When can a California estate skip probate?

When the decedent's California property subject to administration is worth no more than the small-estate threshold — $184,500 for deaths on or after April 1, 2022, a figure adjusted every three years (Probate Code section 13100 et seq.). Below it, successors can collect bank accounts, securities, and personal property 40 days after death using a simple sworn affidavit, without opening a probate case. Real estate has parallel shortcuts at different limits, including a court petition for real property of modest value (sections 13150, 13200); legislation effective 2025 (AB 2016) further expanded the ability to transfer a primary residence up to roughly $750,000 outside full probate. Several categories bypass probate regardless of size: assets titled in a living trust, joint tenancy property, accounts with pay-on-death or beneficiary designations, life insurance with named beneficiaries, and property passing outright to a surviving spouse via spousal property petition (section 13500). Full probate — with statutory attorney fees under section 10810 — is the default only for what remains.

Authority: Cal. Prob. Code § 13100