For California Successor Trustees
You were named Trustee. Nobody told you what comes next.
Made your Trust or Will online — and no one ever said what happens after?
The moment the person who made the trust dies or can no longer serve, California's statutory clocks start — notices, filings, accountings. TrusteeClear organizes the trust, computes the statutory periods from the dates you enter, and keeps every step in one place, in your own language.
California-specific software — not a law firm, not legal advice. TrusteeClear does not arrange attorney review.
California-specific · Clear guidance in 7 languages · Statute-anchored · From a 3rd-generation South Florida firm (45+ years)
TrusteeClear serves trustees in these states: Florida, Texas, and California.
Choose your state:FloridaTexasCalifornia
The California Trust Law, on a clock
The deadlines nobody told you about
When a California trust becomes irrevocable — usually when the person who made it dies — the successor trustee has statutory duties with real clocks attached.
Prob. Code §16061.7(a)(1) · 60 days
Serve the notification by trustee
Within 60 days of the death that makes the trust irrevocable — or of a new trustee beginning to serve, where the death left the office vacant — the trustee serves a notification on each beneficiary and each heir, by mail or in person, with the contest warning in the statute's words.
Mapped to your timeline, with reminders before day 60.
Rev. & Tax. Code §480(b) · 150 days
File the change in ownership statement
Where the trust holds California real property, the trustee files a change in ownership statement with the county recorder or assessor of each county where it lies, within 150 days after the death.
Counted from the date of death, with reminders before day 150.
Prob. Code §16062 · Ongoing
Account to the beneficiaries
The trustee accounts at least annually, at the trust's termination and on a change of trustee, to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is required or authorized to be currently distributed. The account's contents are the ones the statute lists (Prob. Code §16063).
The receipts, disbursements and holdings an account reports, recorded as you go.
What the California Trust Law asks of a trustee
- Accept the trusteeship — by signing the trust instrument or a separate written acceptance, or by knowingly exercising powers or performing duties under it (Prob. Code §15600).
- Administer the trust according to its terms and the California Trust Law (Prob. Code §16000).
- Take reasonable steps to take and keep control of the trust property and to preserve it (Prob. Code §16006).
- Review the trust's assets within a reasonable time after accepting, and decide what to keep and what to dispose of (Prob. Code §16049).
- Administer with the care, skill and caution of a prudent person (Prob. Code §16040), loyally (Prob. Code §16002) and impartially (Prob. Code §16003).
- Keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration (Prob. Code §16060).
- Serve the notification by trustee within 60 days of the death that makes the trust irrevocable (Prob. Code §16061.7(a)(1)).
- Account at least annually to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is currently distributable (Prob. Code §16062).
- Cotrustees act unanimously unless the trust instrument provides otherwise (Prob. Code §15620).
Trust made online? The duties are exactly the same.
Trusts created through online services or from templates carry the same California Trust Law obligations as attorney-drafted ones — there's just no law office calling to tell you. If the drafting attorney has retired, moved on, or was never involved, the responsibility still sits with the trustee.
These duties belong to the trustee personally. Missing them can expose the trustee to challenges from beneficiaries and complicate the administration — the point of a clear process is that nothing is missed.
The product, not the promise
Watch one matter move — three moments, on the record.
Week one — the role, mapped
Accept the trusteeship — Prob. Code §15600
DoneServe the notification by trustee — Prob. Code §16061.7(a)(1) · due in 60 days
ServedFile the change in ownership statement — Rev. & Tax. Code §480(b) · due in 150 days
You file itOpen the trust accounting — Prob. Code §16062
ScheduledThe notification's contents — Prob. Code §16061.7(g)
The statute lists what the notification states and words its contest warning. The file sets that list beside the facts you recorded; you prepare and serve the notification.
The append-only record — who did what, when
14:02 — Notification served by mail — Trustee
14:31 — Change in ownership statement recorded — Trustee
15:10 — Accounting period opened — system
In checkable numbers
- languages, with the whole journey guided in your own
- 7
- statutory clocks mapped to your timelineProb. Code §16061.7 · Rev. & Tax. Code §480 · Prob. Code §16062
- 3
- California documents explained, each with its statute
- 3
- one-time founding membership — for the life of the matter
- $199
Counts are derived at render from the shipped registries — they cannot drift from the product.
From named to guided, in three steps
How TrusteeClear guides you
1
Upload the trust
AI organizes what the document says with source references for you to check and confirm.
2
See every duty and date
Your California duties are mapped to a clear timeline — notices, filings, accountings — with reminders before anything comes due.
3
Take each step, guided
Clear information for every step, a documented record as you go, and everything ready to bring to a licensed California attorney of your choosing whenever a legal judgment is needed.
What the file explains
California's documents, each with the statute that sets it.
Notification by Trustee
Prob. Code §16061.7
Certification of Trust
Prob. Code §18100.5
Trust Accounting
Prob. Code §16062
Founding member — first 10 Trusts
$199 · lifetime membership for your trust
One payment. Organizing your documents is free; the founding membership covers your trust's guided administration — duties, dates, documents, and record — for the life of the matter.
- Guided duties & first steps
- Statutory deadline tracking
- Trust accounting & the file's records
- Document vault & the statutes' own lists
- Everything ready for your own attorney
TrusteeClear is software, not a law firm, and does not give legal advice. It does not arrange attorney review. A licensed California attorney of your choosing can read your record at any time.
Your attorney, your choice
AI organizes. You decide. Your attorney, if you have one, gets a complete record.
When a step calls for legal judgment, the platform says so and points you to a licensed California attorney of your choosing. TrusteeClear does not arrange attorney review. Nothing auto-files, ever.
Working with your own attorney →For estate-planning firms
Are you a California estate-planning firm?
License TrusteeClear as your firm's branded trustee layer — AI analysis under attorney control, supervised administration, and the client experience your competitors don't have.
Security & isolation, not an afterthought
Built to be trusted with a family's business.
Tenant isolation
Every firm and family is isolated at the database with row-level security — not just in app code.
Encryption
Encrypted in transit and at rest; secrets are server-only and never exposed to the browser.
Provenance trail
An append-only record of what was generated, cited, and reviewed.
Your attorney, your choice
TrusteeClear does not provide attorney review to individual customers. Your record is organized so a licensed California attorney of your choosing can read it at any time.
Built on real fiduciary experience
Created in consultation with a third-generation South Florida Estate-Planning firm — 45+ years guiding families through Trust and successor-trustee administration.
That hard-won judgment is built into every step: the deadlines that actually matter, the clear step-by-step guidance, and exactly when a California attorney should weigh in. The result is a clearer, calmer path through a role most people take on only once — for the clients you served yesterday and the ones you'll serve tomorrow.
Start your California trust file.
Open the file, choose California as the law that governs the trust, and see exactly what your trustee role requires — before anything is filed.