Short answer: California does not let an estate disappear, but it also does not know who you actually want it to go to. If you die without a will or a trust, a probate court works down a fixed line of blood relatives set out in Probate Code § 6402, and only if nobody in that line can be found does the state end up with what is left. Unmarried partners and stepchildren you never legally adopted inherit nothing under that process, no matter how close you were to them. If you have no spouse, no children, or no nearby relatives, the only way to control where your money and property go is to put it in writing yourself.
What happens if I die without a will and have no children?
When someone dies without a valid will in California, the intestate succession statutes decide who inherits, not the decedent’s actual wishes. That is Probate Code § 6400, and it applies whether you meant to leave everything to a niece, a best friend, or a favorite charity or not. If you are married, your spouse takes all of the community and quasi-community property automatically. For separate property, the spouse’s share depends on who else survives: all of it if there are no surviving children, parents, or siblings; half if there is one child or a surviving parent or sibling line; one-third if there are two or more children. That is Probate Code § 6401.
Who inherits if there is no spouse and no children?
If nothing passes to a surviving spouse, or you were never married, California law moves the estate down a fixed order under Probate Code § 6402: first to your children and their descendants, then to your parents, then to your parents’ other children and their descendants (your siblings, nieces, and nephews), then to your grandparents and their descendants, and outward from there. That line can reach cousins you have never met before the state gets anything. It also means people who were genuinely part of your life but are not blood relatives or a legal spouse, such as a longtime unmarried partner or a stepchild who was never adopted, get nothing under this process. That is true under the same intestate succession statutes, Probate Code §§ 6401 and 6402.
Can the state actually take my estate?
Yes, but only as a last resort. The intestate succession order in Probate Code § 6402 is broad on purpose, reaching well past immediate family into extended relatives most people could not name off the top of their head. If a diligent search turns up genuinely no one in that entire line, the estate passes to the state. For most people this outcome is avoidable and rare, but it is a real risk for someone with no spouse, no children, and no living relatives close enough to locate.
How do I make sure my estate goes to people or causes I actually choose?
A will lets you name exactly who gets what, including friends, an unmarried partner, or a charity, and it overrides the intestate succession default entirely. A funded revocable living trust does the same thing and also keeps the process private and outside of probate court, but only for the assets you actually retitle into it. Assets held in joint tenancy, or accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary designation, or life insurance and retirement accounts with a named beneficiary, all pass directly to whoever you named, outside of probate, regardless of what a will or the intestate statutes say. For someone without traditional heirs, beneficiary designations and a properly drafted will or trust are the tools that actually put you in control.
Does skipping estate planning save money if I have no heirs to fight over anything?
No. Dying without a will does not avoid probate. If your probate estate is worth more than $208,850 gross, before debts, it still goes through full court-supervised probate under Probate Code § 13100 and the same statutory fee schedule that applies to anyone else. Under Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810, that schedule runs 4 percent on the first $100,000, 3 percent on the next $100,000, 2 percent on the next $800,000, and lower percentages above that, and the estate’s attorney is entitled to an identical fee calculated the same way. On a $1,000,000 estate, that works out to $23,000 for the administrator and another $23,000 for the attorney, or $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs or bond. A funded living trust avoids that process and those fees for whatever is actually held in the trust.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
If you have no spouse or children, do not assume the law will sort it out the way you would want. Decide in writing who gets your assets, whether that is friends, a partner, a niece, or a cause you care about, and back it up with a will or a funded trust plus current beneficiary designations on every account that allows them. An estate planning attorney can walk through your specific assets and family situation and tell you which combination actually gets your estate where you want it to go.
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