Successor Trustee Timeline Generator

What This Tool Does

Enter the date of death and answer a few questions about the estate. The tool builds a personalized timeline showing the statutory deadlines that apply to you as successor trustee, along with the actions you need to take and roughly when to take them. It takes about two minutes.

The Successor Trustee's Core Responsibilities

When someone names you successor trustee, the job comes with legal duties, not just a title. Under California law, you are responsible for four main things:

1. Notify beneficiaries and heirs. Within 60 days of the date of death, you must send formal written notice to every beneficiary named in the trust and every legal heir, whether or not they're named. This is required by Cal. Prob. Code § 16061.7, and it starts the clock on the beneficiaries' window to contest the trust.
2. Protect trust assets. You need to identify what the trust owns, take an inventory, secure physical property, and make sure everything of value stays insured. A vacant house with a lapsed insurance policy is the kind of mistake that turns into a lawsuit.
3. Pay debts and taxes. The trust's legitimate debts and tax obligations get paid before anyone receives a distribution. This includes filing final income tax returns and, for larger estates, a federal estate tax return.
4. Distribute according to the trust terms. Once debts, taxes, and expenses are handled, you distribute what's left to the beneficiaries exactly as the trust document directs. Not as you think is fair. As written.

Key California Deadlines After a Death

These are the deadlines that come up most often in a straightforward trust administration. Not every deadline applies to every estate, which is part of why the tool asks a few questions before building your timeline.

• 60 days: Beneficiary and heir notification is due (Cal. Prob. Code § 16061.7).
• 120 days: The window for a beneficiary or heir to contest the trust closes, measured from when they received notice (Cal. Prob. Code § 16061.8).
• 4 months after creditor notice: Creditor claims against the trust expire once you've given proper notice to creditors (Cal. Prob. Code § 19003).
• 9 months: Federal estate tax return, IRS Form 706, is due if the estate exceeds $15 million (IRC § 6075(a)).
• 12 months: Deadline to file a Prop 19 claim to keep the parent's low property tax base on a principal residence transferred to a child (Rev. & Tax Code § 63.2).

When a Trustee Needs Help

Plenty of trust administrations are simple enough to handle without a lawyer: one beneficiary, a modest estate, no real property, no disputes. Others aren't. Here's when it's worth getting professional guidance before you act:

• Multiple beneficiaries with competing interests, especially if one of them lives in the property or expects to.
• Real property that has to be sold or transferred, which brings in title, tax, and Prop 19 questions.
• Business interests held in the trust, where valuation and continuity decisions carry real financial weight.
• Potential creditor claims or liens against trust assets.
• Uncertainty about what the trust document actually means or requires.
• Tax elections that are made once and can't be undone later.

None of these automatically mean you're in trouble. They mean the stakes of getting it wrong are higher, and a short conversation with a lawyer usually costs far less than fixing a mistake after the fact.