The Small Estate Playbook

What’s inside the guide

• The dollar thresholds that decide whether your estate qualifies to skip formal probate
• Which assets count toward those thresholds, and which pass outside the calculation entirely
• The difference between the personal property affidavit and the real property procedures, and which one applies to your situation
• The waiting periods and sworn statements each affidavit requires before a bank, brokerage, or county recorder will honor it
• The order of steps for collecting an account, transferring a car title, or clearing a small piece of real estate this way
• Where careful do-it-yourself stops working and a lawyer needs to get involved

How much can an estate be worth and still skip probate in California?

For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, an estate with probate assets valued at $208,850 or less can use a signed affidavit instead of opening a probate case, under Probate Code § 13100. The affidavit cannot be signed until at least 40 days have passed since death, no probate case can already be open, and the person signing does so under penalty of perjury. This threshold adjusts every three years, with the next scheduled change on April 1, 2028.

Does the small estate affidavit cover real property, like a house?

Real property has its own procedures, separate from the personal property affidavit. A non-primary residence worth $69,625 or less can be transferred with an affidavit recorded with the county recorder, but only after a six-month wait, under Probate Code § 13150. A decedent’s primary residence, up to $750,000, can instead be transferred through a court petition under the newer AB 2016 procedure, codified at Probate Code § 13151.

What assets don’t count toward the small estate limit?

Several asset types are excluded from the calculation entirely, under Probate Code § 13050. That list includes property held in joint tenancy, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, life insurance and retirement accounts with a named beneficiary, and vehicles transferred through the DMV’s own process. Excluding these often means an estate qualifies for the affidavit even when its total value looks larger on paper.

If your estate lands above these thresholds, you are looking at full probate instead. Use our probate calculator to see what that would actually cost before you decide which path fits. Or use our probate procedure screener for a quick look at which simplified procedure, if any, applies to a specific estate.