California Inheritance Law Guides

Plain-language answers to the questions families actually search when an inheritance goes wrong — written against the same statutes and procedures as the site’s reference pages, and pointing back to them for every number and deadline.

Start with the reference pages

Every guide here rests on the site’s core references — the pages that carry the statutes, the current dollar limits, and the deadlines, each verified against primary sources:

• Trust litigationDisputes over a living trust: contesting the instrument, removing or surcharging a trustee, compelling an accounting, and recovering what left the trust.Read the overview
• Probate litigationContested estate administration: who serves as personal representative, what belongs to the estate, and how property that left it is recovered.Read the overview
• Probate administrationSettling an estate through the court: opening probate, being appointed, the four-month inventory, creditor claims, the statutory fee schedule, and final distribution.Read the overview
• Will litigationChallenges to a will: undue influence, capacity, fraud and forgery, plus the heirs a will left out by accident rather than intention.Read the overview
• CalculatorsThe statutory probate fee on any estate value, and the trust contest deadline from your notice date.Run the numbers
• Probate cost by cityWhat the statutory fee comes to on a median home in 139 California cities.Find your city