A California small estate affidavit lets heirs with a modest amount of property collect it with a signed statement instead of a full court case. When someone dies owning that property, heirs can often use the affidavit if two rules are met.
Two rules decide whether you can use the affidavit, and this page walks through both.
What a California Small Estate Affidavit Actually Does
A California small estate affidavit is a sworn statement. It lets the heir collect the property directly from whoever holds it, without a probate case in court.
Under California’s small estate affidavit statute (Probate Code section 13100), the affidavit covers three kinds of property: money owed to the decedent (the person who died), tangible personal property, and papers that prove a debt, a security, or another right to be paid.
Two rules control the affidavit. At least 40 days must pass after the death. The gross value of the decedent’s California property must stay at or under the statutory limit, currently $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025.
No court filing, hearing, or letters of administration are required. Letters of administration are the court order that appoints someone to manage a probate estate. The affidavit goes directly to the bank, brokerage, or other property holder.
Who Can Sign a Small Estate Affidavit in California?
Only a successor of the decedent can sign. If there is a will, the successor is the beneficiary who takes that item of property. If more than one beneficiary takes it, they are all successors.
If there is no will, the successor is whoever inherits that item under California’s intestate succession rules. Under California’s definition of successor (Probate Code section 13006), the term is defined one item of property at a time, so different people can sign for different assets. A trust named as a beneficiary under the will counts as a beneficiary here too.
Where several people inherit the same item, they all sign, though under California’s small estate affidavit filing rules (Section 13101), one of them may instead sign for the others if the others authorize it.
How Long Do You Have to Wait Before Using the Affidavit?
You must wait at least 40 days from the date of death, and the clock runs from the death itself. A late death certificate does not move the start date, and neither does a delayed notice to the bank.
That same filing rule requires the affidavit to state that the 40 days have passed. You sign under penalty of perjury, so a knowing false statement is a crime.
What Counts Toward the Small Estate Limit?
The limit is measured against the gross value of the decedent’s real and personal property in California. Several categories are excluded from that calculation entirely. Under the property excluded from California’s small estate limit (Probate Code section 13050), that excluded property includes:
- Joint tenancy and life-estate property: Property the decedent held as a joint tenant, held only a life interest in, or that passed outright to a surviving spouse. This same exclusion also covers property already held in a trust revocable by the decedent during their lifetime, so a living trust generally keeps assets out of the small estate calculation entirely. That is one reason a revocable living trust keeps assets out of probate for many California families.
- Multiple-party accounts: Accounts passing to a surviving party or a named payable-on-death beneficiary.
- Vehicles and vessels: Anything registered or titled under the Vehicle Code.
- Manufactured and mobile homes: Registered under the Health and Safety Code.
- Armed Forces compensation: Amounts due to the decedent for military service.
- A capped amount of unpaid wages: Salary or other compensation owed to the decedent for personal services, up to a separately adjusted cap.
Property already covered by a petition to determine succession to the decedent’s primary residence is excluded as well, but that carve-out comes from the affidavit statute itself rather than from that list of exclusions.
The dollar cap is not a fixed number. Under California’s small estate inflation-adjustment statute (Probate Code section 890), the Judicial Council adjusts the amounts every three years based on the Consumer Price Index, rounds to the nearest $25, and publishes the current figures on Judicial Council form DE-300.
For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, that same affidavit limit is $208,850. The next scheduled adjustment is April 1, 2028. An estate above the limit goes through the standard probate process instead.
What the Affidavit Must Say
The affidavit must be signed under penalty of perjury. It has to give the decedent’s name, the date and place of death, and the gross value of the estate.
The affidavit has to describe the property claimed. It also has to state that at least 40 days have passed, that no estate administration is pending, and that no one else has a superior right to that property.
That same section fixes what has to be attached:
- A certified copy of the death certificate.
- If a personal representative has been appointed, their written consent and a copy of the letters.
- For deaths on or after April 1, 2022, a copy of the Judicial Council’s published DE-300 list of adjusted amounts.
Under California’s proof-of-ownership requirement (Section 13102), send any certificate, passbook, or similar document the holder could have demanded from the decedent. If you cannot, the holder may ask for a bond or an indemnity agreement instead.
Under California’s real-property appraisal requirement for the affidavit (Section 13103), a probate referee must inventory and appraise any California real property in the estate. The referee is an appraiser the signer selects from a State Controller list. The appraisal values the estate, not the transfer of the real property.
Can a Small Estate Affidavit Transfer a House?
No. This affidavit reaches money owed to the decedent, tangible personal property, and instruments such as securities and debt obligations. California real property takes a different route.
| Route | What it covers | Wait | Court |
| Affidavit for collection of personal property (Section 13100) | Money, tangible personal property, securities and debt instruments | 40 days | No |
| Petition to determine succession to primary residence (Section 13151) | Primary residence, at or under $750,000 | 40 days | Yes, court petition, with notice to each named heir and devisee within five business days |
| Affidavit re real property of small value (Section 13200) | California real property at or under $69,625 | Six months | Yes, superior court, with a probate referee’s appraisal |
A family may take the residence to court under that same petition to determine succession to a primary residence and still collect the bank accounts on the affidavit.
What If the Bank Will Not Accept the Affidavit?
The successor can sue when the property holder refuses to release it after receiving a proper affidavit. Under California’s attorney’s-fee rule for a wrongful refusal (Section 13105), the court must award reasonable attorney’s fees if it finds the refusal was unreasonable.
Once the requirements are met, the holder must pay, deliver, or transfer the property. If the property is a security, the transfer agent must change the registered owner on the corporation’s books.
Not every refusal is obstruction. A holder who asks for that same bond or indemnity agreement, because you cannot show evidence of ownership, is following the statute.
What You Take On by Signing
Signing the affidavit makes you personally liable for the decedent’s unsecured debts. Under California’s cap on affidavit-signer liability (Section 13109), you never owe more than the fair market value of the property you received, measured when you presented the affidavit, minus any liens and encumbrances.
A creditor can collect from you the same way it could have collected from the decedent. You also keep the decedent’s defenses, cross-complaints, and setoffs, meaning claims that reduce what is owed.
That same section also names routes that can lift the liability entirely, including when formal estate proceedings are opened. Get advice before you sign.
Talk to a Probate Attorney at Frisella Neilson, APC About Your California Small Estate Affidavit
Handling a loved one’s finances after a death is hard enough without wondering if you are using the right legal tool. Three things decide whether the affidavit is the right tool: the date of death, what the decedent actually owned, and whether anyone else has a claim to the same property. Those questions are worth walking through before anything is signed under penalty of perjury.
Lisa J. Frisella, founding attorney at Frisella Neilson, APC, focuses her San Diego practice on probate and estate administration and can help you work through a California small estate affidavit or the alternatives above. Call us at (619) 260-3500or contact us to get started.
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