Probate · Trust Administration · Wills · Disputes
California Inheritance Law: Probate, Trust and Inheritance Help
Planning ahead, settling an estate, or facing an inheritance dispute? Call for a free consultation about your next step anywhere in California. You do not need to know the legal name for your situation.
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What happens when I call?
- Start in your own words. An automated assistant answers first, records and transcribes the call, and takes your contact details and a brief description. You can request a transfer to a person.
- The firm checks for conflicts. Corcoran Smith Law Corp. confirms whether it can help before discussing confidential details. You do not need every document ready to make the first call.
- Discuss your next step. The first consultation is free for every matter. Ask about your options and any fees for further work before deciding whether to hire the firm.
For matters anywhere in California, including when you live elsewhere. Calling does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please keep the first description brief; wait for the firm’s instructions before sharing confidential information. How call information is handled.
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Answered 24/7Help for the situation you are in
- Plan ahead for your familyWills, living trusts and questions about health care wishes. Ask about creating a plan or updating existing documents.Explore wills and trusts
- Settle an estate or trustA death, a home to transfer, or new responsibilities as executor or trustee. You can ask for help before a dispute arises.Find probate assistance
- Resolve an inheritance disputeA contested will, a trustee who will not respond, a delayed inheritance or concerns about a loved one’s assets.Find inheritance litigation help
Unsure where you fit? Call (213) 695-7353 for a free consultation. The firm serves California matters statewide, including callers outside California.
Settling a parent’s estate or trust?
Start with the responsibility you have today. A family executor, a successor trustee and a beneficiary may need different advice.
- My parent died with a houseSecure the property and work out which process applies.
- I am the successor trusteeYour first steps, records and responsibilities.
- I am the executor, including from another stateConfirm authority, organize the estate and prepare for counsel.
- Herencias y sucesiones en CaliforniaGuía en español para familias, albaceas y fiduciarios sucesores.
Helping a client? Resources for referring attorneys, fiduciaries and financial professionals.
California inheritance questions can begin while planning for your family, after a death, or when a disagreement arises. This site explains wills, living trusts, probate and inheritance disputes, and connects you with Corcoran Smith Law for a free first consultation about your California matter.
Start with the deadline
If you have received a trustee’s notice, bring it to the firm’s attention promptly. The service date and the delivery of trust terms can affect the time to contest a trust. You can call even if you are unsure what the notice means.
It starts with an envelope. A trustee serves a notice under Probate Code §16061.7, and from the day it is served the clock runs — whether or not anyone explains that to you, and whether or not you have seen the trust.
Check your deadlineFree. Takes about a minute. No account required.
What this site covers
Five categories. The first two are about getting an estate or a trust settled; the last three are about what happens when that goes wrong.
- Probate AdministrationSettling an estate through the court: whether you need probate at all, opening the case, the four-month inventory, creditor claims, the statutory fee schedule, and final distribution.20 guides · getting it done
- Trust AdministrationThe successor trustee’s job after the settlor dies: the notice that starts every clock, the duties the Trust Law imposes, what a trustee may charge, and the accounting beneficiaries are owed.6 guides · getting it done
- Will LitigationWhat makes a California will valid, and what unmakes one: execution and handwriting, undue influence, capacity, fraud and forgery, plus the heirs a will left out by accident rather than intention.6 guides · when it goes wrong
- Trust LitigationDisputes over a living trust: contesting the instrument, removing or surcharging a trustee, and recovering what left the trust.10 guides · when it goes wrong
- Probate LitigationContested estate administration: who serves as personal representative, what belongs to the estate, and how property that left it is recovered.5 guides · when it goes wrong
What is happening to you?
Most people arrive here able to describe the situation but not to name it. Find yours below.
- You want to make or update a will or living trustPlanning ahead for yourself and the people you care aboutUnderstand living trusts and ask for help
- You need help receiving your inheritanceIdentify the asset, your share and what comes nextGet my inheritance
- A parent died and you do not know where to startThe first weeks, in orderWhat to do when someone dies
- You are not sure whether probate is neededIt depends on how each asset was titledDo you need probate?
- You have just been told you are the successor trusteeThe office, and what it requiresWhat a trustee must do
- The house is still in your parent’s name§13151 petition, or full administrationThe home, without probate
- You need to know what probate will costA statutory fee on gross valueWork out the fee
- A spouse or child needs support during administrationFamily allowance and homesteadSupport while the estate is open
- An asset was left out of the trustSigned but never retitledHeggstad petitions
- You are not sure the will was signed properlyTwo witnesses, or the testator’s own handWhat makes a will valid
- A trustee or sibling won’t show you the trustBreach of the duty to informYour rights as a beneficiary
- You received a notice and don’t know your deadlineA §16061.7 notice may have started a 120-day clockWhat that notice means
- The trust was changed shortly before deathUndue influence or incapacityHow trust contests work
- The trustee is mismanaging or self-dealingBreach of fiduciary dutyRemoving a trustee
- You were left out of a willWill contest or omitted heirWill contests
- Money moved out of accounts before the deathFinancial elder abuseElder financial abuse
What is actually at stake
For most families the estate is not a portfolio. It is a house someone lived in for forty years — and the question of who gets to keep it.
California inheritance disputes are rarely about greed. They are about a document that changed at the wrong moment, a sibling who moved in and took over, a trustee who stopped answering the phone. The law has specific names for each of those, and specific windows in which each can be raised.
What happens next, and where
Two questions come up before anything else: what the process actually involves, and which court hears it. For an estate being settled, that is probate administration and, for a funded trust, ordinarily a private administration outside court. Where there is a dispute, how a California trust dispute works walks the stages and realistic timing. Where we practice explains which county hears your matter — and why that decides the venue, not who can represent you — with the courts and procedures for Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco.
Work it out yourself first
Three of these questions have arithmetic behind them rather than judgment, so the site answers them directly. The probate fee calculator estimates ordinary scheduled compensation for an entered estate base and compares it with equity before fees, expenses and taxes. The deadline calculator estimates the section 16061.8 window from qualifying notice and trust-delivery dates. And the Probate Code index routes a bare section number to the page that explains it. All three are free, and none of them asks for an email address.
How a case starts here
| Step | What happens | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| 1. You tell us what you need | Call the automated line, or request a callback with your name and phone number or email | Nothing |
| 2. The firm checks for conflicts | Before substantive advice, the firm checks whether it can assist with your matter | Nothing |
| 3. We tell you what we think | Your planning, administration or dispute question, and what further work may be needed | Nothing |
| 4. If we can take it, we say so | If we cannot — capacity, conflict, venue — we say that too | Nothing |
Who publishes this
California Inheritance Law is published by Corcoran Smith Law Corp., a California litigation firm founded by Mark C. Smith, a U.S. Army combat veteran and UC Berkeley School of Law graduate. The firm represents heirs and beneficiaries statewide, meeting clients in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.
This is the firm’s own publication, not a directory and not a matching service. Every attorney is named, and every bar number links to the State Bar’s own record so you can check it. More about the firm, or visit corcoransmithlaw.com for the firm’s full practice — estate planning, real estate, veterans law, and general counsel work alongside inheritance litigation.
This site exists to explain the law. When you are ready to instruct someone, the firm is who you instruct.
Need help with legal fees?
We litigate select cases on contingency, with no upfront fees.
Costs are separate from the fee, and whether you are responsible for them is set out in the written agreement before you sign anything.
How contingency fees work in California
A contingency fee means the attorney is paid from what is recovered rather than by the hour, so a beneficiary who cannot fund litigation out of pocket can still bring a claim. California regulates these agreements closely. Under Business and Professions Code section 6147, the agreement must be in writing and the attorney must give the client a duplicate copy, signed by both, when the contract is made. It must state the agreed contingency rate; how disbursements and costs incurred in prosecuting or settling the claim will affect that fee; and to what extent the client could be required to pay for related matters. Unless the matter falls under section 6146, the agreement must also state that the fee is not set by law and is negotiable. These are not formalities: failure to comply with any provision of section 6147 makes the agreement voidable at the client’s option, leaving the attorney entitled only to a reasonable fee.
Sources: Business and Professions Code s.6147 - Contingency fee contracts · Verified 2026-08-03.
Not every matter suits a contingency arrangement, and the firm does not take every case on one. Whether yours qualifies depends on the facts, the likely recovery, and the assets actually available to satisfy a judgment. Ask when you call.
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