If you own a home in the East Bay, you’ve raised a family here, or you’ve spent a lifetime building up savings, it’s natural to assume those assets will simply pass to the people you love. I wish it were that simple. In more than 20 years as an estate planning attorney here in Walnut Creek, I’ve sat with too many families who learned—at the worst possible moment—that California law had other plans.
What actually happens when someone dies without a trust depends on what they owned, how those assets were titled, and who survives them. Too often, the people left behind end up in probate court, working through California’s inheritance laws while they’re still grieving. The good news is that this is almost entirely avoidable—and understanding how it works is the first step toward sparing your family that experience.
I’m Kirsten Howe, founder of Absolute Trust Counsel. Helping Bay Area families plan for life and legacy is the only thing my team and I do, and we built this firm to be a law firm for life—here for you now, and here for the people you love later. Here’s what you need to know.
Who Inherits Your Assets If You Die Without a Trust in California?
When someone passes away without a trust—or any other plan directing where their assets go—California’s intestate succession laws step in and decide who inherits. The law sets a hierarchy: a surviving spouse usually comes first, followed by children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and more distant relatives if no one closer survives.
What surprises most families is that this rarely matches what they pictured. A surviving spouse, for example, may inherit all of the community property but only a share of the separate property—with the rest going to children, parents, or siblings, depending on the situation. That can leave your spouse co-owning assets with relatives, which is almost never what anyone intended.
And if you have a partner you aren’t married to, California’s intestacy laws generally leave them out entirely unless you’ve named them in an estate plan. The law makes its own assumptions about your family. A plan lets you speak for yourself.
Will Your Estate Go Through Probate Without a Trust?
One of the first questions I hear from families after a death is whether the estate has to go through probate. Probate is the court-supervised process for transferring assets from someone who has died to their heirs. The court appoints a personal representative, oversees the administration, handles creditor claims, and signs off on distributions.
If meaningful assets are still titled in your name alone, probate is often required before your heirs can receive anything. The most common examples I see are:
- Your home and other real estate
- Investment accounts
- Bank accounts with no named beneficiary
- Business interests
- Valuable personal property
There’s one more thing worth knowing: unlike a trust, which is handled privately, probate becomes part of the public court record. The details of what you owned, what you owed, and who received what can be looked up by anyone. For many of the families I work with, that loss of privacy alone is reason enough to plan ahead.
Why California Probate Can Be Difficult for Families
Most people don’t think about probate until they’re standing in the middle of it. And here’s what catches families off guard: even when everyone agrees on how things should be divided, the court process still has to run its course before anything can legally change hands.
In practice, that usually means:
- Court oversight from start to finish
- Months of waiting before heirs receive what’s been left to them
- Statutory attorney and representative fees, plus administrative costs
- Public disclosure of your estate
- Added stress at an already painful time
None of this means anyone did anything wrong. It’s simply how the system works when there’s no plan in place to keep your family out of it. That’s why so many of the homeowners and parents I work with across Contra Costa County choose a trust-based plan instead.
Living Trust vs. Will in California: Understanding the Difference
A lot of people assume a will and a trust do the same job. They don’t.
A will names your beneficiaries and gives instructions for distributing your property after you’re gone—but, importantly, a will by itself does not avoid probate. In fact, a will is the document the probate court uses.
A living trust holds your assets during your lifetime and directs how they’re managed and passed on after death. When your assets are properly titled in the trust, they can generally go straight to your beneficiaries without the traditional probate process. For homeowners, parents, and retirees here in California, that difference can mean months of time and many thousands of dollars.
How a Funded Living Trust Helps You Avoid Probate
Avoiding probate is one of the biggest reasons trust-based planning is so common in California. When your assets are owned by a properly funded living trust, the person you’ve chosen as successor trustee can step in and carry out your wishes without going to court. That typically means:
- Greater privacy for your family
- Faster administration
- Far less court involvement
- Clear instructions your loved ones can follow
- Protection for you, too, if you become incapacitated during your life
But I want to be direct about the part that trips up even the most well-intentioned plans: creating the trust document is not enough. Your assets actually have to be moved into the trust—what we call funding. An unfunded trust is just paper. It’s one of the most common and costly mistakes I see, and it’s the reason our firm doesn’t simply hand you a binder of documents and send you on your way. We make sure your trust is funded, so it actually works the day your family needs it to.
Why It’s Worth Doing Sooner Rather Than Later
I understand why estate planning gets put off—life is busy, and it’s easy to assume there’s plenty of time. But what I’ve seen again and again is that illness, incapacity, and the unexpected rarely give us advance notice.
Without a plan, the state—not you—largely decides how your estate is handled, and your family may be left with extra legal steps, expense, and uncertainty during one of the hardest seasons of their lives. The reassuring part is that you get to change that outcome. Putting a plan in place now means you’ve made these decisions yourself, thoughtfully, instead of leaving them to a courtroom. Most of my clients tell me the same thing afterward: they feel relief—and they only wish they’d done it sooner.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if you die without a trust in California?
Your estate may have to go through probate, and California’s intestate succession laws may decide who inherits anything that doesn’t pass automatically through beneficiary designations or joint ownership. In short, the state’s default rules take over instead of your wishes.
Does a spouse automatically inherit everything in California?
Not always. Whether your spouse inherits everything depends on whether assets are community or separate property and whether other close relatives survive you. Many spouses are surprised to learn they may share an inheritance with the late spouse’s children, parents, or siblings.
Is probate required if there is no trust?
Not in every case. Some assets pass outside probate through beneficiary designations or joint ownership. But when assets are owned solely in the deceased person’s name, probate is often required before heirs can receive them.
What is the difference between a living trust and a will in California?
A will directs how your assets are distributed but generally does not avoid probate. A properly funded living trust can allow your assets to transfer to your loved ones without the traditional probate process.
How can I avoid probate in California?
For most California families, a properly drafted and fully funded living trust is the most reliable way to avoid probate—along with keeping beneficiary designations and asset titling aligned with your plan.
Talk With a Walnut Creek Estate Planning Attorney
You don’t have to figure this out alone, and you don’t have to leave your family’s future to California’s default rules. At Absolute Trust Counsel, we help East Bay families create estate plans that are clear, personal, and—just as important—actually funded, so they work when they’re needed most.
If you’ve been meaning to put a plan in place, or you’re not sure the one you have still fits your life, I’d be glad to help. You can learn more on our estate planning page, or reach out to start the conversation. Whether you own a home, are raising children, are approaching retirement, or simply want more control over your legacy, the best time to plan is while the decisions are still yours to make.
— Kirsten Howe, Esq., Founder, Absolute Trust Counsel, Walnut Creek
