Estate Planning Checklist 2026: Protecting California Families

Short answer: A 2026 California estate plan still rests on the same core documents it always has: a will, a funded revocable living trust, and incapacity documents, built around how California’s community property rules treat what you own. A will alone does not keep your family out of court. Only a revocable living trust that is actually funded, meaning your assets are retitled into it, avoids probate. California requires formal court-supervised probate for any estate with more than $208,850 in probate assets, gross value, before debts (Probate Code § 13100). If your estate is above that number and nothing is titled to avoid probate, your family is going to court no matter how well the will is written.

What documents actually belong in a California estate plan?

Four pieces do the real work: a pour-over will, a funded revocable living trust, a financial power of attorney, and an advance health care directive. The will and trust handle who gets what and how it gets there. The power of attorney and health care directive handle who acts for you if you cannot act for yourself. None of these documents work in isolation. A trust with unfunded assets, or a will that was never updated after a divorce, creates the exact gap families think they have avoided.

Digital assets, cryptocurrency wallets, and online accounts are worth naming specifically in your plan, not because the law has changed, but because your executor or successor trustee cannot administer what they cannot find or access. If a login or a wallet key exists only in your head, it does not exist for estate planning purposes.

Does a will alone keep my estate out of probate?

No. A will has to be admitted to probate before it does anything. It names an executor and states your wishes, but it takes effect only once a California court validates it. Probate is public and court-supervised, and it can run 9 to 18 months from the date the court appoints a personal representative. A properly funded revocable living trust is private and generally avoids that process entirely, because the trust already owns the assets and the successor trustee simply steps in.

Some assets bypass probate on their own, regardless of what your will says. Property held in joint tenancy, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, and life insurance or retirement accounts with a named beneficiary all pass directly to whoever is named, outside of probate. The gap families fall into is assuming a trust covers everything when in fact half their assets were never retitled into it, or a beneficiary designation still names an ex-spouse.

How does community property change what belongs in the plan?

California is a community property state, and that changes both how assets are owned during marriage and what happens to the tax basis when the first spouse dies. For community property, both halves of the asset, not just the deceased spouse’s half, receive a step-up in basis to fair market value on the date of death (IRC section 1014(b)(6)). Under joint tenancy, only the deceased spouse’s half steps up. For a married couple holding an appreciated house or investment account, how title is held can matter as much as the estate plan itself.

Gifting an appreciated asset during life works differently. The recipient takes the donor’s original basis, not a stepped-up basis, so the built-in gain becomes taxable when they eventually sell. Families who want to move wealth to the next generation need to weigh giving now against leaving assets at death, since the tax consequences are not the same.

What are the 2026 numbers I should know?

The federal estate and gift tax exemption for 2026 is $15,000,000 per person, or $30,000,000 for a married couple (IRC section 2010(c)). That number means the overwhelming majority of California families are not planning around federal estate tax at all. California itself has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax (Revenue and Taxation Code § 13301). The planning that matters for most families is probate avoidance, asset protection, and making sure the right people are in charge if something happens.

For gifts made during life, the 2026 annual exclusion is $19,000 per recipient, per donor, or $38,000 for a married couple who elects to split gifts. Gifts above that amount to one person require a Form 709 but generally trigger no tax owed until cumulative lifetime gifts exceed the $15,000,000 exemption. Direct payments of tuition or medical bills made straight to the school or provider are unlimited and do not count as gifts at all (IRC section 2503(e)), which makes them a useful tool for grandparents who want to help without touching the annual exclusion.

When should we update the plan?

Marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, a move in or out of California, a significant change in what you own, and a change in health all warrant a fresh look at your documents. So does simply not having reviewed the plan in several years. An outdated beneficiary designation or a successor trustee who has since died or moved away can undo years of careful planning, and none of it shows up until someone tries to use the documents.

What to do next

Pull your existing will, trust, and beneficiary designations and check whether your major assets, the house, the accounts, the business interest, are actually titled in the trust’s name rather than your own. If you are not sure, or if it has been more than a few years since anyone looked, that is worth a conversation with an estate planning attorney. A quick probate calculator can also show you what your family would face in court costs and time if the plan on paper does not match how your assets are actually held.

Figures verified July 2026.