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.
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.
