# California Estate Administration Checklist > A California estate administration checklist: notify, inventory, pay debts and taxes, then distribute, in order, with the deadlines that matter. Source: https://ridleylawoffices.com/california-estate-administration-checklist/ Published: 2026-04-25 Updated: 2026-08-30 Author: Estate Planning Attorney Eric Ridley **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 twelve to eighteen months from the date the court appoints a personal representative. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### 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possession and it cannot be found after death, California law presumes the decedent destroyed it on purpose, meaning it was revoked.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](https://ridleylawoffices.com/probate/) 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](https://ridleylawoffices.com/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 twelve to eighteen 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](https://ridleylawoffices.com/trust-administration/) covers the parallel process for trustees handling a funded trust instead of a probate estate. ## Closing the estate: final distribution and discharge Paying the debts and settling creditor claims isn’t the end of the job. It’s the point where the personal representative can finally see the finish line, but there are still steps between here and handing the last dollar to the last beneficiary. ### When an estate is ready to close Prob. Code § 11640(a) sets the trigger. Once the debts, expenses, and any taxes are paid or provided for, or the estate turns out to be insolvent, and the estate is otherwise ready to close, the personal representative has to file a petition for an order of final distribution, and the court has to make one. The statute uses “shall” for both sides of that sentence. It’s not discretionary once the estate is actually ready. Not every estate gets there on the first pass. If there’s a reason administration needs to keep going, a pending lawsuit, unresolved tax questions, an asset that hasn’t sold, administration can continue under Prob. Code § 12200 et seq. rather than forcing a premature close. ### The petition for final distribution The petition for final distribution is what actually moves assets out of the estate and into beneficiaries’ hands. It lays out what’s left to distribute, to whom, and under what authority (the will’s terms, or intestate succession if there’s no will). The personal representative doesn’t get to just start handing out checks and deeds once they feel the estate is wrapped up. It’s the court’s order confirming the petition that authorizes the actual handover. Distribute before that order issues, and the personal representative is acting without authority, whatever the underlying entitlement turns out to be. There’s no mandatory statewide Judicial Council form for this petition. It’s typically drafted as a pleading rather than a numbered Judicial Council form, and some counties publish their own local form. ### Whether the estate needs a formal accounting Not necessarily, and this is one area where the code doesn’t hand you one clean rule. Two sections work together. Prob. Code § 10950 lets the court order an account at any time, and it must order one if an interested person petitions for it more than one year after the last account was filed, or more than a year after letters issued if no account has ever been filed. So the default assumption is that an accounting happens, or can be forced to happen, on that timeline. Prob. Code § 10954 is the escape valve. The personal representative doesn’t have to file an account if every person entitled to distribution has signed a written waiver of account or a written acknowledgment of satisfaction. There’s an exception built in for residuary devisees and anyone subject to abatement, and § 10954(b) sets out who has the capacity to sign a waiver on behalf of someone who can’t sign for themselves. Put together, the practical rule is this: if everyone entitled to a share signs off, the formal accounting can usually be skipped. If even one beneficiary won’t sign, or falls into the residuary or abatement exception, the accounting requirement under § 10950 is still live. ### What a waiver actually gives up Signing a waiver of account is common in estates where the beneficiaries trust the personal representative and want to avoid the cost and delay of a formal accounting. It’s worth beneficiaries understanding what they’re giving up before they sign. A formal account lays out every receipt, disbursement, gain, and loss during administration, in a format built for scrutiny. Waiving it means taking the personal representative’s word for the numbers instead of reviewing an itemized record. That’s a reasonable trade in a lot of estates. It’s not automatically the right call in every one, particularly if there’s been friction among beneficiaries or the personal representative has other financial ties to the estate’s assets. ### Receipts from distributees Once the court order authorizes distribution, the personal representative should get a signed receipt from every distributee acknowledging what they received. Receipts protect the personal representative if a question ever comes up later about whether a particular asset or amount actually went out. They’re a routine, low-friction step, but skipping them leaves the personal representative without proof of a completed distribution. ### Discharge After distribution is complete and receipts are in hand, the personal representative petitions for an order discharging them from further duties and releasing the bond, if one was posted. Discharge is what actually closes the file. Until it’s granted, the personal representative technically remains on the hook, at least on paper, for the estate. That petition is filed on form DE-295/GC-395, “Ex Parte Petition for Final Discharge and Order,” under Prob. Code §§ 2100, 2627, 2631, 11753, and 12250. ### When there’s no case to close Not every estate goes through any of this. If the estate qualifies for a small estate affidavit under Prob. Code § 13100, there’s no probate case, no petition for final distribution, and no discharge order, because no case was ever opened in the first place. The affidavit procedure transfers assets directly, outside the court system entirely. The closing steps above only apply once a probate has actually been filed and letters have issued.