Short answer: Probate is a public, court-supervised process that typically takes 9 to 18 months in California and carries statutory fees under Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810, on top of court costs. A properly funded revocable living trust distributes assets privately, without court involvement, once the trust becomes irrevocable at the person’s death. The catch is that a trust only avoids probate for assets actually retitled into it. Formal probate is required in California whenever the gross value of probate assets exceeds $208,850, under Probate Code § 13100.
How does probate distribution actually work in California?
When someone dies with only a will, or with no estate plan at all, and their probate assets exceed $208,850 in gross value, the estate goes through formal, court-supervised probate under Probate Code § 13100. The court appoints a personal representative, an executor if one is named in a will, an administrator if not, who inventories the assets, pays debts and taxes, and distributes what remains to beneficiaries or heirs. Every filing in that process becomes part of the public court record.
Probate is not free. The executor is entitled to a statutory fee of 4 percent of the first $100,000 of the estate, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000, and smaller percentages above that, calculated on the gross value of the estate, 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 schedule produces $23,000 for the executor and another $23,000 for the attorney, for $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees before court costs, bond premiums, or any extraordinary fees for litigation or selling real property. Most California probate cases take 9 to 18 months from the date the court appoints a personal representative.
How is trust distribution different?
A funded revocable living trust does not go through probate. Once the person who created the trust dies, the trust becomes irrevocable and the successor trustee steps in to administer it according to its terms and California law, without filing anything with the probate court. Trust administration still has real steps and real deadlines, they just run on a different track than probate.
The trustee must send a formal notice to all beneficiaries and legal heirs within 60 days of the trust becoming irrevocable. That notice starts a 120-day window during which anyone with standing can contest the trust, under Probate Code § 16061.7. Beneficiaries are entitled to accountings from the trustee under Probate Code §§ 16060 through 16063, and any beneficiary can petition the probate court to compel an accounting, instruct the trustee, or, in serious cases, remove the trustee, under Probate Code § 17200. There is no fixed statutory deadline for finishing trust administration, only a duty under Probate Code § 16000 to act within a reasonable time. In practice, an uncontested trust administration typically runs about 6 to 18 months.
Compensation works differently too. A trustee is paid whatever the trust document specifies, under Probate Code § 15680. If the trust is silent, the trustee is entitled to reasonable compensation under the circumstances, under Probate Code § 15681, but there is no statutory percentage schedule for trust administration the way there is for probate under section 10800.
Does a trust always avoid probate?
Only for assets that are actually retitled into it. A trust that sits signed in a drawer while the house, bank accounts, and investment accounts remain in the deceased person’s individual name has not avoided anything. Those un-retitled assets still have to go through probate. A will, by itself, does the opposite of what most people assume: it does not avoid probate. A will only takes effect once a court validates it through the probate process.
Some assets skip probate on their own, trust or no trust. Property held in joint tenancy, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, and life insurance or retirement accounts with a named beneficiary generally pass directly to the surviving owner or named beneficiary outside of probate.
Does a trust reduce taxes or protect assets from creditors?
Not by itself. A revocable living trust does not reduce income tax, property tax, or estate tax, and California has no state estate tax or state inheritance tax, under Revenue and Taxation Code § 13301. The tax treatment of an asset is generally the same whether it sits in a person’s individual name or in that person’s revocable trust.
The same is true for Medi-Cal eligibility. Assets held in a revocable living trust remain fully countable when California determines Medi-Cal eligibility, because the person who created the trust can revoke it and reclaim the assets at any time, under federal law at 42 U.S.C. section 1396p(d)(3)(A). Where a trust does help is on the back end: California limits Medi-Cal estate recovery to the deceased person’s probate estate, so assets that passed through a properly funded trust, having avoided probate, are generally outside what the state can recover after death, under Welfare and Institutions Code § 14009.5.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
If most of what you own, real estate, bank accounts, investment accounts, is still titled in your own name rather than your trust, that gap is what sends families to probate court even after paying to have a trust drafted. Pull your last deed and your account statements and check how title actually reads. An estate planning attorney can tell you in one conversation whether your plan is actually funded or just signed.
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