Short answer: A basic California estate plan needs four pieces: a will or a properly funded revocable living trust, incapacity documents (a financial power of attorney and a health care directive), a look at how your assets are titled and who your named beneficiaries are, and a plan for who acts for you if you can’t act for yourself. A will by itself does not avoid probate. It only becomes effective once a court validates it through the probate process. Die without any of this in place and California’s intestate succession statutes decide who inherits your property, not you (Probate Code § 6400).
Do I need a will or a living trust?
A will and a living trust both let you say who gets your property, but they work differently. A will only takes effect after you die, and your estate still has to go through probate, the court-supervised process for validating a will and distributing an estate. A revocable living trust, once you actually transfer your assets into it, passes property to your beneficiaries without probate. That is the practical difference: probate, or no probate.
A living trust does not reduce your income tax, property tax, or estate tax bill. California has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax (Revenue and Taxation Code § 13301). People use trusts for privacy and to skip probate, not to save on taxes.
At Ridley Law, a complete trust-based plan, including a revocable living trust, pour-over will, incapacity documents, and the deed work to move a California home into the trust, is a flat $4,100 for a married couple and $3,700 for a single person. Compare that to what a court-supervised estate pays out under the statutory fee schedule: on a $1,000,000 estate, the executor is entitled to $23,000 and the estate’s attorney to another $23,000, for $46,000 in ordinary statutory fees alone, before court costs or a bond (Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810).
What happens if I don’t have a will?
If you die without a will or trust in California, the intestate succession statutes decide who inherits, not you (Probate Code § 6400). For community and quasi-community property, your surviving spouse takes all of it, both their half and yours (Probate Code § 6401(a)-(b)). For separate property, the spouse’s share depends on who else survives you: all of it if there are no surviving children, parents, or siblings; half if there is one child or a surviving parent or sibling; a third if there are two or more children (Probate Code § 6401(c)).
If nothing passes to a spouse, or you are unmarried, the property moves down a fixed line: to your children first, then to your parents, then to your siblings, and outward from there (Probate Code § 6402). Stepchildren you never legally adopted, and unmarried partners, generally inherit nothing under these rules (Probate Code §§ 6401 and 6402).
Dying without a will does not avoid probate. An intestate estate above the small estate threshold still goes through the same court-supervised process, under the same statutory fee schedule, as an estate with a will (Probate Code §§ 10800 and 10810).
What do I need for incapacity, not just death?
Estate planning is not only about what happens when you die. A financial power of attorney lets someone you choose manage your money, pay your bills, and handle your accounts if you become unable to do it yourself. A health care directive lets someone make medical decisions on your behalf and states your wishes about the kind of treatment you do or do not want. Together, these documents let your chosen person step in without asking a court’s permission first.
Without these documents in place, your family may have to ask a court to appoint a conservator before anyone can manage your finances or make medical decisions for you. That process is public, slower, and more expensive than naming your own agent in advance, while you are still able to do so.
What are the most common mistakes people make?
- Never funding the trust. A living trust that never actually receives your assets, because your house, accounts, or property were never retitled into it, does not avoid probate for whatever got left out.
- Letting beneficiary designations go stale. Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death bank accounts pass directly to whoever is named on the account, regardless of what your will says. An outdated form can send your assets to an ex-spouse.
- Skipping incapacity planning and assuming a spouse or adult child can automatically step in. They generally cannot, without the right documents or a court order.
- Ignoring digital assets. Online accounts and any cryptocurrency need to be inventoried and accounted for like anything else you own.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
Start by listing what you own and how each asset is titled: joint tenancy, your name alone, or already inside a trust. That tells you, and your attorney, what a plan actually needs to accomplish. From there, a consultation with an estate planning attorney can confirm whether a will or a funded trust fits your situation, and get your incapacity documents in place at the same time.
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