What California Probate Actually Costs, and Why It Is Calculated That Way

In most states, probate costs what the lawyer charges. In California it costs what the Probate Code says, and the difference between those two systems is the single strongest argument for the revocable living trust that Californians are so often told they need.

The number surprises people not because it is hidden but because of how it is computed. Two features do the damage: the fee is a percentage of the gross value of the estate, and it is paid twice.

The statutory schedule

Probate Code sections 10800 and 10810 set compensation on a sliding scale:

• 4% of the first $100,000
• 3% of the next $100,000
• 2% of the next $800,000
• 1% of the next $9,000,000
• 0.5% of the next $15,000,000

Section 10800 sets the personal representative’s compensation. Section 10810 sets the attorney’s. They are the same schedule, and each is payable. On a one million dollar estate, that is roughly twenty-three thousand dollars each, or about forty-six thousand in total, before anything else.

“Anything else” is not nothing. Extraordinary compensation may be awarded on top for work outside ordinary administration — selling real property, litigating a claim, handling a business, dealing with a contest. Filing fees, probate referee fees, publication, and bond premiums sit outside the schedule as well.

Gross value, not equity

This is the part that catches families with a house and a mortgage. The fee is calculated on the gross value of the estate accounted for, without reference to encumbrances. A home worth nine hundred thousand dollars with a seven hundred thousand dollar loan against it counts as nine hundred thousand for the fee calculation, not two hundred thousand.

The arithmetic follows from there. A family inheriting two hundred thousand dollars of equity can face statutory fees computed as though they had inherited nine hundred thousand. That is not a loophole or an abuse; it is the statute working exactly as written. It is also the clearest reason why probate avoidance in California is treated as standard planning rather than as an optional refinement.

How long it takes

Cost is only half of the objection. A California probate is a court proceeding with a fixed sequence: a petition, a hearing to appoint the personal representative, letters, notice to heirs and to creditors, an inventory and appraisal through a probate referee, a creditor claim period, and a petition for final distribution with its own hearing. Nothing about that sequence is fast, and calendars in the larger counties are not generous.

During that period the estate cannot simply be distributed. A beneficiary who needs money cannot have it on request, and a house cannot be sold without following the process — which, depending on how the estate is administered, may mean a court confirmation hearing with open overbidding in the courtroom.

The routes around it

A funded revocable living trust. Property held by the trust at death does not pass through probate, so the statutory schedule never engages. The word doing the work is funded: a trust that was signed but never took title to the house accomplishes nothing, and an unfunded trust is the most common expensive mistake in California estate planning. When a deed was overlooked, a court petition under Probate Code section 850 — the Heggstad petition — may be able to pull the asset in, but that is a remedy, not a plan.

Small estate procedures. California raised its thresholds effective April 2025. Personal property up to a statutory limit can be collected by affidavit, and a primary residence up to a separate and considerably higher limit has its own simplified procedure. These are real and useful, and they are also limited: they do not help an estate that exceeds the threshold, and the real property procedure is confined to a primary residence.

Beneficiary designations and survivorship title. Retirement accounts, life insurance and payable-on-death accounts pass outside probate already. Survivorship title does too, though for married couples the form of vesting deserves care — community property with right of survivorship under Civil Code section 682.1 gives both probate avoidance and a new basis in both halves at the first death, while plain joint tenancy gives up half of that tax benefit for no additional protection.

The California estate planning page goes through how these fit together, and the California trusts page covers the trust side in more detail.

Is the trust always worth it?

Not always, and it is worth saying so. Someone whose entire estate is a retirement account with a named beneficiary and a bank account under the affidavit threshold does not need a trust to avoid probate, because there is nothing to probate. The calculation changes the moment California real property is involved, and it changes again if there is property in more than one state, a beneficiary who should not receive a lump sum, or a blended family where the sequence of distributions matters.

A worked example

Consider a widow who dies owning a house in Orange County appraised at $1,100,000 with a $450,000 mortgage, a bank account of $60,000, and a car. Her will leaves everything equally to her two children. There is no trust.

The estate accounted for is roughly $1,170,000 in gross value. Under the schedule, ordinary compensation runs to about $25,400 for the attorney and the same again for the personal representative — call it $50,000 if both are taken, against equity of about $710,000. Add the probate referee, the filing fees, publication, and any extraordinary compensation for selling the house, and the process consumes something in the region of eight percent of what the children actually inherit, over a year or more.

Had the same house been held in a funded revocable trust, the successor trustee could have sold it, paid the debts and distributed the balance without a court file being opened at all. The trust would have cost a fraction of that to prepare, during the mother’s lifetime, at a moment when the family was not also grieving.

If you live elsewhere and own California property

The statutory schedule follows the property, not the owner. A resident of Idaho, Texas or Nevada who owns a rental in California leaves that property exposed to a California ancillary probate, on the California schedule, in addition to whatever administration happens in their home state. Two proceedings, two sets of costs, two timelines.

This is the situation where a trust earns its keep most clearly, because it collapses both proceedings into none. It is also the situation most commonly missed, because an estate plan prepared competently in another state will not necessarily ask what else the client owns and where.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the statutory fee be negotiated down?

The schedule sets what the attorney and the representative are entitled to, and a lower fee can be agreed. A family member serving as personal representative frequently waives their share entirely. What cannot be negotiated is the structure — the percentages, and the fact that they are computed on gross value.

Does a will avoid probate in California?

No. A will directs how a probate turns out; it does not avoid one. Dying with a will and dying without one both lead to the probate court if there are assets that require administration. The will controls who inherits and who serves; it does not control whether the process happens.

We have a trust. Are we done?

Only if it is funded. Check that the deed to the house names the trust, that accounts intended for the trust are titled in it, and that beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance say what you think they say. A trust review of that kind takes far less time than a Heggstad petition later.

Talk it through

If you are trying to work out whether a trust is worth it in your situation, or you have one and are not sure it was ever funded, the California contact page has both the Southern and Northern California lines. There is no charge for the first conversation.