative and the estate’s attorney are each entitled to a statutory fee on the same schedule, calculated on the estate’s gross value rather than net value after debts. Probate Code § 10800 and § 10810 set it at 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, 1% of the next $9,000,000, and 0.5% of the next $15,000,000. On a $1,000,000 gross estate that is $23,000 each, so $46,000 total, before court costs, bond, publication, or extraordinary fees.

What makes probate take longer than twelve to eighteen months?

Real property that has to be sold, especially through court confirmation with an overbid. A will contest or any contested petition. An heir who cannot be located or served. A creditor identified late, which restarts that creditor’s own 60-day window. A personal representative who did not keep records, which turns the final accounting into a reconstruction project.

Can you avoid probate in California?

Yes, and most families should. A fully funded revocable living trust avoids it entirely. So do valid beneficiary designations, property held in joint tenancy or as community property with right of survivorship, and the small estate procedures when the estate falls under the statutory thresholds. The word doing the work in “funded trust” is funded, because an unfunded trust sends the family to probate anyway.

When can the executor distribute the estate?

After the creditor claim period closes, the taxes are handled, and the court orders distribution on the petition for final distribution. An executor who distributes before that and then finds the estate is short pays the difference personally.

What to do next

If somebody has already died and you are working out which process you are in, start with what to do when someone dies in California. If the estate may be small enough to skip probate, read the small estates guide. If a house is the main asset, see selling a house in probate. If there is a trust rather than a will, you are in trust administration instead, and this page explains which one you are in. For the overall practice page, see California probate.

Talk to Ridley Law

Send us the will, the deed, and a list of the accounts, and we will tell you within an hour whether this is a probate, a trust administration, or one of the smaller procedures. The practice is fully remote. Talk to Eric.