By Corcoran Smith Law Corp. · Updated 2026-09-21

California Probate Administration

Probate administration is the court-supervised process of settling a California estate: opening the case, being appointed personal representative, inventorying assets, paying creditors, and distributing what remains. The steps and costs depend on the estate; ordinary attorney and representative compensation follows a statutory schedule.

Choose your next step

Preparing to open an estate: check whether probate is required and gather the will, asset information and the decedent’s county of domicile.
Looking for representation: compare probate attorney roles and fees. Confirm whether the lawyer would represent the personal representative or you individually.
Waiting for your share: use a written status request to identify the steps remaining before distribution.
Facing a dispute: ask an inheritance attorney about your interest and deadlines before relying on the executor’s lawyer to protect your position.

Prepare for the first probate appointment

Gather what you have before speaking with a lawyer. Missing records are something to identify, not a reason to guess at ownership or value.

Death and family details: date of death, last permanent residence, death certificate if available, and contact information for heirs and named beneficiaries.
Estate documents: the original will and any amendments, trust documents, deeds and beneficiary designations. Keep originals safe.
Asset and debt list: account and property descriptions, approximate values, mortgages, known bills and how each asset is titled. Do not put account numbers in a public inquiry.
Existing case records: county, case number, filed petition, appointment order and letters, hearing notices and any deadlines already received.

If a case may already be open, use the relevant county court’s case search or ask its clerk how to obtain the docket. Confirm the appointed representative and next hearing before preparing a second petition. A lawyer can help distinguish an administration task from a contested claim.

Wide stone steps leading up to a civic courthouse entrance in flat morning light. — Administration is a process with fixed deadlines. Most of the difficulty comes from not knowing which one is running.

What administration actually involves

Probate administration begins with a petition; filing it and obtaining letters is covered separately. Probate Code section 8000 lets any interested person, at any time after the death, ask the court to determine the date and place of death and to appoint a personal representative, admit the will to probate, or both. Nothing happens on the strength of the will alone: section 8400 provides that no person has power to administer the estate until letters are issued, and the appointing order must carry a capitalised warning saying so. A person named executor may, before that point, pay funeral expenses and take necessary measures to maintain and preserve estate property, and nothing more. Once letters issue, the clock starts. The personal representative must file a combined inventory and appraisal of estate property with the court clerk within four months, subject to the court allowing further time where the circumstances make that reasonable. Partial inventories are permitted, but everything must be on file before that window closes.

Sources: Probate Code s.8000 - Petition commencing administration · Probate Code s.8400 - No power to administer until letters issue · Probate Code s.8800 - Inventory and appraisal, four-month deadline · Verified 2026-08-20.

Why probate exists at all

The usual explanation — that probate transfers title — is not what the code says. Probate Code section 7000 provides that title to a decedent’s property passes on death to the person to whom it is devised in the will or, absent a devise, to the heirs under intestate succession. Title has already moved before anyone files anything. Section 7001 supplies what probate is actually for: the decedent’s property is subject to administration under the code except as otherwise provided by law, and subject to the rights of beneficiaries, creditors and other persons as provided by law. Administration is the process by which those competing claims are identified, tested and cleared, so that what the beneficiary already owns in principle becomes something they can sell, refinance or register in practice. That is why a house can be legally yours the day a parent dies and still be untransferable a year later, and why section 8000 lets any interested person start the proceedings that resolve it.

Sources: Probate Code s.7000 - Title passes at death to devisees or heirs · Probate Code s.7001 - Property remains subject to administration · Probate Code s.8000 - Petition commencing administration · Verified 2026-09-21.

The stages, and what each one is for

Stage	What happens	Authority
Will delivered to the clerk	Custodian has 30 days from knowledge of the death	Prob. Code §8200
Petition for probate	Interested person asks the court to open the estate and appoint a representative	§8000
Hearing	Set 15–30 days out, or 30–45 on request; notice cannot be shortened	§8003
Letters issued	Appointment becomes effective; only now can the representative act	§8400
Inventory and appraisal	Everything the estate holds, valued and filed — within four months	§8800
Creditor claims	Claims by the later of four months after first letters to a general personal representative or sixty days after notice is mailed or personally delivered	§9100
Final distribution	Once debts are paid or provided for, the court orders distribution	§11640
Outer deadline	Petition to distribute or report status within one year, or eighteen months with a federal estate tax return	§12200

Who gets notice during administration

California probate runs on notice, and each notice protects a different group. Before the first hearing, the petitioner must deliver notice at least 15 days in advance to each heir who is known or reasonably ascertainable, and to each devisee, executor and alternative executor named in any will being offered for probate, even one whose gift or appointment a later document purports to revoke. The petition must also be published: the first publication at least 15 days before the hearing, with three publications in a newspaper published at least weekly, with at least five days intervening between the first and last publication dates, excluding those dates. Section 8121 specifies the newspaper by residence or, for section 7052 jurisdiction, property location, with county and nearest-newspaper fallbacks. Once letters issue, the personal representative must separately give notice of administration to the decedent's known or reasonably ascertainable creditors. That creditor notice is in addition to publication. Under section 9100 the claim deadline is the later of four months after first letters to a general personal representative or sixty days after notice is mailed or personally delivered to the creditor.

Sources: Probate Code s.8110 - Notice of hearing on a petition for administration · Probate Code s.8120 - Publication of notice of hearing · Probate Code s.8121 - Publication of notice of petition · Probate Code s.9050 - Notice of administration to creditors · Verified 2026-09-21.

Notice	To whom	When	Authority
Notice of petition to administer estate	Known heirs; devisees, executors and alternates named in the will	At least 15 days before the hearing	§8110
Published notice of petition	The public, including unknown creditors	First publication at least 15 days before the hearing; three publications subject to the spacing and newspaper rules above	§§8120, 8121
Notice of administration to creditors	Known or reasonably ascertainable creditors	After letters issue	§9050
Creditor claim deadline	Creditors	Later of four months after first letters to a general personal representative or 60 days after notice is mailed or personally delivered	§9100

Do you actually need probate?

Often not, or not for all of it. Probate reaches only what passes through the estate, and California provides several routes around full administration — a living trust, joint tenancy, a beneficiary designation, a recorded transfer on death deed, a spousal property petition, or one of the two dollar-limited procedures below. Which applies is decided asset by asset, by how each one was titled on the day of the death.

Work through it asset by asset before reading further, because the answer decides whether the rest of this page applies to you at all. The two limits, for deaths on or after 1 April 2025: personal property up to $208,850 by affidavit under §13100, and the decedent’s primary residence up to $750,000 by petition under §13151. Both are measured on gross value, before deducting a mortgage, and both are adjusted every three years.

What it costs, and how long it takes

Compensation for ordinary services is fixed by statute rather than negotiated — four percent of the first $100,000, three percent of the next, two percent of the next $800,000 — and applies separately to the representative and attorney. A $1,000,000 fee base produces $46,000 combined if both full amounts are claimed, before extraordinary services and subject to waivers and court allowance. The calculator estimates ordinary scheduled compensation and shows what it takes from equity before fees, expenses and taxes once a mortgage is accounted for. On timing, most uncontested estates run nine to eighteen months, with section 12200 setting the outer marker.

Every part of the process

Filing by county

Probate Code section 7051 fixes the county for you: administration belongs in the county where the decedent was domiciled, regardless of where they died. These pages set out the court, the county seat, and where to confirm current filing requirements.

Not the county you need? State law supplies the probate framework and ordinary fee schedule; local filing rules and court calendars vary.

When administration turns into a dispute

Most estates close without a fight. Some do not, and the transition is usually visible early: a representative who will not produce the inventory, assets that move before anyone is appointed, a will that surfaces late, or a beneficiary who cannot get an answer. Those are contested probate questions rather than administration ones, and the remedies differ — recovering property under §850, or a claim for transfers made before the death.

Where the estate is administered

For a California domiciliary, section 7051 fixes venue by the decedent’s domicile, and sections 10800 and 10810 fix the fee statewide. Local filing requirements and court calendars vary, as does what local home values do to a fee calculated on gross value. The county indexlists every probate court page on this site, each with the arithmetic for that county.

The Probate Code sections behind this page

Each section links to its official text at the California Legislature’s own site. The full index of sections covers the rest of the Code.

Probate Code section 7000: Title passes at death to devisees or heirs. Read section 7000
Probate Code section 7001: Property remains subject to administration. Read section 7001

Common questions

Can an executor named in a California will act before letters are issued?

Only in a limited way. Under California Probate Code section 8400, no one has power to administer an estate until letters are issued, and the appointing order must carry a warning in capital letters saying so. Before that point, a person named as executor may pay funeral expenses and take necessary measures to maintain and preserve estate property, and nothing more. Being named in the will does not by itself give authority to act.

What deadlines apply during a California probate administration?

Most uncontested California probate estates run nine to eighteen months. Once letters issue, the personal representative must file an inventory and appraisal within four months under section 8800, and creditors must file claims by the later of four months after first letters to a general personal representative or sixty days after notice is mailed or personally delivered under section 9100. Section 12200 sets the outer marker: a petition for distribution or a status report is due within one year of letters, or eighteen months where a federal estate tax return is required.

Why is probate needed if title passes at death in California?

California Probate Code section 7000 provides that title to a decedent's property passes on death to the person named in the will or, absent a devise, to the heirs under intestate succession. Section 7001 makes that property subject to administration except as otherwise provided by law, and to the rights of beneficiaries, creditors and others. Administration is the process by which those competing claims are identified, tested and cleared, so that property a beneficiary already owns in principle can be sold, refinanced or registered in practice.

In which California county is a probate case filed?

For a person domiciled in California at death, Probate Code section 7051 generally places probate in that person's county of domicile. For someone domiciled elsewhere, section 7052 uses the California county of death if property is there; otherwise, a county with estate property. If property is in several counties, the first ancillary petition determines venue. State statutes supply the framework, while local filing rules and court calendars vary.

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Find the court for the county where the person lived

Where a California decedent was domiciled in this state at the time of death, the proper county for administration proceedings is the county of domicile, regardless of where the decedent actually died. Where the decedent was not domiciled in California, section 7052 instead looks to the county of death if property is located there, and otherwise to any county where property is located. Check the venue rule.

Choose a California county court guide

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Find probate attorney helpSettling an estate: roles, local courts and fees.Find inheritance lawyer helpYour own rights in a will, trust or estate dispute.How do I get my inheritance?Identify your share, request an update and resolve delays.