California Small Estate Affidavit 2026: Thresholds, Forms, and the Full Process

Current as of July 2026

California’s small estate affidavit threshold is $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and it will not change again until April 1, 2028.

Your father died last month. He had a checking account with $47,000, a savings account with $12,000, and a car worth about $8,000. No trust, no will, no joint owner on any of it. The bank tells you that you need “probate paperwork.” A friend tells you probate takes a year and costs tens of thousands of dollars. You are now imagining a drawn-out court process over $67,000 in assets, when in fact you likely never need to open a probate case at all.

What Is the California Small Estate Affidavit, and What Does It Replace?

The small estate affidavit is a statutory shortcut. Under Probate Code § 13100, a person entitled to inherit personal property from a decedent can collect it by presenting a signed declaration to the holder, a bank, brokerage, transfer agent, or employer, instead of going through probate court. No judge, no petition, no hearing, no letters testamentary, and no personal representative appointed by the court.

It is not a workaround for a contested estate, and it does not clear title to real property on its own. Real property has its own separate procedure, discussed below, or requires full probate if it does not qualify. The affidavit does not shield the person who collects the property from the decedent’s creditors, either. But for a modest estate passing to known heirs with no dispute among them, it removes months of delay and a real amount of court cost and attorney fee that a full probate administration would otherwise require.

What Are the Current California Small Estate Thresholds?

California’s small estate figures live in the Judicial Council’s DE-300 chart and are adjusted every three years for inflation under Probate Code § 890. AB 2016 (Stats. 2024, ch. 331) set the figures currently in effect, replacing the prior, lower thresholds that had applied since 2022. Here is the full progression, so you can identify the correct figure for any date of death:

The $208,850 figure (DE-300, Rev. 4/28/2025) is the maximum gross fair market value of all the decedent’s personal property in California that can pass by affidavit under § 13100. It applies to every death on or after April 1, 2025, regardless of when the affidavit is actually presented to a bank or brokerage. A death in May 2025 is tested against $208,850 even if the family does not get around to using the affidavit until 2026 or 2027.

Will the Threshold Change Again in 2026?

No. Probate Code § 890 sets adjustments on April 1, 2022, and then every three years after that, tied to the Consumer Price Index and rounded to the nearest $25. The current $208,850 figure took effect April 1, 2025, and the next adjustment is not scheduled until April 1, 2028. A different figure is currently circulating online as a supposed 2026 update to this threshold. That figure is not correct. There is no California small estate threshold change of any kind in 2026, and the correct current number for any death on or after April 1, 2025 remains $208,850 until the 2028 adjustment takes effect.

How Does the § 13100 Affidavit Process Work, Step by Step?

1. Wait 40 days. The affidavit cannot be presented to a holder until 40 days after the decedent’s date of death (§ 13100). This is a hard floor, not a guideline. A bank or brokerage that receives an affidavit before day 40 should refuse it, and a well-run institution will check the date on the death certificate before accepting anything.

2. Confirm gross value is within the threshold. Add up the gross fair market value of the decedent’s personal property located in California. If the total exceeds $208,850, the affidavit is unavailable for that property, and the estate needs either the primary-residence petition described below (for the house), full probate, or another qualifying transfer procedure.

3. Prepare the declaration. There is no single mandated Judicial Council form for the § 13100 affidavit itself. Instead, Probate Code § 13101 prescribes what the declaration must contain: the decedent’s name and date of death, a statement of the affiant’s entitlement to the property (by will, by intestate succession, or otherwise), a description of the property being claimed, and a statement that the gross value of the decedent’s property does not exceed the current statutory limit. Attach the current DE-300 chart to document that limit, since the number changes every three years and the holder needs to see which figure applies to this particular date of death.

4. Present the declaration to the holder. Take the signed declaration, along with whatever identification and death certificate the holder requests, to the bank, brokerage, employer, or other institution holding the asset. A holder that receives a declaration meeting the statutory requirements is directed to transfer the property to the affiant.

5. Collect the property. There is no court filing, no court confirmation, and no additional waiting period once the declaration is presented and accepted. Some institutions move within days; others, particularly larger banks with layers of internal compliance review, take longer even though the statute does not require it.

What Should You Gather Before You Start?

Before day 40 even arrives, it helps to have the groundwork done. Locate every account statement, title document, and vehicle registration so you can total the gross value accurately, since guessing low and finding out later that the true figure was over $208,850 can unwind the entire transfer. Get several certified copies of the death certificate, most holders want their own original, not a photocopy. Identify every other heir or devisee with a claim to the same property, because a declaration that omits someone with an equal or superior right invites exactly the kind of dispute that shuts the affidavit procedure down. And check, in the county where the decedent lived, whether anyone else has already opened a probate case, since that alone forecloses the affidavit regardless of how small the estate is.

What Counts Toward the $208,850 Threshold?

This is the part people get wrong most often. Gross value, not net equity, is what counts toward every small estate threshold. A house, a car, or an account is worth what it is worth on paper, mortgage or no mortgage, loan or no loan.

Put a round number on it: a $1,000,000 property with a $700,000 mortgage against it still counts at $1,000,000 for threshold purposes, not the $300,000 of equity actually left over for the heirs after the lender is paid. The debt does not shrink the number used to decide whether a shortcut procedure is even available in the first place. This surprises a lot of families, because it runs backward from how they think about the estate day to day: they think in terms of what is actually left to inherit, while the statute is measuring the sticker price of everything the decedent owned.

A related but separate question is what gets included in that gross calculation at all. Assets that generally are not counted toward the § 13100 threshold include property already held in a properly funded living trust, joint tenancy property that passes automatically by right of survivorship, pay-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, and retirement accounts or life insurance with a named beneficiary. These pass outside probate and outside the affidavit procedure entirely, because the decedent’s individual estate never holds title to them in the first place. Only property that would otherwise have to go through probate gets measured against the $208,850 figure.

What Is the § 13151 Petition to Determine Succession to a Primary Residence?

Real property gets its own procedure, and that procedure changed along with the personal property threshold. Under Probate Code § 13151, an heir or devisee can petition the superior court to determine succession to the decedent’s primary residence when its gross value does not exceed $750,000. Like the personal property threshold, the $750,000 cap is not permanently fixed. It runs for deaths from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028, and it is scheduled to adjust again on April 1, 2028, on the same three-year cycle as the § 13100 figure. Do not treat $750,000 as a number that will hold forever.

The current § 13151 procedure works like this:

1. Wait 40 days from the date of death before filing (§ 13151(a)). This is the same 40-day floor that applies to the personal property affidavit, not the six-month wait that applied under the prior version of this procedure before AB 2016 took effect.
2. File the petition on Judicial Council form DE-310, “Petition to Determine Succession to Primary Residence,” with the superior court in the county with jurisdiction over the estate.
3. Obtain a probate referee appraisal of the property on Judicial Council forms DE-160 and DE-161, confirming the residence’s gross value actually falls within the $750,000 cap before the court will act on the petition.
4. Notify every heir and devisee named in the petition within 5 business days of filing (§ 13151(b)), so anyone with a competing claim has an early opportunity to respond.
5. The court issues its order on Judicial Council form DE-315, confirming that the residence has passed to the petitioner.
6. Record the order with the county recorder’s office in the county where the property sits, to clear title in the public record.

Like the § 13100 affidavit, this is a tradeoff, not a free pass. The petitioner gets the house faster and without a full probate administration, referee inventory of the entire estate, or creditor claims process. But along with the property comes personal exposure to the decedent’s creditor claims in a way that a full probate’s formal claims procedure would otherwise limit. Speed and simplicity on one side of the ledger, liability on the other.

Can the Affidavit and the Petition Be Used Together?

Yes, and this is where a lot of real estates actually land. Property that is the subject of a § 13151 primary residence petition is excluded from the gross-value computation used for the § 13100 personal property affidavit. In practice, that means a family can petition the court for the house under § 13151 and, separately, collect the bank accounts, vehicle, and other personal property under the § 13100 affidavit, as long as the personal property on its own stays under $208,850. Each procedure is measured against its own threshold, independently of the other. A $600,000 house and a $150,000 bank account is not a $750,000 estate that blows through a single limit; it is two separate procedures, each comfortably within its own cap.

Are There Other Small-Estate Procedures Besides the Affidavit and the Residence Petition?

Yes. The same DE-300 chart that sets the § 13100 and § 13151 figures also sets several narrower thresholds that come up in smaller or more specific estates:

Each of these follows its own rules and its own form, and none of them is a substitute for the § 13100 affidavit or the § 13151 petition. But all three move on the same April 1, 2028 adjustment cycle as the main thresholds discussed above, so the same correction applies: none of these numbers change in 2026 either.

What about real property that was not the decedent’s home?

The $750,000 residence petition under § 13151 only covers a primary residence. Rentals, raw land, and a share of a family cabin are a different track.

For those, Probate Code § 13200 provides an affidavit procedure for California real property of small value. Three things distinguish it from the § 13100 affidavit:

• The cap is $69,625 in gross value for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, again excluding property described in § 13050.
• The wait is six months from the date of death, not 40 days. This is the single most common mistake I see on this procedure. The 40-day rule belongs to § 13100 and § 13151; § 13200 says no sooner than six months, and the affidavit itself has to recite that six months have elapsed.
• It is filed with the superior court on Judicial Council form DE-305, with a probate referee’s inventory and appraisal attached. The filing fee, including one certified copy under § 13202, is $45 under Government Code section 70626(b)(8).

The values are gross. As with every other procedure on this page, the mortgage does not come off first.

Is there anything for a family that is genuinely out of money?

Yes, and it is the least known of these procedures. Probate Code §§ 6600 through 6613 allow a petition to set the entire estate aside to a surviving spouse and minor children where the net value does not exceed $107,900 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. Net is the operative word. This is the one procedure in the set that subtracts liens and encumbrances, and it also excludes any probate homestead set apart under § 6520. A family whose only real asset is a heavily mortgaged house can miss every gross-value threshold on this page and still qualify here.

When Does the Small Estate Procedure Fail?

The affidavit and the primary residence petition both stop working in the same handful of situations, and it is worth knowing them before you spend time gathering documents:

• The estate exceeds the threshold. $208,850 for personal property, $750,000 for the primary residence. Even one dollar over disqualifies the entire procedure for that category of asset, there is no partial or prorated version of either shortcut.
• A probate petition has already been filed. Once a full probate is open for the estate, both shortcuts are closed, even if no letters have issued yet and the case is still early.
• There is a dispute. If heirs disagree about who is entitled to what, or a creditor has already filed suit against the estate, neither procedure offers any mechanism to resolve the disagreement. A holder facing conflicting claims will typically refuse to honor any affidavit at all and wait for a court order instead.
• The holder refuses. Some banks and brokerages impose internal documentation requirements stricter than the statute technically demands, extra indemnity forms, medallion signature guarantees, or corporate-form affidavits of their own. This is frustrating but not unusual, particularly at larger institutions with conservative compliance departments.
• Creditor exposure is significant. Both procedures shift liability for the decedent’s debts to the person who collects the property, up to the value collected. A small but debt-heavy estate may actually be safer run through full probate, where a formal creditor claims process gives the estate, and the person who administers it, some real finality.

Use the probate screener to check quickly whether an estate qualifies for a shortcut procedure at all, and the probate calculator to see what full probate would otherwise cost if it does not.

If a holder refuses a declaration that plainly meets the statutory requirements, the practical options are limited: escalate within the institution, get a probate attorney to send a follow-up letter explaining the statutory transfer obligation, or, if the refusal persists, treat the affidavit route as exhausted and file for full probate instead. Fighting an uncooperative bank over a $12,000 account rarely makes economic sense once legal fees enter the picture, which is its own argument for keeping accounts titled to avoid probate altogether.

What’s the Smartest Way to Avoid Needing Either Procedure?

The small estate affidavit and the § 13151 petition exist because the Legislature recognized that full probate is disproportionate for a modest estate. But both are cleanup tools, not planning tools. The best outcome is never needing either one: a properly funded revocable trust, correct beneficiary designations on financial accounts, and survivorship or transfer-on-death titling on real property mean assets move without probate, without an affidavit, without a 40-day wait, and without the personal-liability tradeoff that comes with either shortcut.

For a broader walk-through of everything that has to happen right after a death, before any of these procedures come into play, see what to do when someone dies in California. For the related but distinct set of tools available specifically when a primary residence sits inside a more complete estate plan, see simplified probate for a California primary residence.

When should you stop and call someone?

These procedures are designed to be done without a lawyer, and plenty of families do them without one. Stop if any of the following is true:

• Anyone is disputing who gets what, or disputing the will itself.
• The estate may owe more than it holds. An insolvent estate needs real guidance, not an affidavit.
• A minor, or a person on means-tested benefits, stands to inherit. Handing money directly to either can cause serious problems, and in the second case can cost someone their benefits.
• There is out-of-state real property, which brings another state’s rules and possibly a separate proceeding there.

An affidavit signed under penalty of perjury by someone who was not entitled to sign it is not a paperwork problem. It is personal liability.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the California small estate affidavit limit for 2026?

$208,850, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. There is no new figure for 2026 specifically; the next scheduled adjustment is April 1, 2028.

Is the small estate threshold based on gross value or what’s actually owed?

Gross value, not net equity, is what counts toward every small estate threshold. A mortgage, loan, or lien against an asset does not reduce the number used to test eligibility, even though it obviously reduces what the heirs actually walk away with.

Does the $750,000 primary residence threshold ever change?

Yes. It applies to deaths from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028 and is scheduled to adjust again on April 1, 2028, on the same three-year cycle as the personal property threshold.

What were the thresholds before April 1, 2025?

The threshold that applies is the one in effect on the date of death, not the one in effect when you file. For deaths between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2025, the § 13100 limit was $184,500 and the § 13200 limit was $61,500. The small estate set-aside was $95,325. If you are handling a death from 2023 or 2024, the current $208,850 figure is not your number. The Judicial Council publishes the full table on form DE-300, and the next adjustment is scheduled for April 1, 2028 under § 890(b).

How long do I have to wait before filing?

40 days after the date of death for both the § 13100 personal property affidavit and the § 13151 primary residence petition. Neither one has a six-month waiting period under current law.

Can I use the affidavit and the residence petition on the same estate?

Yes. The residence handled under § 13151 is excluded from the § 13100 gross-value calculation, so a family can use both procedures on the same estate as long as each stays under its own threshold.

Am I personally liable for the decedent’s debts if I use the affidavit?

Both the § 13100 affidavit and the § 13151 petition trade court oversight for speed, and part of that tradeoff is that the person who collects the property can be personally exposed to the decedent’s creditor claims, up to the value of what was collected. That exposure is exactly why an estate with known or significant debt is sometimes better served by full probate, even when it is small enough to technically qualify for a shortcut.

What documents do I need to prepare the affidavit?

Certified copies of the death certificate, the current DE-300 chart showing the applicable threshold, account statements or titles showing the gross value of each asset, and identification confirming the affiant’s relationship to the decedent or entitlement under a will. There is no single mandated form for the declaration itself, so the content, not a specific form number, is what has to be right.

None of this replaces a conversation about your specific facts, especially where a house, a dispute among heirs, or an outstanding debt is involved.

Talk to Eric