Successor Trustee Duties California: Complete 90-Day Checklist 2026

Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.

By Rozsa Gyene, California attorney (State Bar #208356). Updated October 6, 2026.

This page is the after-death checklist: what a successor trustee in California does, in order, from the week of the death until the last distribution. If you first want to know what a trustee is, who can serve, what powers the Probate Code gives a trustee and how a trustee is removed, read What Is a Trustee in California. The steps below assume the trust names you as successor trustee and you have agreed to act.

Week one: take control of the trust

1. Find the trust and every amendment

Locate the signed trust, every signed amendment or restatement, and any schedule of assets. The trust document is your instruction sheet: it names the beneficiaries, says how and when they receive property, and may require more in the notice than the statute does (§16061.7(g)(4)). If you find an original will, usually a pour-over will, the person holding it must deliver it to the clerk of the superior court of the county where the estate may be administered, usually the county where the person lived, within 30 days after learning of the death, and send a copy to the named executor (Probate Code §8200). The court charges $50 to lodge it (Gov. Code §70626(d)).

2. Order certified death certificates

The California Department of Public Health charges $26 for each certified copy of a death record in 2026. Banks, brokerages, insurers, the county recorder and the assessor will each want one. Order enough at the start; reordering later costs the same fee and adds delay.

3. Secure and insure the property

Change the locks on an empty house, tell the homeowner's insurer that the owner has died and the house may be vacant, keep paying the mortgage, insurance and property tax from trust funds, and collect mail. Do not move anything into your own name or your own account. Trust money goes into an account titled in your name as trustee, opened with the trust's own taxpayer identification number (see Tax returns).

4. Show third parties your authority

Banks and title companies do not need to read the whole trust. Probate Code §18100.5 lets you give a certification of trust instead: a signed, notarized declaration by all acting trustees that can state that the trust exists, who the trustees are, their powers, whether the trust is revocable and how title should be taken. The certification does not have to include the dispositive provisions that say who inherits. For a house or other real property, an affidavit of death with a certified death certificate attached may be recorded in the county where the property sits to show the death of the original trustee in the title record (Probate Code §210). In Los Angeles County that is the Registrar-Recorder in Norwalk; see our Los Angeles living trust page for the recorder's address and office details.

By day 60: serve the §16061.7 notice

This is the deadline that matters most in the first 90 days. When a revocable trust, or any part of it, becomes irrevocable because a settlor dies, the successor trustee must serve a "notification by trustee" (Probate Code §16061.7(a)(1)). With a married couple's joint trust, the first death often makes the deceased spouse's share irrevocable, and that share triggers the notice even though the survivor's share stays revocable. Any one co-trustee may serve it (§16061.7(a)(4)).

The 60 days run from the death. If the death left the trustee's office vacant, as when the settlor was the only trustee, the 60 days run instead from the day the new trustee starts serving (§16061.7(f)). Most successor trustees take over within days, so the safe practice is to count from the date of death.

Who receives it

• Every beneficiary of the trust, or of the part that became irrevocable (§16061.7(b)(1)).
• Every heir of the person who died, even an heir the trust leaves nothing to (§16061.7(b)(2)). Heirs are the people who would inherit if there were no trust or will; see beneficiary vs. heir in California.
• The Attorney General, if the trust is a charitable trust under the Attorney General's supervision (§16061.7(b)(3)).

You may make a good faith determination of who the heirs are by any reasonable means (§16061.7(c)). You do not have to serve a person you cannot find after reasonable diligence (§16061.7(d)). Serve the notice at each person's last known address by a method allowed in Probate Code §1215 (§16061.7(e)): first-class mail (certified mail counts) or personal delivery. Service by mail is complete when the envelope is deposited in the mail (§1215(a)(4)), so keep a proof of mailing with the date.

What it must say

1. Who the settlor or settlors were and the date the trust was signed.
2. The name, address and telephone number of each trustee.
3. The physical address where the trust is administered.
4. Anything else the trust document requires the notice to contain.
5. That the recipient is entitled, on reasonable request, to a true and complete copy of the terms of the trust (§16061.7(g)).

Because the notice follows a death, it must also carry this warning, in a separate paragraph in at least 10-point bold type (§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."

When a beneficiary or heir asks for the trust, send it. Section 16061.5 requires a true and complete copy of the irrevocable trust to any beneficiary or heir who requests it, and §16060.7 gives every beneficiary the right to the trust terms on request.

Worked example

A settlor dies on March 3, 2026. Counting from the death, the notice is due by May 2, 2026, 60 days later. Suppose the trustee mails it on April 20, 2026. The 120-day contest period then runs to August 18, 2026. If the settlor's son asks for the trust and receives a copy on July 20, 2026, he has 60 days from that delivery, to September 18, 2026, because that date is later (§16061.8). The change in ownership statement for the house is due by July 31, 2026 (150 days), and a creditor's one-year period under Code of Civil Procedure §366.2 runs to March 3, 2027.

Skipping the notice does not save time. The contest period never starts for a person who was not served, and a trustee who fails to serve a beneficiary is responsible for all damages, attorney's fees and costs caused by the failure unless the trustee made a reasonably diligent effort to comply (§16061.9(a)). The settlor cannot waive the notice in the trust (§16061.7(i)).

Inventory and date-of-death values

California does not set a deadline for a trust inventory the way it does for a probate estate, but you need one for three reasons: the accounts you owe the beneficiaries start from it (§16063), the income tax basis of most inherited property is its fair market value on the date of death (Internal Revenue Code §1014(a)), and you cannot divide the trust fairly without values.

• Real property: a written appraisal as of the date of death. It sets the new basis for capital gains if the house is sold.
• Bank and brokerage accounts: date-of-death statements, titled to the trust or not. Accounts with a payable-on-death or beneficiary designation pass outside the trust; list them separately.
• Retirement accounts and life insurance: these pass by beneficiary designation. Note who the named beneficiary is; if it is the trust, the trustee claims them.
• Vehicles, business interests, collectibles: values from a dealer guide, a business appraiser or an appraiser of personal property.
• Debts: mortgage payoff, credit cards, medical bills, the funeral bill and any unpaid income tax.

Property that never made it into the trust

The trust controls only what it owns. Assets still in the person's own name do not pass under the trust until they get there, and the successor trustee has no authority over them as trustee. California gives several routes:

• Small estate affidavit: if the person's California property outside the trust and outside beneficiary designations is worth $208,850 or less, the successor can collect personal property with a Probate Code §13100 affidavit after 40 days, without a court filing. See our small estate affidavit guide.
• Primary residence petition: a primary residence worth $750,000 or less can pass by a §13151 petition for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. It is a court filing with a $435 filing fee ($450 in Riverside and San Francisco counties).
• §850 petition: when the person clearly meant an asset to be in the trust, for example the trust's asset schedule lists the house but no deed was recorded, the trustee may petition the court under Probate Code §850(a)(3)(B) to confirm that the trust owns it.
• Probate: anything larger goes through probate under the pour-over will. Estimate the statutory fees with the California probate cost calculator, and see how a pour-over will works.

Real property: assessor filings and Prop 19

A death is a change in ownership for property tax purposes unless an exclusion applies. When property passes through a trust, the trustee must file a change in ownership statement with the recorder or assessor in each county where the person owned real property, within 150 days after the death (Revenue and Taxation Code §480(b)). The county assessor's website has the form for a death.

• To a surviving spouse: no reassessment. Transfers to a trustee for the surviving spouse and transfers that take effect on the death of a spouse are interspousal transfers excluded by R&T §63.
• To children: under Proposition 19 a child keeps the parent's tax base only if a child makes the home a primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year, and only up to the old taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027. The claim, BOE-19-P, is due within three years of the death, or before the home is transferred to a third party if that comes first. Details are in our Prop 19 inheritance guide and living trusts and property tax.
• Other property: a rental or second home left to a child, or property left to anyone other than a spouse or child, is generally reassessed to current market value.

Debts and creditor claims

A revocable trust does not shield the settlor's property from the settlor's debts after death. Property that was subject to the power of revocation at death answers for the claims of the settlor's creditors and the expenses of a probate estate to the extent the probate estate cannot pay them (Probate Code §19001(a)). If there is not enough to pay everyone, the statutory order of payment in Probate Code §11420 applies to the trust as it does to a probate estate, and the trust cannot change that order (§19001(b)).

You have two ways to deal with creditors:

1. Wait out the one-year statute. An action on the person's debts generally must be brought within one year after the date of death (Code of Civil Procedure §366.2). Many trustees simply pay the known bills and hold a reserve until that year passes.
2. Use the trust claim procedure. If no probate has been opened, the trustee may file a proposed notice to creditors with the superior court, then publish and serve it (Probate Code §19003). Claims must then be filed within four months after the first publication or 60 days after actual notice is mailed or delivered to the creditor, whichever is later (§19100). This shortens the uncertainty but costs a court filing and publication.

Medi-Cal. If you know or have reason to believe the person who died, or a spouse who died before them, received Medi-Cal, the trustee must give the Director of Health Care Services notice of the death, and the department has four months after notice to file a claim (Probate Code §19202). Probate Code §215 also requires notice to the department, with a copy of the death certificate, within 90 days of the death from the beneficiary or the person in possession of the decedent's property. For deaths on or after January 1, 2017, Medi-Cal estate recovery reaches only the probate estate, and it generally does not apply when a spouse or registered domestic partner survives (Welfare and Institutions Code §14009.5). Property properly held in the trust is not part of the probate estate, but the notice is still required.

Do not pay a debt from your own money, and do not distribute property you may need to pay a valid claim.

Tax returns

• The person's final income tax returns: federal Form 1040 and California Form 540 for the year of death. A refund due on the final federal return is claimed with Form 1310.
• A taxpayer identification number for the trust: after the death the trust is a separate taxpayer. Every trust that must file Form 1041 needs its own employer identification number (EIN), issued immediately online at IRS.gov/EIN. Banks will ask for it when you open the trust account.
• Trust income tax returns: file federal Form 1041 for a trust with any taxable income or gross income of $600 or more for the year. File California Form 541 for a trust with gross income of more than $10,000 or net income of more than $100. For a calendar-year return, Form 1041 is due April 15 of the following year.
• The §645 election: the trustee, together with any executor, may elect on Form 8855 to treat the revocable trust as part of the estate for income tax purposes (Internal Revenue Code §645). It allows one combined return and a fiscal year; ask the return preparer whether it helps.
• Federal estate tax: the basic exclusion is $15,000,000 per person for deaths in 2026. Form 706 is due nine months after the death, with a six-month extension available. If a spouse survives, a 706 filed only to elect portability passes the unused exclusion to the survivor; when no return was otherwise required, Rev. Proc. 2022-32 allows that election up to five years after the death. California has no estate tax.

For what a revocable trust does and does not change for income and estate tax, see living trust tax rules in California.

Accountings to beneficiaries

The trustee must keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration (Probate Code §16060). The formal obligation is the account under §16062: at least once a year, when the trust ends, and when the trustee changes, to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is to be currently distributed. Each account must show (§16063):

1. Receipts and disbursements of principal and income for the period.
2. The assets and liabilities at the end of the period.
3. The trustee's compensation.
4. The agents the trustee hired, any relationship to the trustee, and what they were paid.
5. A statement that the beneficiary may petition the court under §17200 to review the account and the trustee's acts.
6. A statement that claims against the trustee for breach of trust may not be made more than three years after the beneficiary receives an account or report disclosing the facts.

The trust document can waive the account, and a beneficiary can waive it in writing, but a court can still order an account if a material breach of trust is reasonably likely (§16064). A complete written account protects you: under Probate Code §16460 a beneficiary who receives an account that adequately discloses a claim has three years from receipt to sue. Without one, the three years run from when the beneficiary discovered, or should have discovered, the claim. Keep the bank statements, receipts and appraisals behind every account.

Distribution and closing the trust

No statute fixes a date for final distribution. Before you distribute, confirm that:

• The 120-day contest period (or the later 60-day period after a copy was delivered) has run for everyone served. Section 16061.9(c) lets you consider an unexpired contest period when you decide the timing of distributions.
• Known debts are paid and you have a reserve for any claim still open, or the §19100 claim period or the one-year §366.2 period has passed.
• The final 1040 and 540 are filed, and you have kept enough to pay the trust's own income tax for the year of distribution.
• The beneficiaries have the final account, or have waived it in writing.

Then make the distributions exactly as the trust says. Specific gifts come first, then shares of the remainder. Real property goes to a beneficiary by a trustee's deed recorded with the county recorder, with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. No price is paid, and the deed states the transfer tax exemption claimed; the county tax does not apply to a transfer by reason of a death, outright or in trust (R&T §11930). City transfer taxes are separate ordinances. Confirm with the county recorder. Have each beneficiary sign a receipt for what they receive. File the last Form 1041 and Form 541, marked final, and close the trust account.

If the trust holds a share for a minor or a beneficiary who is not to receive it outright, the trust continues for that share and the duties above, including yearly accounts, continue with it.

The 90-day checklist

Deadlines at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

Legal Review By

Rozsa Gyene, Esq.

California State Bar #208356 | Licensed Since 2000

25+ years estate planning experience in California