Short answer: A comprehensive California estate plan is a revocable living trust (or, at minimum, a will), a durable power of attorney for finances, an advance health care directive, and beneficiary designations that are current and consistent with the rest of the plan. Only a funded revocable living trust avoids probate; a will by itself still has to go through it. California requires formal probate once an estate’s probate assets exceed $208,850 gross, under Probate Code § 13100, so the trust-versus-will decision has real consequences for what your family deals with after you are gone.
What documents make up a complete estate plan in California?
A complete plan covers two situations: what happens if you become incapacitated, and what happens when you die. Four documents do most of the work.
- A revocable living trust or a will. The trust holds and distributes your assets under its own terms; a will does the same job but has to pass through probate first.
- A durable power of attorney. It names someone to handle your finances, bills, and legal affairs if you cannot.
- An advance health care directive. It states your medical treatment preferences and names someone to make health care decisions for you if you cannot communicate them yourself.
- Beneficiary designations. Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death bank accounts pass to whoever is named with the company, regardless of what your will or trust says.
Beneficiary designations override the will or trust every time. An outdated designation, naming an ex-spouse or someone who died before you, is one of the most common estate planning failures, and it has nothing to do with how carefully the rest of the plan was drafted.
Do I need a will, a living trust, or both?
A will and a living trust are not competing options for most people; they work together. The trust holds title to your major assets, your house, your investment accounts, and controls how they pass without court involvement. The pour-over will that accompanies it catches anything left outside the trust and sends it in, but that leftover property still has to go through probate to get there. A will alone, without a trust, does not avoid probate for anything; it only tells the probate court what to do once a case is open.
A trust only works if it is funded, meaning your assets are actually retitled in the trust’s name. A signed trust document sitting in a drawer while the house is still titled in your individual name accomplishes nothing for that house.
What happens if I don’t have a will or trust in California?
California’s intestate succession statutes decide who inherits, not your wishes, under Probate Code § 6400. A surviving spouse takes all of the community property automatically, under Probate Code § 6401(a)-(b). Separate property splits differently depending on who survives you: your spouse gets all of it if you have no children, parents, or siblings, half if you have one child or a surviving parent, and one-third if you have two or more children, under Probate Code § 6401(c). If you are unmarried, the estate passes first to your children, then your parents, then their descendants, in the order set by Probate Code § 6402.
Dying without a will does not avoid probate. An intestate estate above the small-estate threshold still goes through full, court-supervised probate under the same statutory fee schedule as an estate with a will, under Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810. Stepchildren who were never legally adopted and unmarried partners generally inherit nothing under intestate succession, regardless of how close the relationship was in life. That is usually the single biggest argument for having a plan rather than none at all.
What does probate cost if my estate ends up there?
California sets probate compensation by statute, not negotiation. The executor is paid 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, and 1% of the next $9,000,000, under Probate Code § 10800. The estate’s attorney is entitled to an identical fee, calculated separately on the same schedule, under Probate Code § 10810. On a $1,000,000 gross estate, that works out to $23,000 for the executor and another $23,000 for the attorney, $46,000 total before court costs or bond. The fee runs on the gross value of the estate “without reference to encumbrances,” so a mortgage does not reduce it, under Probate Code § 10800(b).
Formal probate is required once an estate’s probate assets exceed $208,850 gross, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, under Probate Code § 13100, and that threshold adjusts again on April 1, 2028. A funded revocable living trust is the main tool for keeping an estate out of that process altogether.
Who should I name as executor, trustee, and agent?
Every document above requires you to pick people. Your trust needs a successor trustee, your will or estate needs an executor or administrator, and your power of attorney and health care directive each need an agent. Pick people who are organized, honest, and willing, not automatically the oldest child or the closest relative. Naming a backup for each role matters as much as naming the first choice, since people predecease you, move away, or decline the job when the time comes. Talk with them before you sign anything so nobody learns about the role for the first time when it actually matters.
What does a complete plan cost at Ridley Law?
Ridley Law’s flat fee for a complete trust-based estate plan, a revocable living trust, pour-over will, incapacity documents, and the deed moving a California home into the trust, is $4,100 for a married couple and $3,700 for a single person. That covers the deed work needed to actually fund the trust with your house, which is the step that document-mill services routinely skip. See our fee page for the full breakdown, or call 805-244-5291 for a free consultation. A consultation does not, by itself, create an attorney-client relationship.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
Start with an inventory of what you own and how it is titled, then decide whether a trust or a will fits your situation. If you already have a plan, pull it out and check the beneficiary designations first; they are the fastest thing to get wrong and the fastest to fix. An estate planning attorney can usually tell you within one meeting whether your current documents actually accomplish what you think they do.
Want a straight read on where you stand?
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