Living Trusts in California

Probate Code section 15200 lists the ways a trust can be created. Two of them describe nearly every living trust: a declaration by the owner of property that the owner holds it as trustee, and a transfer of property by the owner during life to another person as trustee. Section 15202 adds the condition people overlook: a trust is created only if there is trust property. Section 15400 then supplies the default that makes a living trust flexible. Unless the trust instrument expressly makes the trust irrevocable, the settlor can revoke it. That default applies only where the settlor is domiciled in California when the trust is created, where the instrument is executed in California, or where the instrument provides that California law governs the trust. While the trust is revocable and the person holding the power to revoke is competent, section 15800 gives that person, not the future beneficiaries, the rights a beneficiary would otherwise have, unless the instrument provides otherwise.

Sources: Probate Code s.15200 - Methods of creating a trust · Probate Code s.15202 - Trust property required · Probate Code s.15400 - Trust revocable unless expressly made irrevocable · Probate Code s.15800 - Rights while a trust is revocable · Verified 2026-10-02.

Sources: Probate Code s.6110 - How a California will is executed · Probate Code s.8200 - Custodian must deliver the will within 30 days · Probate Code s.8270 - Petition to revoke probate of will · Probate Code s.16061.7 - Trustee notification · Probate Code s.16061.8 - 120-day contest period · Verified 2026-09-21.

A signed trust that holds nothing controls nothing. An asset still in the settlor’s own name at death is not trust property, however clearly the trust describes it. That gap is the job of a pour-over will. Section 6300 lets a will leave property to the trustee of a trust that is identified in the will and whose terms are set out in a written instrument executed before, at the same time as, or within 60 days after the will. Unless the will provides otherwise, property left that way becomes part of the trust and is administered under its terms. A pour-over will is still a will: the asset it catches may need a probate proceeding or a simplified procedure before it reaches the trustee. Where the evidence shows the settlor meant an asset to belong to the trust, a petition under section 850, commonly called a Heggstad petition, asks the court to confirm that it is trust property.

Sources: Probate Code s.6300 - Devise to the trustee of a trust (pour-over will) · Probate Code s.850 - Petition to determine title and order conveyance · Probate Code s.855 - Civil claims joined to an 850 petition · Verified 2026-10-02.

Section 15401 gives two ways to revoke a revocable trust, in whole or in part. The first is to follow whatever method the trust instrument provides. The second is a writing, other than a will, signed by the settlor or other holder of the power of revocation and delivered to the trustee during that person’s lifetime. The second route is closed if the instrument explicitly makes its own method the exclusive one. A will does not revoke a trust under the statutory method, and an agent acting under a power of attorney may not modify or revoke the trust unless the trust instrument expressly permits it.

Sources: Probate Code s.15401 - Methods of revoking a revocable trust · Verified 2026-10-02.

A revocable trust does not put property beyond the reach of the settlor’s creditors. Under section 18200, while the settlor keeps the power to revoke, the trust property is subject to the claims of the settlor’s creditors to the extent of that power. After the settlor dies, section 19001 makes the property that was subject to the power of revocation available for the claims of creditors of the settlor’s probate estate, and for the expenses of administering that estate, to the extent the probate estate is inadequate to satisfy them.

Sources: Probate Code s.18200 - Creditors of the settlor of a revocable trust · Probate Code s.19001 - Revocable trust property and the deceased settlor’s creditors · Verified 2026-10-02.