California defines a small estate as someone who passes away with less than $184,500 in his or her name on the date of death. Now, that number does not include real estate. And so, if someone owns real estate in California, it’s unlikely that they can avoid probate if they haven’t done prior planning.

If someone does not own real estate and they have an estate that has a value of less than $184,500 – then they can avoid probate by signing what’s called a small estate affidavit.

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The last thing that the executor does in a case before the court distributes the assets to the beneficiaries is to file and inventory of the assets which lists out all of the assets that the decedent owned on the date of his or her death. And the value of those assets. That inventory and appraisal, as it’s known, is also a public record. And so you have the will, which is who gets what and then you have the inventory and appraisal which lists out what the assets are and what their value is. And that is a lot of financial information to have in the public domain.

In fact, one of the main motivations for most people to do estate planning is to avoid the public nature of probate.

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If the beneficiary is not the surviving spouse but is an adult child or other family member, then it’s likely that a probate case will be required.

If the beneficiary is the surviving child who is not yet an adult, meaning the beneficiary is a minor child under the age of18, then a probate case is definitely required.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

One question I receive is what happens aftera probate case is done in California? Well, to get to the point of a case being done, that means that the executor will have had to file an accounting with the court listing all of the assets that the decedent owned on the date of his or her death and the value of those assets.

Now, usually when that is done, the executor will also ask for a court order authorizing the executor to distribute those assets to the beneficiaries.

Once the judge or the court signs that order, the executor is permitted to distribute assets to the beneficiaries. Once that’s done, the probate case is resolved and there is no further action. In most cases, that is required by the executor.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

Now, probate if there is a will and probate if there is not a will are very similar to each other. It starts when someone files a petition with the court.

If a will exists, they have to attach a copy of the will and ask the court to admit the will into probate. If there is no will, then that person is said to have died intestate, which means dying without a will. When that happens, the property is ultimately distributed by the court to the people who are listed in the probate code. That is usually a surviving spouse, if there is one, surviving kids.

If there are no surviving spouse or surviving children, then it generally goes up the family tree to the parents and then out the branches to the siblings. So if there is no will, probate works very similar in California to the situation if there was a will.

It involves a court process with the court having oversight to make sure that property gets distributed to the correct people.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.