Estate Tax Planning Attorney in Agoura Hills

Estate Tax Planning Attorney in Agoura Hills

Most people asking about estate tax don’t have an estate tax problem, and the useful answer is to say so quickly.

California repealed its own estate tax. The federal exemption is $15 million per person in 2026. A household with a valuable house, retirement accounts and some savings is not close, even where the house has appreciated enormously.

The tax that actually affects you is the property tax

The number that changes an Agoura Hills family’s finances is not the estate tax. It is what happens to the Proposition 13 assessed value when the house passes to the next generation.

Under Proposition 19, a child who inherits a parent’s primary residence and moves in within one year gets a partial exclusion from reassessment. A child who does not gets none, and the property is reassessed to market value. On a home assessed near its 1980s price, that can multiply the annual tax bill several times over, every year, forever.

That is the real tax planning conversation here, and it belongs in the trust rather than in an estate tax structure nobody needs.

Where portability still matters

For the small number of households actually near the federal threshold, one point does real damage. Unused federal exemption transfers to a surviving spouse only if a federal estate tax return is filed at the first death to elect it, even where nothing is owed.

Families skip that filing because nothing appears due, and the cost lands years later at the second death. If your combined estate is anywhere near the exemption, that filing is the cheapest insurance available.

What is worth spending money on instead

Making sure the trust is funded, so the estate does not go through probate. Deciding the Proposition 19 question deliberately rather than by default. Protecting what the children receive from their own divorces and creditors, which costs nothing extra at drafting. And keeping beneficiary designations current, since retirement accounts pass outside the trust entirely.

Those four are where the money is for an Agoura Hills family. I would rather tell you that than build a structure for a tax you will not owe.

How far a typical Agoura Hills house is from the federal exemption

A typical Agoura Hills home uses about 8 percent of one person’s federal exemption. Zillow’s typical value is $1,234,398 (Zillow Home Value Index, August 2026), and the basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person. Put another way, it would take about twelve homes at that value to reach one person’s exclusion.

Item	Amount
Typical Agoura Hills home, all homes	$1,234,398
Typical home in ZIP 91301	$1,220,678
Federal basic exclusion amount, per person	$15,000,000
Home as a share of one exclusion	about 8.2 percent

A federal return counts everything you own, so the house is only one line. Retirement accounts, life insurance you own, brokerage accounts and a business interest go on the same pile. A household in this bracket should add them up once and see where it stands. The estate tax calculator does that in a few minutes, and the California estate tax guide covers what changes if the exemption moves.

The cost families in this bracket actually meet is the probate schedule

If a household in Agoura Hills is nowhere near $15 million, the government-set cost that does apply is the probate fee schedule, and it applies to a house left outside a trust. Under Prob. Code § 10810 and § 10800 the executor and the attorney each receive a percentage of the gross value, and the mortgage isn’t subtracted.

The tiers for the typical Agoura Hills home work out this way.

Slice of value	Rate	Amount, each of executor and attorney
First $100,000	4%	$4,000
Next $100,000	3%	$3,000
Next $800,000	2%	$16,000
Remaining $234,398	1%	$2,344
Total each, then combined		$25,344 each, $50,688 combined

That figure is for an estate made up of only the house, so most real estates run higher. It’s what the schedule allows, not a promise of what any family will pay. A home this size is also well over the $750,000 ceiling for the primary residence petition. Los Angeles County hears the case at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

The filing that follows a death even when no estate tax is owed

The paperwork that reaches most Agoura Hills families is a property tax filing. When real property passes at death through a trust, the trustee files a change in ownership statement with the county recorder or assessor within 150 days after the date of death. If the estate is in probate, the personal representative files it with the inventory and appraisal.

The penalty for ignoring an assessor’s written request is the greater of $100 or 10 percent of the taxes on the new base year value, capped at $5,000 for a home that qualifies for the homeowners’ exemption if the failure wasn’t willful. The Los Angeles County Assessor keeps the roll, and a parent-child exclusion under Proposition 19 has to be claimed with the assessor or it isn’t allowed. Deeds that follow are recorded with the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, and a transfer by reason of death is exempt from documentary transfer tax. The Proposition 19 calculator shows what the claim is worth.

The practical order of business after a death is short. Get the deed and the latest property tax bill. Calendar the 150 days from the date of death. Decide, with the family, whether one child will move in within a year, because that choice is what a Proposition 19 claim depends on. Those steps cost little and apply to every Agoura Hills house, whatever the size of the estate. See how to file the Proposition 19 exclusion.

1. Get the deed and the latest property tax bill.
2. Calendar the 150 days from the date of death.
3. Decide, with the family, whether one child will move in within a year.

Questions Agoura Hills clients ask

Do we owe estate tax?

Almost certainly not. California has no estate tax, and the federal exemption is $15 million per person in 2026. Very few Agoura Hills households are near it.

Our house has gone up enormously. Does that create a tax?

Not an estate tax. It creates a property tax question under Proposition 19 when the house passes to your children, and that is a much more likely and more expensive issue for you.

What is portability?

It lets a surviving spouse use the deceased spouse’s unused federal exemption, but only if a federal estate tax return is filed at the first death to elect it. Families skip that filing because nothing is owed, and lose it.

Is there a capital gains issue?

There is a related one worth asking your CPA about: assets generally receive a stepped-up basis at death, which affects what your children owe if they sell. It usually favors holding until death rather than gifting during life.

So what should we actually do?

Fund the trust, decide the Proposition 19 question deliberately, protect the children’s shares in trust rather than outright, and keep beneficiary designations current. That is where the money is for a household at this level.

How much of the $15 million exemption does a typical Agoura Hills home use?

About 8 percent. Zillow’s typical value is $1,234,398, and the federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person. Your own answer depends on everything you own, not only the house.

If I owe no estate tax, does anything still get filed after a death?

Yes. For a trust-held house, the trustee files a change in ownership statement with the county within 150 days after the date of death. A parent-child exclusion under Proposition 19 also has to be claimed with the assessor.

Is there a transfer tax when my children take the house?

Not on a transfer by reason of your death. The documentary transfer tax doesn’t apply to a deed that moves real property by reason of a death, outright or in trust. Property tax reassessment is a separate question.