California probate fees are set by the California Probate Code. On a $1.5 million estate, the combined attorney and executor fees alone run about $56,000. Add court costs, publication fees, and an appraiser, and you're past $64,000 before you've paid for anything else. Here's exactly how the math works, and why most California families have no idea what they're looking at until it's too late.
Probate is the court process that transfers your assets to your heirs after you die. If you own real property or other significant assets in your individual name, your estate will almost certainly go through probate. A California judge oversees the process. An attorney handles the legal work. An executor manages the estate. Both get paid.
The process takes 12 to 18 months on a routine estate. Contested estates take longer. The files are public record. Anyone can look up your family, your assets and how they were distributed.
A living trust avoids all of it. But before we get to that, you need to understand what you're avoiding.
California attorney and executor fees are not based on what the estate is worth after the mortgage. They are based on gross estate value, meaning the full fair market value of every asset before any debt is subtracted.
Your Roseville home is worth $1.2 million. You owe $600,000 on it. For probate purposes, that home is worth $1.2 million. Not $600,000. The mortgage is irrelevant to the fee calculation.
The fees are set by California Probate Code Section 10810 and follow a tiered percentage schedule:
Both the attorney and the executor are entitled to this fee. On a $1.5 million estate, the attorney fee is $28,000, and the executor fee is $28,000. Total $56,000.
Use the calculator below to see exactly what a probate would cost on your estate. Slide to your estate's gross value and see how the statutory fees stack up against the cost of a living trust.
Statutory fees are just the beginning. California probate also requires:
Court filing fees. California Superior Courts charge filing fees that vary by county. Expect $500 to $1,000 or more just to open the estate.
Publication fees. California law requires publishing a notice to creditors in a local newspaper. That runs $200 to $500 depending on the county and publication.
Appraisal fees. A probate referee appointed by the state must appraise the estate's assets. They are paid 0.1% of the appraised value of non-cash assets. On $1 million in real property, that's $1,000.
Bond premiums. Courts often require executors to post a bond, especially if there is no will waiving the requirement. Bond premiums are typically 0.5% to 1% of the estate value annually, paid each year the estate is open.
Extraordinary compensation. If the estate involves litigation, a real estate sale, a business, or any complicated issue, the attorney can petition for additional fees beyond the statutory amount. These are approved by the court and are not uncommon.
On a $1.5 million estate, it is entirely reasonable to end up spending at least $70,000 in total probate costs by the time the estate closes. That number represents real money your heirs were supposed to receive.
California's housing market makes this particularly painful. A family in Granite Bay, Roseville, or El Dorado Hills may have purchased their home for $400,000 twenty years ago. Today it's worth $1.2 million. They may still owe $300,000 on it.
For probate purposes, that's a $1.2 million asset. The 2% tier applies to everything from $200,000 to $1 million, and the 1% tier applies to the remainder. The attorney and executor each collect around $25,000 on that home alone. Combined, that's $50,000 before any other assets are counted.
Add a brokerage account, a second property, or life insurance paid to the estate, and the fees compound quickly.
This is not a technicality or a worst-case scenario. This is a routine California probate.
Your beneficiaries do. Not you. You're dead.
The fees come out of the estate before any distribution is made to your beneficiaries. Your beneficiaries receive what's left after the attorney, the executor, the referee, and the court are paid.
If the estate consists largely of illiquid assets, such as a home or a business, the executor may need to sell them to pay the fees. Beneficiaries who expected to inherit a family home sometimes find that the home must be sold to cover probate costs.
A revocable living trust is a legal document you create during your lifetime. You transfer ownership of your assets into the trust. When you die, a successor trustee that you named administers the trust according to the trust's terms. No court. No judge. No statutory attorney fees. No 12 to 18 months of waiting.
Trust Administration: What to Do When Your Loved One Dies with a Living Trust
That doesn't mean trust administration is free. There are costs, but much less than probate.
When a trust settles after a death, the successor trustee typically hires an attorney to guide the process: notifying beneficiaries, handling creditors, filing the decedent's final income tax return, preparing accountings, and transferring title to real estate. Our trust administration attorney fees typically start at $7,500 and increase with the size and complexity of the estate. A reasonable range is $7,500 to 1% of the estate value. The trustee is also entitled to a fee for their time, often in the same range.
So yes, there are costs on the trust side. The comparison still isn't close.
The calculator above shows the full picture. On a $1.5 million estate, probate runs roughly $64,000 in total costs. Trust administration, including the cost of setting up the trust in the first place, typically costs around half that.
And that's just the money.
Probate is public record. The petition, the inventory, the appraisal, the names of your beneficiaries, and the amount each one receives are filed with the Superior Court and available to anyone who wants to look. Trust administration is entirely private.
Probate takes 12 to 18 months in California, and longer in counties with busy courts. Your heirs receive nothing while the estate is open. Assets can sit frozen for over a year. Trust administration typically wraps up in three to six months.
Probate requires court approval for routine decisions. Selling the family home, paying certain debts, and even some distributions require a judge's sign-off. A trustee can act immediately, without a judge's permission, as long as they follow the trust's terms and legal requirements.
At Clark Allison, our fee for a complete estate plan for most families is $3,000 to $4,000, flat. No hourly billing. We publish our fees. You'll know the price before you start. And once you're a client, questions are always free.
We've written more about this in our guide to living trust costs in California and our breakdown of 5 estate planning mistakes Granite Bay homeowners make.
No. This is one of the most common misconceptions in estate planning.
A will does not avoid probate. A will is a set of instructions for how your estate should be distributed during probate. The will goes through the court process along with everything else. The fees are the same. The timeline is the same.
People often create a will, believe their estate planning is complete, and leave their heirs in exactly the same position as if they had no documents at all from a probate-cost standpoint.
The document that avoids probate is a living trust, not a will.
California has a simplified process for small estates. If the total gross value of assets subject to probate is $208,850 or less (adjusted periodically), heirs may be able to use an affidavit procedure instead of full probate.
Most California homeowners do not qualify for this. The median home price in Roseville, Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills, and most of the state exceeds that threshold.
If your estate is genuinely small, you may not need a trust. Talk to an estate planning attorney about your specific situation. But if you own a home in most California markets, this exception almost certainly does not apply to you.
How much does California probate cost on a $1 million estate?
On a $1 million estate, the statutory attorney fee and executor fee are each approximately $23,000, for a combined total of $46,000. Add court costs, publication, appraisal, and other expenses, and most $1 million estates cost $50,000 to $60,000 in total probate expenses.
Can I avoid probate without a trust?
For some assets, yes. Retirement accounts and life insurance policies with named beneficiaries pass outside of probate. Joint tenancy property passes directly to the surviving owner. But for assets held in your individual name, including most real estate, a living trust is the primary tool for avoiding probate in California. A will does not do it.
How long does California probate take?
A routine California probate typically takes 12 to 18 months from the filing of the petition to the final distribution. Contested estates, estates with real estate sales, or estates involving creditor claims take longer. Courts in some counties are slower than others.
Does California have an estate tax?
California does not have a state estate tax. The federal estate tax applies above the current federal exemption, which is $15 million per person in 2026. Most California families are not subject to federal estate tax. Probate costs, however, apply at every estate size and are not related to estate taxes. Don't confuse estate tax with probate.
What is a probate referee in California?
A probate referee is a state-appointed appraiser who values non-cash assets in a probate estate. They are paid 0.1% of the value of assets they appraise. The court appoints the referee.
What happens if I have a trust but it wasn't funded?
If you created a trust but didn't transfer your property into it, the trust provides no probate protection for that property. Your home, in particular, needs to be retitled into the trust's name by recording a grant deed. If that step was skipped, the property will go through probate as if the trust didn't exist. There is a partial remedy called a Heggstad Petition, which allows a court to order the asset into the trust if there is written evidence of the grantor's clear intent to include it. It works in some cases. It costs time and money. It's not as good as funding the trust correctly in the first place.
What does it cost to set up a California living trust estate plan? We charge fixed fees and publish our prices. I've also written an article on this: How Much Does a Living Trust Cost.
Call us (800) 394-1988 or click Get Started below to schedule a free 15-minute call with one of our attorneys. We should be able to tell you what you need and the price to set up your California estate plan.
We serve clients from our El Dorado Hills, Roseville, San Luis Obispo, and San Diego offices, and virtually from anywhere in California.