For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, California offers three small-estate routes around full probate (property passing to a surviving spouse has its own separate path, covered below). A successor can collect personal property — bank accounts, brokerage accounts, personal effects — by affidavit under Probate Code § 13100 when the decedent’s California estate is worth $208,850 or less, beginning 40 days after death. California real property of small value, $69,625 or less, transfers by a separate affidavit under § 13200. And under AB 2016, a decedent’s primary residence valued at $750,000 or less can pass by a Petition to Determine Succession to Primary Residence (§§ 13150–13154) — a court filing with a hearing, but not full administration. All three figures adjust for inflation every three years under § 890. The catch for Los Angeles is the last one: the median home here is worth more than $750,000, and the cap is measured against the property’s gross value, not your equity.
What is the small estate affidavit limit in California?
$208,850, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. It replaced the lower threshold that applied to deaths from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2025, and it is scheduled to be adjusted again on April 1, 2028 under the inflation-adjustment mechanism in Probate Code § 890.
The § 13100 affidavit is the simplest of the three procedures. There is no court filing and no hearing. A successor waits 40 days from the date of death, signs an affidavit that meets the statute’s requirements, attaches a certified copy of the death certificate, and presents it to whoever holds the asset — the bank, the brokerage, the transfer agent. The holder is entitled to rely on it and release the property.
One point that trips people up: the affidavit transfers personal property, but the $208,850 test measures both real and personal property in California. A primary residence that goes through the court petition described below is left out of the count. Other California real property is not, so a rental or a vacant lot can push an estate over the limit even though the affidavit cannot transfer it. If the estate includes California real property, the affidavit must also be accompanied by a probate referee’s inventory and appraisal of it (Prob. Code § 13103).
Which assets count toward the $208,850 — and which do not?
This is where most do-it-yourself calculations go wrong, usually in the direction of assuming the estate is too big to qualify.
Several kinds of property do not count. Some are excluded by Probate Code § 13050; others never belonged to the probate estate in the first place:
- Property held in joint tenancy, which passed to the surviving joint tenant by operation of law (§ 13050).
- Property in a revocable living trust (§ 13050).
- Multiple-party and pay-on-death accounts, to the extent the funds belong to a surviving party or payee (§ 13050).
- Property passing to a surviving spouse under § 13500 (§ 13050).
- Any interest that terminated at death, such as a life estate (§ 13050).
- Registered vehicles, vessels, and manufactured homes (§ 13050).
- Military pay owed to the decedent, and up to $20,875 of unpaid salary or other compensation for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (§ 13050).
- Life insurance, retirement accounts, and transfer-on-death registrations payable to a named, living beneficiary. These pass outside the estate, but they count if the estate is the beneficiary.
- Real property located outside California, because § 13100 counts only property in this state.
What is left after those exclusions is the number you compare against $208,850. It is a gross figure — debts are not subtracted. A person who owned a $600,000 home in joint tenancy with a spouse, a 401(k) naming their children, and $90,000 in a checking account is well inside the limit, because only the checking account counts.
How does the $750,000 primary-residence petition work?
This is the AB 2016 procedure, and it is a real court proceeding — lighter than probate, but not a form you hand to a bank.
- Wait 40 days from the date of death.
- Obtain a probate referee’s appraisal. You select a probate referee from those the State Controller has appointed for the county where the home is located, and the referee values the residence on an Inventory and Appraisal (Judicial Council forms DE-160 and DE-161). The appraisal has to show the home at $750,000 or less. The referee’s commission is set by statute at one-tenth of one percent of the appraised value, with a $75 minimum, plus expenses (Prob. Code §§ 8961, 8963).
- File the petition — Petition to Determine Succession to Primary Residence (DE-310) — in the superior court for the county where the estate would be administered.
- Give notice. AB 2016 added a notice step that did not exist before: the petitioner must deliver notice of the petition to each heir and devisee named in it within five business days of filing. Notice of the hearing (DE-120) goes to every person the petition must name: each heir and devisee, each executor named in the will, and, where a trust is a devisee, the trust’s beneficiaries. It must be delivered at least 15 days before the hearing (Prob. Code §§ 13153, 1220).
- Attend the hearing. If the petition is in order, the judge signs an Order Determining Succession to Primary Residence (DE-315).
- Record the order with the county recorder — in Los Angeles County, the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk — along with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report.
Separately, if there is a will, whoever holds the original still has to lodge it with the superior court within 30 days of learning of the death (Prob. Code § 8200). The simplified petition does not remove that obligation.
Expect a few months rather than a few weeks. What it avoids is the full administration: no Letters, no formal creditor-claim period, no personal representative, and no statutory fee schedule under §§ 10800 and 10810.
What changed in 2025?
AB 2016 is usually described as a loosening. It is more accurately a trade, and the second half of it gets very little attention.
Before 2025, § 13151 covered any California real property, and the test was whether the decedent’s whole California estate — real and personal — came in under the small-estate threshold then in force, a figure well under $200,000.
AB 2016 took effect January 1, 2025, and limited the procedure to the decedent’s primary residence, measured on its own. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the cap on that residence is $750,000.
| Before 2025 | Deaths on or after 4/1/2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| What property qualifies | Any California real property | The decedent’s primary residence only |
| What gets measured | The whole California estate, real + personal | The residence alone |
| Cap | The whole-estate small-estate threshold (under $200,000) | $750,000 |
| Notice to heirs and devisees | Not required (added January 1, 2025) | Required within 5 business days of filing |
For a homeowner, that is a large improvement. For everyone else, it is a narrowing. Consider someone whose only real property was a modest rental — say a $150,000 unit in the Central Valley — with little else. Under the old rule, if the whole estate came in under the threshold, § 13151 was available. Under the current rule, a rental is not a primary residence, so § 13151 does not apply at all. The § 13200 affidavit tops out at $69,625. The remaining option is full probate.
So a second home, a rental, or a vacant lot now sits in a gap between $69,625 and full administration, no matter how modest it is. If you own investment property in California, that is worth knowing before you decide a trust is unnecessary.
Will a Los Angeles home qualify for the $750,000 petition?
For most owners, no.
The median Los Angeles home is worth more than $750,000, and two features of the rule make the cap harder to meet than it first appears:
- It is measured on gross value, not equity. A home appraised at $900,000 with a $500,000 mortgage is a $900,000 home for this purpose. The loan does not bring you under the cap.
- The probate referee sets the number, not you and not a real-estate agent’s estimate. If the referee’s appraisal comes in over $750,000, the petition is not available.
A homeowner in Encino, Sherman Oaks, or most of the San Fernando Valley is typically over the line. That means full probate: 12 to 24 months in Los Angeles County, and statutory compensation to both the personal representative and the estate’s attorney under §§ 10800 and 10810.
| Gross estate | Combined attorney + executor fees |
|---|---|
| $750,000 | ~$36,000 |
| $1,000,000 | ~$46,000 |
| $1,500,000 | ~$56,000 |
| $2,000,000 | ~$66,000 |
More on how that process runs is on the California probate page.
What if there is a surviving spouse?
Then the small-estate limits may be beside the point, and this part gets less attention than it deserves.
Property passing outright to a surviving spouse can pass without administration under Probate Code § 13500, with no dollar cap at all. Where confirmation is needed — to clear title on a house, for instance — the surviving spouse files a Spousal Property Petition (Prob. Code § 13650, Judicial Council form DE-221). The court confirms which property is community property belonging to the survivor and which separate property passes to them, and signs an order (DE-226).
There is no $208,850 test and no $750,000 test. If a married couple’s $1.5 million home in Tarzana passes to the surviving spouse, it can be handled this way. It is a court proceeding with a hearing, and it works only for the property actually passing to the spouse — the survivor’s own eventual estate is a separate question, and it is the one a trust is usually solving.
What if the estate is over the limits?
Then it is full probate, and the arithmetic above applies.
This is the reason a funded revocable living trust is the standard recommendation for California homeowners. Assets titled in a trust are not part of the probate estate at all, so none of these thresholds matter — there is no case, no referee appraisal, no hearing, and no statutory fee schedule. The successor trustee can typically begin administering the trust within weeks. The duties that come with that role are set out on the trust administration page.
The word doing the work is funded. A trust that was signed but never had the house deeded into it leaves the house in your individual name, which puts it right back into probate. Retitling is covered on the living trusts page.
A practical next step
If you are administering an estate right now, the useful first move is the § 13050 subtraction: list everything, then strike the joint tenancy property, the beneficiary-designated accounts, the trust assets, and anything passing to a surviving spouse. What remains is what the thresholds actually measure, and it is often much smaller than the family assumed.
If you are planning rather than administering, the question is simpler: is your home worth more than $750,000? If it is, none of the small-estate shortcuts will reach it. The spousal path covers only what passes to a surviving spouse, and the survivor’s own estate still faces the same limits later.
Other common questions are answered on the FAQ page. If you would like to talk through your own situation, I am reachable at (818) 995-9432, or through the contact page. Trust Advisor plans are flat-fee, so you know the cost before the work starts. No question is too small.
The information in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Use of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship. Results described do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes. Trust Advisor, A Professional Legal Corporation | State Bar of California No. 318355 | 15760 Ventura Blvd., 7th Floor, Encino, CA 91436 | Attorney Advertising
