Two questions we hear constantly from Roseville homeowners:
“I already have a will. Isn’t that enough?”
“My house is worth $850,000. Do I really need a living trust for that?”
The answer to both questions is the same: if you own a home in Roseville, California, you almost certainly need a revocable living trust. And the will sitting in your drawer is probably not going to do what you think it will.
Here’s why that matters, and what it costs your family if you don’t have one.
The California Probate Problem
When most people write a will, they assume that’s the end of the story. You put your wishes in writing, your family takes care of things after you’re gone, done.
That’s not how California works.
In California, a will doesn’t transfer your assets to your family. It's the start of probate: the court-supervised process for distributing your estate. Your will goes to the Superior Court. A judge appoints your executor. The process happens under court supervision. And it takes a while.
How long is “a while”?
A typical California probate takes 12 to 18 months. If the estate is complex or if any family member objects to anything, it can take two or three years.
How much does California probate cost?
California law sets attorney and executor fees by statute: a percentage of the gross value of your estate. For a Roseville home worth $850,000:
- Attorney’s statutory fee: approximately $22,000
- Executor’s statutory fee: approximately $22,000
- Court costs, appraisal fees, and filing fees: several thousand more
All in: a minimum of $44,000. Calculated on the gross value, not the equity. If your home is worth $850,000 with a $500,000 mortgage, the fees are still calculated on the full $850,000.
That money comes directly out of what your family was supposed to inherit.
And probate is public. Every asset, every debt, every detail of your family’s financial life becomes a matter of public record. Anyone can look it up.
A properly funded living trust avoids every bit of this. Your assets pass directly to your family, privately, without court involvement, without waiting, without the fees.
Does Your Roseville Home Trigger Probate?
Under California Probate Code § 13200, California requires probate for real property worth more than $69,625. This really only applies to a vacant lot in Kern County ,or maybe a mobile home space.
If you own a home here, anywhere in West Roseville, Granite Bay, near Blue Oaks, Stanford Ranch, anywhere in Placer County, you need a living trust. The question is only whether you want to set one up while you’re alive and in control, or leave your family to deal with probate when you’re not.
But We’re Married. Won’t It All Go to My Spouse?
Usually, when the first spouse dies. But here’s what happens next:
When the surviving spouse dies, if there’s still no trust, the estate goes through probate. If the surviving spouse becomes incapacitated before dying - a stroke, dementia, cognitive decline, and never got around to creating a trust, your family faces a court-supervised conservatorship on top of eventual probate. That process is expensive, time-consuming, and deeply invasive.
A living trust handles both death and incapacity. Your successor trustee steps in immediately without any court involvement: no waiting, no judge, no conservatorship.
What About Just Adding My Kids to the Deed?
This comes up a lot. Please don't do it.
Adding your children to your Roseville home title might seem like a simple fix. Here's what actually happens:
You trigger a property tax reassessment. Under California's Proposition 19, transferring a partial interest in your home to your children is a change of ownership. The county can reassess the property at current market value, which could mean a dramatically higher property tax bill starting immediately, while you're still living there.
You make a gift you can't take back. The moment your child's name is on the deed, they own a share of your house. If they go through a divorce, their spouse may have a claim on it. If they get sued and lose, a creditor can come after their interest. If they file for bankruptcy, it gets complicated. You no longer fully control your own home.
You lose the step-up in basis. When your children inherit property through a trust at your death, they typically receive a stepped-up cost basis: meaning if they sell, they owe little or no capital gains tax. When you gift them the property by adding them to the deed while you're alive, they inherit your original cost basis instead. On a home you bought decades ago for $200,000 that's now worth $850,000, that's a significant tax hit.
It doesn't even avoid probate cleanly. If you and your child are co-owners and you die, the surviving co-owner may still need to go to court to clear title depending on how the deed is structured.
A living trust accomplishes exactly what you're trying to accomplish - transferring the house to your kids without court involvement, without any of those problems.
What About AB 2016 — California's New Simplified Probate Law?
You may have heard that California recently made it easier to transfer a home without full probate. That's technically true. But easier than full probate is a low bar, and for most Roseville families, AB 2016 won't help much and could actually make things worse.
Here's what the law does. Effective April 1, 2025, if your primary residence is worth $750,000 or less at death, your heirs can use a simplified court petition instead of full probate. No year-long court process. No $44,000 in statutory fees. Sounds good.
Here's what the law doesn't tell you.
Most Roseville homes don't qualify. The $750,000 threshold is gross fair market value at death - before deducting your mortgage. In Placer County, where median home prices are already pushing $700,000 and climbing, a lot of families will discover at the worst possible moment that their home is worth $820,000 or $900,000 and the simplified procedure isn't available. Back to full probate.
It only covers your primary residence. Your bank accounts, brokerage accounts, investment property, business interests, none of that is covered. If your estate includes a $650,000 home and $250,000 in savings, the home may qualify for the simplified procedure, but the savings still need to fall under the separate $208,850 small estate limit or go through full probate. AB 2016 is a targeted fix for one asset in one narrow situation.
It still requires a court process. There's a mandatory 40-day waiting period. You need a court-ordered appraisal. You have to file a formal petition. And here's the part that causes the most trouble: you must formally notify every heir and beneficiary before the hearing. That notice is an open invitation to object. If one of your three kids wants to sell the house and the other two want to keep it, that notice starts a court fight, in public, on the record, for anyone to see.
All the heirs end up on title together. The court order doesn't decide what happens to the house. It just transfers ownership to everyone who inherits it, jointly. What they do next, sell, rent, keep it, is up to them to figure out. If they can't agree, they're back in court.
It does nothing while you're alive. If you become incapacitated, a stroke, an accident, cognitive decline, AB 2016 is irrelevant. It only kicks in after you die. Your family may still need a court conservatorship to manage your finances and property while you're living.
A living trust avoids all of this. Your home transfers to your heirs immediately and privately, with no court, no waiting period, no public notice, no joint ownership disputes, and no appraisal. It covers every asset in the trust, not just your primary residence. And if you become incapacitated, your successor trustee steps in without going to court at all.
AB 2016 is a modest improvement for a narrow set of circumstances, and at best, it's only a half measure to avoid a full probate. For most Roseville families, it won't apply, and for the ones it does apply to, it introduces new problems. A living trust can avoid probate entirely: no petition, no court, no waiting, no disputes.
The Trust Has to Be Funded — This Is Where DIY Plans Fall Apart
A living trust only protects the assets that are actually transferred into it. If you create a trust but never re-title your Roseville home into the trust’s name, the house still goes through probate. The trust can't help the assets sitting outside of it.
We see this constantly. Families who used a DIY service or worked with an attorney who drafted the documents but never helped with funding. Beautiful trust binder on the shelf. House still titled in their individual names. Completely unprotected.
At Clark Allison, we help with the funding process. Your home gets re-titled into the trust, and we guide you on how to transfer your financial accounts and other assets to the trust.
The Bottom Line for Roseville Homeowners
If you own a home in Roseville, you need a living trust. The cost of not having one is real, measurable, and falls entirely on your family at the worst possible moment.
The good news: setting up a living trust in Roseville isn’t complicated or expensive. Our Roseville attorney, Hannah David, works exclusively on estate planning, knows this community, and has seen exactly what happens to families who didn’t plan. A complete estate plan: living trust, will, powers of attorney, all of it, can be done in about two weeks at a fixed fee you’ll know before you start.
Ready to get your Roseville estate plan done? Our Roseville office is at 2520 Douglas Blvd., Ste. 160. Call us at (916) 983-9410 or reach out through our website. In a free intro call, we'll walk you through exactly what you need and what it costs.
We serve families in person in our El Dorado Hills, Roseville, San Diego, and San Luis Obispo offices, and virtually from anywhere in California.