San Jose Living Trust: Protecting RSUs, ISOs & Silicon Valley Estates
Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
A San Jose resident's estate that goes through probate is handled by the Probate Division at the Downtown Superior Court, 191 North First Street, where the first petition costs $435. On a home at the city's typical value of $1,362,808, statutory attorney and executor fees come to $53,256.16. A funded living trust keeps the home, and the brokerage account that holds your vested company shares, out of that courthouse.
To keep a San Jose home out of probate, sign a revocable living trust, record a deed moving the home into it with the Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder, and retitle your brokerage accounts to the trust. Equity awards follow your plan's beneficiary rules. Without a trust, attorney and executor fees on a home at the typical value of $1,362,808 total $53,256.16 under Probate Code §§10810 and 10800, before the $435 filing fee. Our attorney-prepared trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a couple.
Key Takeaways
Santa Clara County probate is heard at the Downtown Superior Court (DTS), 191 North First Street, San José. The Probate Clerk's Office is in Room 107, and attorneys must e-file probate papers.
The county's standard recording fee is $25.00 for the first page (including the $10.00 fraud prevention fee) and $3.00 for each additional page; its fee schedule posts $102.00 for the first page because it adds the $75 SB 2 fee and the $2 AB 1466 fee. The SB 2 fee is usually not charged on a deed of your own home into your trust when the owner-occupier exemption is claimed on the deed.
Inside San Jose city limits a sale carries a city conveyance tax of $1.65 per $500 on top of the county's $0.55, plus the Measure E tax above $2,300,000. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder.
Zillow's typical San Jose home value was $1,362,808 on August 31, 2026, so statutory probate fees on that home are $53,256.16. Every San Jose neighborhood in Zillow's file is above the $750,000 limit for the simplified primary residence petition.
Under Treasury Regulation §1.421-1(b)(2), moving an incentive stock option to a trust does not disqualify it if you are considered the sole beneficial owner of the option while the trust holds it, but your company's plan decides whether a transfer or a beneficiary designation is allowed.
Where Santa Clara County Probate Is Heard
Courthouse
Downtown Superior Court (DTS), Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
Address
191 North First Street, San José, CA 95113
Phone
Probate (408) 882-2654, Monday to Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to noon; email ssprobinfo@scscourt.org
Probate department
Probate Division; Probate Clerk's Office in Room 107
The Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, runs its Probate Division out of one building: the Downtown Superior Court on North First Street, which the court abbreviates DTS. The same courthouse hears civil and small claims matters. The court's probate page lists what the division handles, from transfers of property after a death and trust disputes to conservatorships, guardianships, adoptions and name changes, so the probate calendars at DTS carry far more than estates.
Estate matters are reviewed on paper before anyone stands before the judge. The court employs probate examiners who read each petition against the Probate Code, the probate rules in title 7 of the California Rules of Court and the court's Local Probate Rules, and who write a summary for the judge. The court posts Advance Case Status Reports for its General Probate and Administration of Estate calendars, generally two court days before the hearing and no later than 5:00 p.m. on the court day before. Those calendars are set at 9:00 a.m. and 9:01 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. A matter marked pre-approved needs no appearance by the petitioner; one that is not pre-approved shows the examiner's notes listing what is missing.
The court also has a probate staff attorney who reviews urgent and uncontested temporary petitions, ex parte petitions and hearings on shortened notice; appointments are made through (408) 882-2100. E-filing is mandatory for attorney-represented parties in probate cases, and since September 17, 2021 attorneys must e-file probate ex parte petitions as well (Local Probate Rule 2C). The clerk assigns a probate referee from the list on the court's website to appraise estate property, and the referee is paid a commission out of the estate. Every page of the petition, the inventory and the accounting becomes part of a public court file.
The court's own living trust page makes the point this office makes to every client: when a trust is funded, the successor trustee can usually act with the trust document and a death certificate, without going to court. When it is not funded, the family is back at 191 North First Street.
Recording a San Jose Trust Transfer Deed
Recorder
Office of the County Clerk-Recorder, County of Santa Clara
Address
110 West Tasman Drive, 1st Floor, San Jose, CA 95134. Recording hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
Phone
(408) 299-5688; Assessor's Public Service Unit (408) 299-5500 for PCOR forms and ownership questions
Recording fee
Standard fee $25.00 for the first page (including the $10.00 real estate fraud prevention fee) and $3.00 for each additional page. Add the $75.00 SB 2 fee unless exempt and the $2.00 restrictive covenant program fee (AB 1466): the county fee schedule posts the total as $102.00 for the first page. Exemptions must be cited on eligible documents. Confirm the current fee with the recorder before mailing.
SB 2 fee
$75.00 per title unless an exemption under Government Code §27388.1 is stated on the document; capped at $225 per transaction
PCOR
The Assessor requires a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A) with deeds; if a required PCOR is missing or incomplete the county charges $20.00 (R&T §480.3)
Moving your San Jose home into your own revocable trust does not reassess it. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says a transfer into a revocable trust is not a change in ownership, so the Santa Clara County Assessor keeps your current assessed value when the PCOR filed with the deed shows the transfer to your trust. The county documentary transfer tax is $0.00 on a transfer into the grantor's own revocable trust (R&T §11930), and the deed states the exemption.
The $75 SB 2 fee is usually not charged on a deed moving your own home into your trust because the owner-occupier exemption is claimed on the deed, under Government Code §27388.1(a)(2). It is charged on rentals, second homes and vacant land, capped at $225 per transaction. Santa Clara County's standard first page fee is $25.00; its fee schedule adds the $75 and the $2 AB 1466 fee to post $102.00, and requires the exemption to be cited on the document, so a deed for your residence that properly states the exemption costs $75 less than the posted figure. No recorder guarantees an exemption; the office reviews each claim.
From January 1, 2027, Assembly Bill 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) sets the statewide base recording fee at $15 for the first page and $4 for each additional page, so expect the Santa Clara County schedule to change then. The Clerk-Recorder notes that original real estate documents are always returned after recording, on average 8 to 10 weeks later, and that every deed conveying real property must carry the assessor's parcel number in the 000-00-000 format. Our office prepares the trust transfer deed for a separate $100 per property; you sign it before a notary and record it.
San Jose's own transfer taxes and a trust deed
Santa Clara County charges documentary transfer tax at $0.55 per $500 of value on a sale. For property in San Jose, Palo Alto and Mountain View the county also collects a city conveyance tax of $1.65 per $500, in addition to the county tax, at the time of recording. San Jose voters added a second layer on March 3, 2020: Measure E created Chapter 4.59 of the Municipal Code, a real property transfer tax on high value sales. Since July 1, 2025 it applies when the consideration exceeds $2,300,000, and the rate applies to the entire price:
Value of consideration
Measure E rate on the full amount
$2,300,000.01 to $5,000,000
0.75%
$5,000,000.01 to $10,000,000
1%
Over $10,000,000
1.5%
The county's own example: an $11,000,000 sale is taxed at 1.5% of the whole $11,000,000, or $165,000. The threshold is adjusted for inflation every five years. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. The county notes that claims of exemption from the San Jose city tax, and refunds, are handled by the City of San Jose's finance department, not by the recorder. A sale by your successor trustee after your death is a different matter: that is a sale, and the city taxes apply to it like any other.
What Probate Would Cost on a Typical San Jose Home
Zillow's typical home value for the city of San Jose was $1,362,808 on August 31, 2026 (Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier), slightly below the $1,371,409 of a year earlier. We use that figure for the math. Under Probate Code §10810 the attorney receives 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% of the next $9,000,000, figured on the gross value of the estate without subtracting the mortgage. Section 10800 gives the executor the same amount.
Court filing fee: $435 for the first petition (statewide fee; Santa Clara County adds no surcharge).
Probate referee: one tenth of one percent of the appraised property (Probate Code §8961), about $1,363 on this home.
Creditor period: four months after letters issue (Probate Code §9100), so no estate closes sooner.
That is about $53,256 in statutory fees alone, against $400 for a single person's trust or $500 for a couple's. The California probate fees guide explains the full schedule. Vested shares and brokerage accounts left in your own name are added to the gross estate at their value on the date of death, and the fee grows with them at 1% of each dollar between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. The small estate affidavit stops at $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and the Probate Code §13151 petition for a primary residence stops at $750,000, so neither shortcut fits a typical San Jose home.
The same math, neighborhood by neighborhood
Zillow publishes a typical value for 24 San Jose neighborhoods. The lowest in the August 31, 2026 file, Buena Vista at $780,928, is still above the $750,000 limit for the §13151 petition. The figures below are rounded to the dollar, with the combined attorney and executor fee under §§10810 and 10800.
Neighborhood (Zillow)
Typical value, Aug. 31, 2026
Attorney plus executor fee
Downtown
$958,786
$44,351.44
North San Jose
$1,052,797
$47,055.94
Blossom Valley
$1,343,412
$52,868.24
Berryessa
$1,543,459
$56,869.18
Rose Garden
$1,549,414
$56,988.28
Evergreen
$1,600,147
$58,002.94
Willow Glen
$1,734,843
$60,696.86
Almaden Valley
$2,072,973
$67,459.46
A condominium downtown and a house in Almaden Valley differ by more than $1,100,000 in typical value, but the fee difference is only about $23,000, because above $1,000,000 the statutory rate drops to 1%. The fee is the same whether the home is owned free and clear or carries a large mortgage.
San Jose Homes, Equity Awards and Your Trust
A city of a million, with county islands inside it
San Jose had 1,013,240 residents in the 2020 Census. It began as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in 1777, was incorporated on March 27, 1850, and covers about 181 square miles, much of it added by annexation in the 1950s and 1960s. That growth left unincorporated county land inside and beside the city. Burbank, along Bascom Avenue between West San Carlos Street and Interstate 280, is an unincorporated community entirely surrounded by San Jose, and East Foothills is a separate census-designated place east of downtown. Zillow lists both among its San Jose neighborhoods.
For a trust, the difference shows up on the deed and in the rules that follow the property. The county applies the San Jose conveyance tax only to property located within San Jose, and the city's Apartment Rent Ordinance excludes properties in unincorporated areas. A San Jose mailing address does not settle the question; the legal description and the assessor's parcel number do, and our deed uses both from your current vesting deed.
Company stock, RSUs and options: what the trust can hold
Much of the wealth in San Jose households is held as employer equity. Here is what a living trust can and cannot do with each kind of award, and where the rules come from.
Shares you already own. Once RSUs vest or options are exercised, the shares are delivered to a brokerage account in your name. That account can be retitled to you as trustee like any other brokerage account, and once it is, the shares pass to your beneficiaries under the trust without probate.
Unvested RSUs. An unvested award is a promise under your employer's plan, not shares you own. The plan document and your award agreement decide whether unvested units vest, pay out or are forfeited at death, and whether you may name a beneficiary for them. Read both, and list each award in the questionnaire.
Incentive stock options. Federal law requires an ISO, by its terms, to be nontransferable except by will or the laws of descent and distribution, and exercisable during your life only by you (26 U.S.C. §422(b)(5)). Treasury Regulation §1.421-1(b)(2) adds two points that matter for estate planning: a plan provision letting you designate who may exercise the option after your death does not disqualify it, and moving the option to a trust does not disqualify it if you are treated as the sole beneficial owner of the option while it is held in the trust under section 671 and applicable state law. Whether your plan allows either step is up to the plan.
After your death. Under Treasury Regulation §1.421-2(c), when your estate, or a person who acquired the option by bequest or inheritance or by reason of your death, exercises an incentive stock option, the exercise is treated as if you had exercised it. That treatment holds even if the stock is sold before the usual holding periods end and even if the option is not exercised within three months after your death, provided you met the regulation's employment requirement (§1.421-1(h)) at your death or within three months before. The plan still sets the deadline to exercise after death, so the person named to act needs to know where the award agreement is.
None of this replaces the plan's beneficiary form. If your plan lets you name a beneficiary, that designation controls the award no matter what the trust says, so name the trust or the same people the trust names, and keep a copy with your estate papers.
Rent-stabilized apartments and the Rent Registry
Many San Jose owners hold a small apartment building as well as a home. The city's Apartment Rent Ordinance covers apartments in buildings of three or more units built and occupied before September 7, 1979, about 38,000 apartments by the city's count, and limits rent increases to one 5% increase in a 12-month period. Single family homes, ADUs, duplexes, condominiums, townhomes and units first rented after September 7, 1979 are exempt, as are properties in unincorporated areas. Owners of covered apartments must update the city's Rent Registry every year, and the city says apartments not registered by the deadline are ineligible for annual rent increases until registration is complete.
Putting the building into your trust does not change its coverage. It does mean your successor trustee steps into the owner's duties on your death or incapacity, including the annual registry update, so the trust's funding notes should say where the registry login and the rent records are kept. The building is its own deed and its own PCOR, and the SB 2 fee is charged on it because it is a rental, not your residence.
Mobilehomes on rented spaces
San Jose has regulated mobilehome park rents since 1979. The Mobilehome Rent Ordinance covers spaces whose plumbing, electrical and sewer permits were issued before September 7, 1979; it limits annual space rent increases to 75% of the change in the San Francisco-Oakland consumer price index, with a minimum of 3% and a maximum of 7%, and with a few exceptions the rent may not be raised when the mobilehome is sold or transferred. A mobilehome on a rented space is not land you own, so a trust transfer deed does not reach it. If you own one, list it separately in the questionnaire so the funding instructions cover it.
Older tax bases and Proposition 19
A trust does not change Proposition 19. For transfers from February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027, a parent to child transfer of a family home keeps the old taxable value only if the child makes it his or her principal residence, and only up to the old value plus $1,044,586, per the Board of Equalization. As a hypothetical, a home worth the typical $1,362,808 with a taxable value of $300,000 exceeds $1,344,586 ($300,000 plus $1,044,586) by $18,222, so the child's new taxable value would be $318,222. A rental or a second home does not qualify. See the Proposition 19 inheritance rules for the details.
What happens to property left out of the trust
The Santa Clara County court's trust page answers the question families ask most after a death: if the property was listed on a schedule when the trust was created but the title was never changed, the trustee can petition the court under Probate Code §17200 to have it included in the trust. That works, but it is a court petition with a hearing at DTS, which is what the trust was meant to avoid. The court also tells families how to check: whether a house is held in a trust can be found through the Clerk-Recorder or the Assessor's Public Service Unit at (408) 299-5500. Bank and brokerage accounts are harder to trace, which is one more reason to retitle them while you can.
How to Create and Fund a Living Trust in San Jose
Answer the questionnaireList each Santa Clara County parcel you own and how title is held today, your bank and brokerage accounts, each employer equity plan, your beneficiaries and your successor trustee. Most people finish the questionnaire in 20 to 30 minutes.
Attorney preparation and reviewRozsa Gyene, California State Bar #208356, prepares and reviews the trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney and advance health care directive from your answers.
Sign before a notarySign the trust documents before a California notary public anywhere in San Jose or Santa Clara County. A deed must be acknowledged, normally before a notary, before the recorder will accept it.
Record the deed with the Santa Clara County Clerk-RecorderRecord the trust transfer deed with the Clerk-Recorder at 110 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report and, for your home, the SB 2 owner-occupier exemption stated on the deed. Our office prepares the deed for $100 per property; you record it.
Retitle bank and brokerage accountsAsk each bank and brokerage, including the account where vested company shares are delivered, to change the owner to you as trustee of your trust, using the certification of trust instead of the full trust.
Review beneficiary designations and equity plansRetirement accounts, life insurance and employer equity awards pass by their own beneficiary forms and plan rules, not by the trust. Read each plan document for what happens to unvested RSUs and options at death and whether you may name a beneficiary, and keep each form consistent with your trust.
Advance health care directive with HIPAA authorization
Certification of trust
Assignment of personal property
Personal property memorandum
Funding instructions
The package is $400 for one person and $500 for a couple. A trust transfer deed is a separate $100 per property, prepared by our office for you to record with the Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder. You can reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071, and you can sign before any California notary in Santa Clara County. See what a California living trust costs for how our pricing compares.
San Jose Living Trust Questions
How much does probate cost for a San Jose home?
Zillow's typical home value for San Jose was $1,362,808 on August 31, 2026. On that value the statutory attorney fee under Probate Code §10810 is $26,628.08 and the executor fee under §10800 is the same, so the two together come to $53,256.16. The fee is figured on the gross value, so a mortgage does not reduce it. The first petition costs $435 to file, and the probate referee's commission is one tenth of one percent of the property appraised, about $1,363 on that home. A funded living trust avoids these costs for the assets it holds, for a $400 trust plus a $100 deed (single) or a $500 trust plus a $100 deed (joint).
Can a living trust handle my RSUs, ISOs, and stock options?
Partly, and the plan documents decide the rest. Vested shares sitting in a brokerage account can be retitled to your trust like any other account. Unvested RSUs and stock options are governed by your company's plan and award agreement, which say whether they can be transferred, whether you can name a beneficiary, and how long anyone has to exercise after your death. For incentive stock options, federal law requires the option to be nontransferable except by will or the laws of descent and distribution (26 U.S.C. §422(b)(5)), but Treasury Regulation §1.421-1(b)(2) says a plan provision letting you name who may exercise after your death does not disqualify the option, and neither does moving it to a trust while you are considered the sole beneficial owner of the option. List every plan in the questionnaire so your trust and your plan beneficiary forms point the same way.
Where is the probate court for San Jose?
Santa Clara County probate is heard at the Downtown Superior Court (DTS), 191 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95113. The Probate Clerk's Office is in Room 107, and the court lists the probate phone line as (408) 882-2654, Monday to Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Friday 8:30 a.m. to noon. Attorneys must e-file in probate cases. A funded living trust keeps the assets it holds out of that court file, which is public.
Do I pay San Jose transfer tax or Measure E tax when I deed my home into my trust?
The county documentary transfer tax is $0.00 on a transfer into the grantor's own revocable trust under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930, and the deed states that exemption on its face. Inside city limits San Jose adds a conveyance tax of $1.65 per $500 and, since July 1, 2025, a Measure E tax only where the consideration exceeds $2,300,000. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. The county says claims of exemption from the San Jose city tax are handled by the City of San Jose's finance department, not by the recorder.
Will my property tax go up when I put my San Jose home in my trust?
No. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says a transfer into a revocable trust is not a change in ownership, so the Santa Clara County Assessor keeps your existing assessed value. File a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with the deed; the county adds a $20 fee when a required PCOR is missing or incomplete.
Is the $75 SB 2 recording fee charged on my trust deed?
It depends on the property. The $75 SB 2 fee is usually not charged on a deed moving your own home into your trust because the owner-occupier exemption under Government Code §27388.1(a)(2) is claimed on the deed. It is charged on rentals, second homes and vacant land, capped at $225 per transaction. Santa Clara County's standard first page fee is $25.00, and its fee schedule adds the $75 SB 2 fee and the $2 AB 1466 fee to post $102.00; it says exemptions must be cited on eligible documents. No county guarantees the exemption.
What if I die before my San Jose house is deeded into the trust?
The Santa Clara County court's trust page explains that if the property was listed on a schedule when the trust was created but title was never changed, the trustee can petition the court under Probate Code §17200 to have it treated as trust property. That is a court hearing, with a filing fee and notice, so it is far better to record the deed while you are alive. Anyone can check whether a house is held in a trust through the Clerk-Recorder or the Assessor's Public Service Unit at (408) 299-5500.
