Small Estate Affidavit in California: The 2025 Limits and How to Use One

California does not have one small estate rule; it has three, and families lose weeks by applying the wrong one. Each turns on the gross value of a specific category of property, and each cap is now indexed by the Judicial Council every three years, with the current figures published on form DE-300.

• Affidavit for collection of personal property, Probate Code sections 13100 to 13116. Covers bank accounts, brokerage accounts, uncashed checks, final wages, refunds, and other personal property when the total estate subject to the count is $208,850 or less for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. Deaths from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2025 use $184,500, and deaths before April 1, 2022 use $166,250. No court involvement.
• Affidavit for real property of small value, sections 13200 to 13210. Passes title to California real estate with a gross value of $69,625 or less (deaths on or after April 1, 2025; $61,500 before), after six months from the death, filed with the superior court and then recorded with the county. It requires an inventory and appraisal by a probate referee.
• Petition to determine succession to real property, sections 13150 to 13158. A court petition, historically limited to the same small dollar figure, that Assembly Bill 2016 (signed September 21, 2024, effective for deaths on or after April 1, 2025) expanded to cover the decedent's primary residence when its gross value is $750,000 or less. Other real estate still uses the old, lower ceiling.

The counts are separate. A decedent can leave a house handled under the residence petition and a checking account handled under the personal-property affidavit, and the house's value does not count against the $208,850 personal-property cap because section 13050 excludes property passing under the residence procedure from that calculation. Reading the exclusions in section 13050 correctly is the single most valuable step in the whole process.

The section 13100 affidavit is a demand letter with legal force. The successor signs a declaration under penalty of perjury that 40 days have passed, that no probate is pending or that the personal representative consents, that the estate as counted under section 13050 does not exceed the cap, and that the signer is entitled to the asset as heir, beneficiary under the will, or trustee. Attached to it are a certified death certificate and, when the successor is claiming under a will, a copy of the will. Section 13101 spells out the required statements, and the Judicial Council's optional form DE-305 tracks them.

What the affidavit reaches: deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, brokerage accounts held in the decedent's sole name, final paychecks and accrued vacation, tax refunds, insurance payable to the estate, safe deposit box contents, and tangible personal property. Vehicles and vessels have their own DMV route on form REG 5, and their value is excluded from the cap entirely under section 13050.

What it cannot reach: real estate of any value, property already passing outside probate (joint tenancy with right of survivorship, community property with right of survivorship, living trust assets, pay-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, life insurance and retirement accounts with a living beneficiary), and any asset once a probate has been opened without the representative's written consent. Amounts owed to the decedent by the person signing the affidavit, and salary or benefits up to $20,000 payable to a surviving spouse under section 13600, also fall outside the count in different ways. The decision framework for whether an estate should have avoided all of this is covered in our guide to choosing between a trust and a will in California.

Families overcount. The statute values only property that would otherwise pass through probate, at its gross value on the date of death, without deducting mortgages or other debts. Then it subtracts a long list. Section 13050 excludes joint tenancy property, property passing to a surviving spouse or registered domestic partner under section 13500 when a spousal property petition is used, multiple-party accounts, pay-on-death and Totten trust accounts, registered vehicles and vessels, manufactured homes and mobilehomes registered with the state, salary and benefits up to $20,000, amounts due the decedent for services in the armed forces, and, since April 1, 2025, real property passing under the primary-residence petition.

Two practical consequences follow. First, an estate with a $600,000 house, a jointly owned savings account, and $90,000 in a sole-name brokerage account is a small estate for affidavit purposes, because the house goes through the residence petition and the joint account passes by survivorship. Second, gross value means the appraised value of what remains, so a $150,000 brokerage account with a $20,000 margin loan counts as $150,000. When real property is part of the calculation, section 13103 requires an inventory and appraisal signed by a probate referee; for a personal-property-only affidavit, the successor's own good-faith valuation is enough, backed by statements dated near the death.

The personal-property affidavit may not be presented until 40 days after the date of death, counted from the death itself, not the funeral or the discovery of the asset. The real-property affidavit under section 13200 requires six months. The residence petition under section 13150 can be filed at any time after death but takes a court hearing, typically 30 to 60 days out depending on the county's probate calendar, plus notice to everyone entitled to it.

All three tools are blocked once a probate administration is pending or completed for the decedent, unless the appointed personal representative consents in writing. That rule catches families who file a petition for letters to see what happens, then discover the affidavit route would have been faster. The order of operations matters: decide whether the estate qualifies first, and open probate only when it does not, or when creditor claims, disputes among heirs, or a lender's demand make a court order necessary. Our guide to what a California probate lawyer costs shows why that decision is worth an hour of analysis.

1. Confirm the count. Build the schedule of probate assets, apply the section 13050 exclusions, and confirm the total is under the cap for the date of death.
2. Identify every successor. If there is a will, the beneficiaries named for that asset sign; if not, the intestate heirs under Probate Code sections 6400 to 6414 sign, in the shares the statute assigns. A surviving spouse's community property half is not part of the estate at all.
3. Draft the affidavit. Every statement in section 13101 must appear: the date and place of death, the 40-day passage, the no-probate statement, the cap statement with the specific figure, a description of the property, the signer's basis for entitlement, and the statement that no other person has a superior right. Multiple successors sign one affidavit or sign separately with each other's consent.
4. Attach the evidence. A certified copy of the death certificate, a copy of the will if claiming under one, proof of the signer's identity, and, when required by the institution or when real property is in the count, the probate referee's inventory and appraisal.
5. Notarize. The statute requires reasonable proof of identity under section 13104; most institutions insist on notarization, and the affidavit should be notarized as a matter of course.
6. Present and follow up. Deliver to the institution's estate or decedent services unit, not a branch teller. Large banks process in one to four weeks; brokerages often require their own supplemental transfer forms alongside the affidavit.

Section 13106 obligates the holder to pay or deliver the property once a compliant affidavit is presented, and section 13105 discharges the institution from liability when it does. That protection is why institutions scrutinize form so closely: a missing statement voids their safe harbor, so they reject rather than accommodate.

Before 2025, California real estate could avoid full probate only when its gross value was tiny, which meant almost never. Assembly Bill 2016 changed the landscape for the single most common asset in a modest estate. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the successors of a decedent whose primary residence in California had a gross value of $750,000 or less can file a petition under sections 13150 to 13158 on Judicial Council form DE-310, give notice to heirs and beneficiaries, attach a probate referee's appraisal, and obtain a court order transferring title. The residence need not have been the decedent's home at the moment of death; the amended section 13150 removes that limitation, so a parent who moved to assisted living still qualifies.

The older section 13200 affidavit survives for real property worth $69,625 or less, which today means fractional interests, remote parcels, and mineral rights more than homes. It is filed with the court clerk with the referee's appraisal, certified by the clerk, and recorded in the county where the land sits, after which title passes to the successors.

Neither procedure applies to a house already in a living trust, held in joint tenancy, or covered by a recorded California revocable transfer on death deed, all of which pass on their own paperwork. For a homeowner still planning, the comparison in our guide to the ways a deed transfers after a death explains which route each family ends up in, and why a California living trust that holds the house remains the cleanest answer for a residence worth more than the petition cap.

The cost being avoided is unusually visible in California because attorney and executor compensation in a full probate are fixed by statute. Probate Code section 10810 sets ordinary attorney fees at 4 percent of the first $100,000 of the gross estate, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000, 1 percent of the next $9,000,000, and one half of one percent of the next $15,000,000, with the court setting a reasonable fee above $25,000,000. Section 10800 gives the personal representative the same schedule. On a $200,000 estate that is $7,000 to the attorney and $7,000 to the executor, before court filing fees of roughly $435 per petition, publication costs, and the probate referee's fee of one tenth of one percent of appraised assets.

Because the schedule runs on gross value, a house worth $700,000 with a $500,000 mortgage still generates fees on $700,000. That is the arithmetic behind the residence petition's popularity: the petition costs a filing fee, an appraisal, and drafting, and it replaces a fee schedule that would have charged $17,000 to the attorney alone. Market rates for having the affidavit or petition professionally prepared run from a few hundred dollars for a straightforward personal-property affidavit to the low thousands for a contested residence petition, and the figures in our breakdown of probate lawyer cost by estate size put the comparison in full context.

• Using the wrong year's cap. The threshold is tied to the date of death, not the date of the affidavit. An estate of $190,000 for a March 2025 death is over the limit; the same estate for an April 2025 death is under it.
• Counting excluded assets. Families add the jointly held house and the IRA, conclude they need probate, and pay statutory fees on an estate that qualified for the affidavit all along.
• Presenting before day 40. Institutions check the death date against the calendar and reject early submissions, and the rejection often resets their internal review clock.
• Leaving out a successor. An affidavit signed by one child when the intestate statute gives three children equal shares exposes the signer to personal liability under section 13109 and lets the bank refuse.
• Trying to move real estate with it. The 13100 affidavit never transfers title; the county recorder will not record it, and a quitclaim deed signed by heirs without a court order does not cure the break in the chain of title.
• Ignoring creditors. The successor takes the property subject to the decedent's debts and is liable to unsecured creditors up to the value received, so distributing before paying known bills invites a lawsuit.
• Missing the Medi-Cal question. If the decedent received Medi-Cal after age 55, the Department of Health Care Services can pursue estate recovery, and the successor should confirm whether a claim exists before spending the funds.

A California affidavit succeeds or fails on details that change every three years and vary by institution: the exact cap for the date of death, the section 13050 exclusions, the successor list under the intestacy statute or the will, and the precise statements section 13101 requires. A licensed attorney confirms the estate qualifies, builds the asset schedule, drafts the affidavit or the residence petition to the current statute, and provides the presentation instructions each type of institution expects. Related tools, from the small estate affidavit rules in every other state to the Texas and Illinois versions linked below, follow the same logic with different numbers.