How to Handle Estate Planning for Out-of-State Properties

Short answer: Real estate follows the law of the state where it sits, not the law of the state where you live. If you own property in another state and it is still titled in your individual name when you die, your family faces a separate court proceeding there, called ancillary probate, on top of whatever happens in California. For comparison, a California probate alone can run about $46,000 in combined statutory executor and attorney fees on a $1,000,000 estate, under Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810. Ancillary probate in a second state means a second, separate process with its own local attorney and its own timeline. A properly funded revocable living trust that holds title to the out-of-state property before you die avoids that entirely.

Plenty of Ventura County residents own something outside California: a cabin, a rental condo, a piece of land bought as an investment or a retreat. Bought as an asset, that property can turn into a legal burden for whoever inherits it if the title was never moved out of your individual name.

Why does an out-of-state property create its own legal problem?

Property taxes, zoning, and probate on real estate are all governed by the state where the property physically sits. A California resident who dies owning a vacation home in another state does not get to rely on California’s probate process to transfer that home. The other state runs its own court proceeding, called ancillary probate, to clear title.

Ancillary probate runs alongside, and usually after, the primary probate proceeding in the decedent’s home state. Your family hires an attorney in that state, files in that state’s court, and works on that state’s timeline before they can sell or transfer the property.

A will does not solve this. A will requires probate to take effect. It does not avoid probate in California, and it does not avoid ancillary probate wherever else you own real estate. Only a funded revocable living trust moves assets to your beneficiaries without a court proceeding.

To put the cost of even one probate proceeding in perspective: California’s statutory fee schedule pays the executor and the estate’s attorney identical amounts, calculated on the gross value of the estate. On a $1,000,000 estate, that schedule produces roughly $23,000 for the executor and another $23,000 for the attorney, about $46,000 combined, before court costs or anything unusual comes up. Most California probate cases also take twelve to eighteen months from the date the court appoints a personal representative. Ancillary probate in a second state adds its own separate set of fees and its own timeline on top of that.

How does a living trust avoid ancillary probate?

A revocable living trust works because the property is no longer titled in your individual name. It is titled in the trust’s name. You keep full control during your lifetime as trustee: you can sell it, refinance it, or move it back out. When you die, the trust itself does not go through probate in any state, because there is no individually-owned asset left for a probate court to transfer.

The word that matters is funded. Signing a trust document is step one. Step two is recording a new deed in each state where you own property, naming the trust as owner. A trust that was never funded with a particular property gives that property no protection at all.

For each out-of-state property, that means preparing a deed that matches the property’s legal description exactly, not just the street address, and recording it with the county where the property sits. If you refinance later, the lender will typically pull title out of the trust during closing, so the deed has to go back into the trust’s name afterward. It also helps to tell your property insurance carrier the trust now holds title, so the policy lists the trust as an additional insured.

Do other states tax my estate or treat transfers differently?

California has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Some other states do have their own estate or inheritance tax, with their own exemption amounts and rates that are entirely separate from California law and from the federal system. A trust avoids ancillary probate in those states, but it does not exempt you from a state estate or inheritance tax if one applies where the property sits. That is a question to run past your attorney for each specific state, since the thresholds and rates differ state by state and change over time.

On the federal side, the 2026 federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person, or $30,000,000 for a married couple, made permanent by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Most families never approach that number, but if your combined holdings across several states get close to it, that is worth discussing directly with your attorney.

Some states also allow a transfer-on-death deed, a document that names a beneficiary who receives a specific property automatically at death without probate. Where available, that can be a simpler fix for a single out-of-state property. It is less flexible than a trust: it generally does not help if the named beneficiary dies before you, if you become incapacitated, or if you want any conditions on the transfer. For anyone with multiple properties or a larger estate, a funded trust still does more work.

Does moving property into my trust trigger a property tax reassessment?

In California, transferring your own home into your own revocable living trust does not disturb your Prop 13 base year value. It is not a reassessment event. Other states set their own rules for how a trust transfer affects property tax, and those rules are not uniform: some treat it as a non-event the same way California does, others may require a filing or treat it differently. Confirm the reassessment rule in each state before recording a deed there.

What if my trust already exists but does not include this property?

If you set up a trust years ago and bought property in another state afterward, that property is very likely still titled in your individual name. A trust only covers what has actually been deeded into it. Assuming it covers everything you own is one of the most common gaps we see.

Review your trust funding whenever you buy or sell real estate in another state, and periodically even when you don’t. Your plan should have a schedule of trust assets. If a property is not on that list with a recorded deed to back it up, it is not protected, no matter how long ago you signed the trust document.

Figures verified July 2026.

What to do next

If you own real estate outside California, or you are about to buy some, find out now whether it is titled in your name or your trust’s name. Pull the deed and check. If you do not have a funded revocable living trust, or you are not sure whether your existing trust actually covers your out-of-state holdings, talk to an estate planning attorney before it becomes your family’s problem instead of yours.