Ou pèdi yon moun ki chè — epi yo nonmen ou kòm administratè (Trustee).

First, a word about pace

California dates more of the first months than many people expect, and almost all of those dates run from the death itself. The notification by trustee is due not later than 60 days after the death (Prob. Code §16061.7(f)); the Medi-Cal notice, where it applies, not later than 90 days after (§§19202, 215); the change in ownership statement for California real property held in the trust within 150 days after (Rev. & Tax. Code §480(b)). The contest period then runs for each recipient from the day the notification is served on that recipient (§16061.8).

Everything else is paced by the work: finding and reading the instrument, securing what the trust holds (§16006), reviewing the assets within a reasonable time (§16049), and building the record the first account will need (§16063). The duty to administer the trust according to its terms (§16000) rewards a record that shows each step, not speed.

Days 1 to 30: find, read, secure

The first month is for the documents and the property: the trust instrument with every amendment and restatement; the deeds, account statements, beneficiary designations and insurance policies; the settlor's will. Whoever has custody of the will delivers it, within 30 days after learning of the death, to the clerk of the superior court of the county where the estate may be administered, with a copy to the named executor — unless a probate petition was filed earlier (§8200). Deciding whether to accept comes first: signing an acceptance, or knowingly exercising the trustee's powers, accepts the trust, and not accepting within a reasonable time is a rejection (§§15600–15601).

Securing the property is the duty to take and keep control of it and preserve it (§16006): confirming insurance, securing the house and vehicles, forwarding the mail, keeping protective payments current, and keeping the trust's property separate from anyone else's (§16009). Within a reasonable time after accepting or receiving the assets, the trustee reviews them and decides what to keep and what to dispose of (§16049). Several certified copies of the death certificate come early; banks, insurers, the county assessor and the Medi-Cal notice each want one.

• Title decides the path: trust-titled property is the trustee's to administer; property in the decedent's own name passes by will or intestacy through the estate; joint property and beneficiary-designated accounts pass by their own terms.
• Marital character matters in California: property a married person acquires during the marriage while domiciled in California is community property (Fam. Code §760), and at a death one-half of it belongs to the surviving spouse and one-half to the decedent (Prob. Code §100); quasi-community property divides the same way (§101).
• California real property in the trust brings the change in ownership statement within 150 days after the death (Rev. & Tax. Code §480(b)); whether a parent–child exclusion applies is a Proposition 19 question about the property's facts (Cal. Const. art. XIII A, §2.1; Rev. & Tax. Code §63.2).
• Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by their beneficiary designations, outside the trust unless the trust is the named beneficiary.

Days 30 to 60: the notification by trustee

When a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because of a settlor's death, the continuing or successor trustee serves a notification by trustee — any one cotrustee may serve it — on each beneficiary of the trust, subject to the representation rules of §15804, and on each heir of the deceased settlor, and on the Attorney General where the trust is a charitable trust under the Attorney General's supervision (§16061.7(a)–(b)). The trustee relies on a final judicial determination of heirship known to the trustee and otherwise decides the heirs in good faith by any reasonable means (§16061.7(c)); a person who cannot be located after reasonable diligence, or who is unknown, need not be served (§16061.7(d)).

It is served by a §1215 method — mail or personal delivery — to the last known address, not later than 60 days after the death; where the death left the office vacant, the 60 days run from the day the new trustee begins to serve, and for a person the trustee learns of later, from the day the trustee becomes aware of that person (§16061.7(e)–(f)). Its contents are the statute's own list: the identity of the settlor or settlors and the date the instrument was executed; the name, address and telephone number of each trustee; the address of the physical location of the principal place of administration (§17002); any additional information the instrument expressly requires; and a notice that the recipient may, on reasonable request, receive a true and complete copy of the terms of the trust (§16061.7(g)).

For a death, the notification also carries this warning, in a separate paragraph in not less than 10-point boldface type or a reasonable equivalent (§16061.7(h)): "You may not bring an action to contest the trust more than 120 days from the date this notification by the trustee is served upon you or 60 days from the date on which a copy of the terms of the trust is delivered to you during that 120-day period, whichever is later." A settlor's waiver of the notification is void (§16061.7(i)); serving it on additional persons carries no liability (§16061.7(j)). A trustee who fails to serve it answers for the damages the failure causes, unless the trustee made a reasonably diligent effort to comply (§16061.9).

Days 60 to 150: the contest period, Medi-Cal and the property tax

Each recipient's contest period runs from that recipient's own service: an action to contest the trust may not be brought more than 120 days after the notification is served, or 60 days after a copy of the terms is delivered during that period, whichever is later (§16061.8). A trustee deciding the timing and nature of distributions may consider that the period has not yet expired (§16061.9(c)). A copy of the terms goes to a beneficiary, or an heir, who asks for it (§16061.5).

Where the trustee knows or has reason to believe the settlor received Medi-Cal, or was the surviving spouse of a person who did, the trustee gives the Director of Health Care Services notice of the death in the manner §215 provides — with a copy of the death certificate, addressed to the Director's Sacramento office, not later than 90 days after the death — and the Department then has four months to file a claim (§19202). Where the trust holds California real property, the trustee files the change in ownership statement with the county recorder or assessor in each county where the decedent owned real property, within 150 days after the death (Rev. & Tax. Code §480(b)).

Dat limit administratè California: sa lwa yo prevwa

Verifye ak California Statutes yo nan dat 2026-10-06. Enfòmasyon jeneral, pa konsèy legal; tèks ofisyèl la ki kòmande.

The estate beside the trust: who does what

Most California families with a trust also have some property outside it, and the two run on different rules with different actors. A probate estate is administered by a personal representative under letters from the superior court; the representative files the inventory and appraisal within four months after letters (§8800) and gives notice of administration to known creditors (§9050), whose claims are due by the later of four months after letters or 60 days after the notice (§9100). Where the property outside the trust is small, the Probate Code offers shorter routes — among them the affidavit for personal property after 40 days, within a dollar limit adjusted every three years under §890 (§13100).

The trust answers for the settlor's debts in its own way. Property that was subject to the settlor's power of revocation at death is subject to the claims of the probate estate's creditors and its expenses to the extent the probate estate cannot pay them (§19001). Where no probate is pending of which the trustee knows, the trustee may choose the trust's own optional creditor procedure — a filing with the court (§19003), publication of the notice (§19040) and a claim period of the later of four months after first publication or 60 days after actual notice (§19100). Either way, a claim on the decedent's liability is subject to the one-year period of Code Civ. Proc. §366.2. None of this is the trustee's to conclude in the file; the estate's events are recorded as facts.

The record you keep from day one

Every later question is answered from the record: the date the trusteeship began, the assets and liabilities at that date, each receipt and disbursement of principal and income, the trustee's compensation and each agent hired — the contents an account must show (§16063). Kept from the first week, the first account is a report; reconstructed a year later, it is a project.

The record is also the trustee's answer to the duties that have no day-count. The review of the assets within a reasonable time (§16049) is shown by a dated note of what was reviewed and decided; the duty to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed (§16060) by the dated copies of what was sent; a discretionary distribution by the instrument's words and the reasons beside them (§16080).

• The date and manner of the acceptance or rejection (§§15600–15601).
• Each beneficiary and heir, the date and manner of service of the notification, and each recipient's contest period (§§16061.7, 16061.8).
• The assets on hand when the trusteeship began, by title and by marital character (Fam. Code §760; Prob. Code §100).
• The Medi-Cal notice, where it applied, and the change in ownership statement for each county (§19202; Rev. & Tax. Code §480(b)).
• The estate's events — letters, the inventory, notices, claims — as facts recorded, never as conclusions.

What waits for later

Distributions wait. A trustee who distributes before the debts, the taxes and a reasonable reserve are known risks answering for a shortfall, and the unexpired contest period is a factor the statute lets the trustee weigh (§16061.9(c)). A distribution the instrument requires may not be conditioned on a beneficiary's release of the trustee (§16004.5). Discretionary decisions wait for the instrument's words, exercised reasonably (§16080) and, even with "absolute" discretion, under fiduciary principles (§16081).

The first account waits for the first accounting period; the trustee accounts at least annually, at termination and on a change of trustee (§16062). The structural choices wait too: a decanting with notice at least 60 days before (§19507), a notice of proposed action with at least 45 days to object (§16502), or ending a trust whose principal no longer justifies its administration (§15408). Those are powers for a settled administration, not for the first months, and each is the kind of decision many trustees bring to a licensed California attorney of their choosing first.

When a licensed California attorney is the right next call

TrusteeClear organizes the record; it does not give legal advice and it does not decide any of these questions for you. Many trustees bring the record to a licensed California attorney of their choosing when the general rules run out: who the heirs are, whether an estate needs to be opened and in what form, how community and separate property divide, a Proposition 19 question about a family home, a contest or a dispute among beneficiaries.