Will & Trust Attorney Oxnard & Ventura

Short answer: A will tells the probate court who gets your property and who raises your minor children, but it doesn’t keep your estate out of court. A funded revocable living trust passes the property inside it to your beneficiaries without probate. Most Oxnard and Ventura homeowners are best served by both: a trust that holds the house and major assets, and a pour-over will that catches anything left out (Prob. Code §6300).

Ventura County home values mean most homeowners here are well over California’s small estate limit, which is $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (Prob. Code §13100). An estate over that line with no trust usually ends up in probate at the Juvenile Justice Center in Oxnard.

Law verified against Probate Code §§6110, 6111, 6122, 6300, 6401, 6402, 13100, 15200, 15400 and Civil Code §§682.1 and 683, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice for your situation.

What a will does

A California will must be in writing, signed by you, and signed by at least two witnesses who were present at the same time and understood it was your will (Prob. Code §6110). A handwritten will can also be valid without witnesses if the signature and the material provisions are in your handwriting (Prob. Code §6111). They’re also the wills most often contested, as the handwritten will page explains.

In a will, you:

• Name an executor to handle the estate.
• Say who gets your property.
• Nominate a guardian for minor children. A parent may nominate a guardian of the person and estate of a minor child (Prob. Code §1500), and a court deciding custody must give that nomination due weight (Fam. Code §3043).

What a will can’t do is avoid probate. The will is the instruction set the court follows. If your estate is above the small estate limit, your executor still has to petition the court (Prob. Code §8000) and wait for letters before acting (Prob. Code §8400). My wills page covers what goes into one.

What a living trust does differently

A revocable living trust is usually created by a declaration: you, as owner, declare that you hold your property as trustee (Prob. Code §15200). You stay in control. Unless the trust document expressly makes it irrevocable, you can revoke it (Prob. Code §15400), and you can change beneficiaries or trustees whenever you want.

When you die, your successor trustee steps in and follows the trust’s instructions. For property the trust holds, there’s no probate petition and no court hearing.

The catch is funding. The trust controls only what’s titled in it. A trust involving real property must be evidenced by a signed writing, such as the deed conveying the property to the trustee (Prob. Code §15206). A trust that was signed but never received the deed to the Oxnard house leaves that house in your name, headed for probate. In my plans, I record the deed moving the house into the trust, and each client gets a map for re-registering every account. The living trust page covers the process.

Why a trust still needs a will

Every trust I draft comes with a pour-over will. It leaves anything you still own at death to the trustee of your trust, and California allows that gift to a trust identified in the will whose terms are in a separate written instrument (Prob. Code §6300). The property then becomes part of the trust and is distributed under its terms (Prob. Code §6300).

A guardian nomination for minor children can be made in any signed writing (Prob. Code §1502), and the pour-over will is the natural place for it. More on this at the pour-over will page.

The four ways property passes at death in California

1. By will or intestacy, through probate. Property in your name alone, with no beneficiary designation and no survivorship title, passes under your will. With no will, California’s intestate succession statutes decide who inherits (Prob. Code §6401, §6402).

2. By trust. Property titled in the trust’s name passes under the trust’s terms without court involvement.

3. By beneficiary designation. Retirement accounts, life insurance and payable-on-death accounts pass under the designation form. California recognizes these nonprobate transfers even though they aren’t executed like a will (Prob. Code §5000). Your will doesn’t control them, so review the forms after a marriage, divorce, birth or death.

4. By survivorship title. Property held as joint tenancy, when the deed or transfer expressly declares it (Civ. Code §683), passes to the surviving owner. Spouses can hold title as community property with right of survivorship, which passes to the survivor without administration when the deed expressly says so (Civ. Code §682.1). Adding a child to title as a joint tenant is a common shortcut that causes problems in blended families, so I rarely recommend it as the main plan.

How property passes	What controls	Court involved?
By will or intestacy	Your will, or the intestate succession statutes if there’s no will (Prob. Code §§ 6401, 6402)	Yes, through probate
By trust	The trust’s terms, for property titled in the trust’s name	No court involvement
By beneficiary designation	The designation form on retirement accounts, life insurance and payable-on-death accounts (Prob. Code § 5000); your will doesn’t control them	Passes outside your will
By survivorship title	Joint tenancy, when the deed or transfer expressly declares it (Civ. Code § 683), or community property with right of survivorship (Civ. Code § 682.1)	Passes to the surviving owner; the survivorship community property needs no administration

What divorce does to your plan

California cleans up some of the damage automatically. Unless the will says otherwise, a divorce revokes gifts to the former spouse and any nomination of the former spouse as executor, trustee or guardian (Prob. Code §6122). A revocable nonprobate transfer to a former spouse also generally fails if the marriage was dissolved before your death (Prob. Code §5040). Don’t rely on those rules. After a divorce, sign new documents and new beneficiary forms.

What happens to a Ventura County estate with no plan

With no will and no trust, the estate goes through probate and passes to relatives in the order the statutes set. A surviving spouse takes the decedent’s half of the community property and a share of separate property that depends on whether children, parents or siblings survive (Prob. Code §6401). The rest goes to children, then parents, then siblings and more distant relatives (Prob. Code §6402). An unmarried partner, a stepchild you never adopted, a close friend and a favorite charity aren’t on that list.

Ventura County probate is heard at the Juvenile Justice Center, 4353 E. Vineyard Avenue, Oxnard, usually in Courtroom J6. In my practice, a typical probate runs twelve to eighteen months. The executor and the attorney are each entitled to statutory fees based on the estate’s gross value, without subtracting the mortgage (Prob. Code §10800, §10810). On a $700,000 estate, that’s $17,000 each. The probate fee calculator runs other numbers.

Will or trust: which do Oxnard and Ventura families need?

It depends on what you own and who depends on you. These are the patterns I see most often.

• If you own a home in Ventura County, you need a trust, because the house alone will usually put the estate over the small estate limit (Prob. Code §13100).
• If you rent and every account has a beneficiary, a will may be enough, paired with current beneficiary designations.
• If you have minor children, you need a will naming a guardian, whether or not you have a trust (Prob. Code §1500).
• If you want someone to manage your finances during incapacity, you need a durable power of attorney, which keeps working after incapacity (Prob. Code §4124), and a trust with a successor trustee who can step in.

For a side-by-side of costs, timing and privacy, see will vs. living trust in California.

Working with Ridley Law

I’m Eric Ridley, and my practice is limited to estate planning, trust administration and probate. I’m based in Port Hueneme and work with families across Oxnard, Ventura, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks and the rest of Ventura County. The practice is fully remote. We design the plan by phone and Zoom, and when the documents are ready, a mobile notary comes to you for signing.

A complete plan usually includes a revocable living trust, a pour-over will, a durable power of attorney, an advance health care directive and updated beneficiary designations. My estate planning page explains the full package, and local detail is on the Oxnard and Ventura pages.