Short answer: While you’re alive, your will is completely private — California has no will registry and no requirement to file it anywhere before death. After you die, that flips: whoever has the original must lodge it with the superior court within 30 days (Prob. Code §8200, $50 fee), and once probate opens, the will and the entire court file — asset inventory, values, your heirs’ names and addresses — become public records anyone can pull. Trusts never get filed with any court, which is a real reason families choose them.
Figures verified against Probate Code §8200 and §16061.7, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice for your situation.
While you’re alive: nobody can see it
There is no California will registry. You don’t file your will with the county, the court, or the state, and no one — not your kids, not a suspicious sibling, not a nosy neighbor — has any right to see it. You can keep it in a fireproof box at home, in your lawyer’s safe, or in a safe deposit box, and you can rewrite it as often as you like without telling a soul.
That also means there’s no official place for anyone to check whether you have a will. If your family can’t find the document after you’re gone, the law doesn’t help them look — and California presumes a will last seen in your possession that can’t be found was destroyed with intent to revoke it (§6124). That presumption can be rebutted, but it’s an uphill fight. Here’s what happens when the family can’t find the original will — and it’s the strongest argument for telling your executor exactly where yours is.
At death: the 30-day lodging rule
The privacy ends at death. Probate Code §8200 requires the custodian of the will — whoever physically holds it — to deliver (“lodge”) it to the clerk of the superior court in the county where you lived, within 30 days of learning of the death, and to mail a copy to the named executor. The filing fee is $50. This applies whether or not anyone intends to open probate: lodging is mandatory, probate is a separate step.
A custodian who doesn’t comply can be held liable for damages caused by the failure. In practice, courts aren’t hunting for late lodgers — but a beneficiary who suspects someone is sitting on a will has a statute to point at.
Once lodged, the will sits in the court file. And court files are public.
What “public record” actually means in probate
If probate opens, far more than the will becomes public. The probate file typically includes:
- The will itself — every gift, every disinheritance, every family arrangement, readable by anyone.
- The inventory and appraisal — a line-item list of what you owned and what each item is worth. The Ventura County house, the brokerage account, the mineral rights, with dollar values attached.
- Names and addresses of heirs and beneficiaries — required on the petition itself.
- The whole docket — creditor claims, family disputes, fee requests, all of it.
Anyone can walk into the courthouse (or, increasingly, log into the court’s online portal) and read it. That includes estranged relatives, predatory “inheritance advance” companies, salespeople who mine probate filings for leads, and anyone who’s simply curious. Nothing improper about it — that’s what a public court record is.
Why trusts stay private
A living trust never gets filed with any court — not during your life, not at your death. When you die, your successor trustee administers it privately. The only mandatory disclosure is the notice under Probate Code §16061.7: within 60 days, the trustee must notify beneficiaries and legal heirs that the trust exists and that they’re entitled to a copy of its terms if they ask. That’s the beneficiaries and heirs — not the public, not the neighbors, not a records-search website. The world gets nothing.
No public inventory, no published asset values, no addresses in a court file. For a family with a $1.4 million Camarillo home and adult kids they’d rather not advertise as new homeowners-to-be, that privacy difference is a legitimate, stand-alone reason to plan with a trust — separate from the probate cost and delay arguments covered in our will vs. living trust comparison. There’s a fuller discussion in confidentiality in estate planning.
One honest caveat: trust privacy isn’t absolute. If a trust dispute ends up in court, the filings in that dispute become public like any other lawsuit. And real estate deeds are recorded, so the fact that a property moved into “the Smith Family Trust” is visible in county records — just not who gets it or what else the trust holds.
Questions people actually ask
Can I look up someone’s will online in California?
Only if they’ve died and the will was lodged or probated. Search the superior court’s case portal for the county where they lived; many California courts let you view probate filings online or order copies from the clerk. If the person is alive, there’s nothing to look up — no registry exists.
Does a will have to be filed with the court even if there’s no probate?
Yes. Section 8200’s lodging requirement applies regardless of whether anyone opens probate. If the estate passes by trust, beneficiary designations, or the small-estate affidavit and no probate is needed, the will still must be lodged within 30 days — it just sits in the file, and its terms never get administered by the court.
Who is legally required to lodge the will?
The custodian — whoever has physical possession when the person dies. That’s often the named executor, an adult child, or the drafting attorney. The deadline is 30 days from learning of the death, the fee is $50, and a copy goes to the named executor.
Are trusts ever public record in California?
Not by default — trusts are never filed with a court as part of normal administration. They can become public if there’s litigation over the trust, and recorded deeds reveal that specific real estate is trust-owned. Beneficiaries and heirs are entitled to the trust terms after death under §16061.7, but the general public is not.
What if a will was lost or destroyed — is there a backup on file somewhere?
No. Because California has no registry, there’s no official backup. If the original can’t be found and it was last in the testator’s possession, §6124 presumes it was revoked. A copy plus evidence can sometimes overcome that in court, but it’s litigation, not paperwork.
Can I keep my will private by putting it in a safe deposit box?
It stays private while you’re alive either way. But a safe deposit box can slow your family down at death — though California does let someone with the key and a death certificate access the box to retrieve a will without court letters. Wherever you keep it, the §8200 lodging duty applies once you’re gone. Privacy after death comes from using a trust, not from hiding the will.
The bottom line
Your will is nobody’s business while you’re alive — no registry, no filing, no access. At death it must be lodged with the court within 30 days, and if probate opens, your will, your asset list with values, and your family’s names and addresses all become public records. A trust keeps every bit of that private: beneficiaries get a §16061.7 notice, and everyone else gets nothing. If the idea of your estate as a public file bothers you, that’s a solvable problem — talk to Eric.
Sources: Cal. Prob. Code §8200 (custodian must lodge will within 30 days; $50 fee); §6124 (lost-will presumption of revocation); §16061.7 (trustee notice to beneficiaries and heirs); Prob. Code §331 (safe deposit box access before letters).
Want a straight read on where you stand?
Talk to Eric. A free 30-minute call, no pitch. He’ll tell you where you’re exposed, what it would cost to fix, and what you can skip.
Talk to Eric