Santa Monica Living Trust: Protecting Silicon Beach Tech Wealth
Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Zillow's typical Santa Monica home value is above $1.6 million, and some owners here also hold stock from an employer. If the house is still in your own name when you die, the case goes to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown, not the courthouse on Main Street, and statutory attorney and executor fees on a typical $1,667,060 Santa Monica home reach $59,341.20. An attorney-prepared living trust costs $400 for one person or $500 for a couple.
A Santa Monica home goes into a revocable living trust by a deed recorded with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, and once it is there it skips probate. Left in your own name, a home at Zillow's August 2026 typical value for the city, $1,667,060, would be probated at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, and Probate Code §10810 and §10800 put the attorney and executor fees at $59,341.20 combined. The deed into your trust owes no county or Santa Monica transfer tax (SMMC §6.96.010, §6.96.020). Our trust is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple.
Key Takeaways
The Santa Monica Courthouse at 1725 Main Street does not hear probate. Los Angeles County probate is filed in the Central District and heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street.
Zillow's typical Santa Monica home value was $1,667,060 on August 31, 2026. On that value the attorney's fee is $29,670.60 and the executor's is the same, $59,341.20 together.
Santa Monica adds its own transfer tax on sales, with a Measure GS tier of $56.00 per $1,000 at $8 million and up, but that tax is adopted under the state documentary transfer tax law (SMMC §6.96.010) and reaches only realty sold (SMMC §6.96.020), so a deed into your own living trust owes no city tax.
Owners of rent-controlled property must register a change in how title is held with Santa Monica Rent Control within 30 days, and a deed into a trust is such a change.
The closest county office that records deeds is LAX/Courthouse, 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard.
Attorney-prepared trust: $400 single, $500 married couple. Each deed is $100 more.
Where a Santa Monica Estate Is Probated
Courthouse
Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Stanley Mosk Courthouse
Address
111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone
(213) 830-0800; court call centers answer 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
Department
Assigned when the petition is filed. Mosk departments were renumbered to match room numbers on May 4, 2026 (old Department 18 is now 308, old 29 is now 240), so check the current number before any hearing.
Not a probate court
Santa Monica Courthouse, 1725 Main Street
Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles.
Many people in Santa Monica assume that an estate would be handled at the courthouse on Main Street, a few blocks from City Hall. It would not. Probate is not among the matters heard there. Local Rule 2.3 of the Los Angeles Superior Court assigns probate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship cases to the Central District, which means a petition for a Santa Monica decedent is filed and heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse on North Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. The Santa Monica Freeway, which begins in Santa Monica, runs between the two.
The court changed its department numbers at Mosk on May 4, 2026, so each department now carries its room number. A probate notice, minute order or website printout from before that date may show a number that no longer exists. If someone in the family is already named in a Los Angeles County probate, look the case up again on the court's site to get the current department.
A probate for a house in Sunset Park or North of Montana follows the same path as any other: a petition for letters, a notice published in a newspaper, an appraisal by a probate referee the court appoints, a creditor claim period of at least four months after letters issue, and a petition for final distribution. The first petition costs $435 to file under the statewide fee schedule in effect since January 1, 2026, and the papers are public record, including the inventory that values the house.
A funded trust takes the property out of that process. The successor trustee you name gathers the assets, pays the final bills, gives the notices the Probate Code requires of trustees, and signs the deed that transfers the house to your beneficiaries. Nothing is filed with the court unless someone has a dispute. For how the downtown courtrooms are organized, see our article on Los Angeles County probate judges and departments.
Recording the Deed and Santa Monica's Transfer Tax
Recorder
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
Nearest office that records
LAX/Courthouse, 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard, 6th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90045 (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday)
Main office
12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90650 (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday). Van Nuys and Lancaster also record.
By mail
Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250. Do not mail to district offices.
Phone
(800) 201-8999 (Recorder/County Clerk)
Recording fee
For a deed: $15.00 base for the first page, $3.00 for each additional page, plus a $7.00 fraud notification fee and the $2.00 AB 1466 fee. The county's quitclaim deed schedule also lists a $10.00 District Attorney real estate fraud fee that applies only to a quitclaim deed not subject to transfer tax.
SB 2 fee
$75.00 per document, at most $225 per transaction (Government Code §27388.1), unless an exemption is declared on the document or the county's SB 2 cover page.
PCOR
A deed recorded without a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A) may be charged a $20.00 fee in lieu (Revenue and Taxation Code §480.3(b)).
Santa Monica City Hall does not record deeds. Every Santa Monica parcel is recorded by the county, and of the four county offices that take documents for recording, the LAX/Courthouse office on La Cienega Boulevard is the closest. The main office in Norwalk is open longer hours. Mail goes only to Norwalk.
The trust you sign does not by itself change who owns the house. The deed does that: you, as owner, grant the property to yourself as trustee, using the legal description and Assessor's Parcel Number from your current vesting deed. A Preliminary Change of Ownership Report goes with it, and on that form you check the box for a transfer into a revocable trust. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says that transfer is not a change in ownership, so the Assessor keeps your Proposition 13 base year value and issues no supplemental bill. Our living trust property tax guide goes through the PCOR line by line.
The $75 SB 2 fee
Government Code §27388.1 adds $75 to most recorded real estate documents. On a deed that moves your own home into your trust, the fee is usually not charged, because the owner-occupier exemption in §27388.1(a)(2) is claimed on the face of our deeds. A deed for a rental building, a second home or vacant land does not qualify and pays $75, up to $225 for a single transaction. Santa Monica has far more renters than owners. If you own a duplex or an apartment building along with the house you live in, plan on the fee for each of those deeds.
Santa Monica's documentary transfer tax and Measure GS
Santa Monica is one of five cities in the county that the Registrar-Recorder lists with their own transfer tax rates; the others are Culver City, Los Angeles, Pomona and Redondo Beach. The county collects the city's share along with its own $0.55 per $500 at recording. According to the City's Finance Department, the city tax is $3.00 per $1,000 of value on transfers under $5 million and $6.00 per $1,000 from $5 million to $7,999,999.99. Measure GS, approved by Santa Monica voters on November 8, 2022, added a third tier beginning March 1, 2023: $56.00 per $1,000 on properties valued at $8 million or more. The City's own example is an $8 million transfer that owes $448,000 in city tax and $8,800 in county tax, which shows the higher rate is applied to the full value, not just the amount above the threshold.
None of that applies to a deed into your own trust. There is no sale and no consideration. The city ordinance, Municipal Code §6.96.020, taxes deeds by which realty sold within the City is conveyed, and §6.96.090(a) has the County Recorder administer it in conformity with the state documentary transfer tax law. Section 6.96.010 says the chapter is adopted under that same law, Part 6.7 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, and §6.96.020 measures value without any loan that stays on the property, so a deed into your own trust with nothing paid owes no city tax. For exemptions, the City's transfer tax page refers owners to the County Registrar-Recorder's notice of exempt transactions, and that notice lists a conveyance transferring an interest into or out of a living trust, under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930, with the statement that must be printed on the deed. Our deeds show $0.00 for both the county and the city and carry that statement. What a trust does not do is change the tax on a later sale. If your successor trustee sells a North of Montana house after your death, the sale is taxed at whichever tier its price falls in, the same as if you had sold it. Questions about the city tax go to the City's Treasury staff at treasury@santamonica.gov or (310) 458-8741.
We prepare the trust transfer deed and the PCOR for $100 per property; you record it, at a county counter or by mail. Fees go up in 2027. AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) raises the statutory base recording fee under Government Code §27361(a) from $10 to $15.00 for the first page and from $3 to $4.00 for each additional page from January 1, 2027, and county add-ons still apply on top. In a notice dated September 24, 2026, the Registrar-Recorder said the new fees will apply to documents it receives on or after January 1, 2027, subject to Board approval and notice, and that it will stop charging penalty print, nonconforming page, referencing and indexing fees. Our trust transfer deed guide explains the form.
Probate Fees on a Typical Santa Monica Home
The figure used here is Zillow's Home Value Index for the City of Santa Monica: $1,667,060 on August 31, 2026. It is a typical value, not a ceiling, and Santa Monica's neighborhoods spread far on either side of it. Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee as a percentage of the gross estate, so the mortgage is not subtracted: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% of the next $9 million. Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same amount.
Court filing fee: $435 for the first petition (statewide fee; Los Angeles County has no surcharge).
Probate referee: one-tenth of one percent of the property appraised (Probate Code §8961), about $1,667 on this home.
Creditor period: four months after letters issue (Probate Code §9100), the shortest any estate can stay open.
The shortcuts do not reach Santa Monica values. The small estate affidavit under Probate Code §13100 is limited to $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and the §13151 petition for a primary residence stops at $750,000. Even Mid-City, the lowest of the city's neighborhoods in Zillow's August 2026 data at $1,003,149, is well above that. At the other end, Zillow's typical value for North of Montana was $4,955,297, where the same statute produces $62,552.97 for each side, $125,105.94 together. Against either number, a trust is $400 for a single person and $500 for a married couple. Our California probate fees guide covers the costs that come on top of the statutory fees.
Rent Control, Neighborhoods and Tech Equity
A small city surrounded by Los Angeles
Santa Monica incorporated on November 30, 1886, and counted 93,076 residents in the 2020 Census on about 8.4 square miles of land. The City of Los Angeles surrounds it on every side but the ocean: Pacific Palisades to the north, Venice to the south, and Brentwood and West Los Angeles to the east. That boundary matters when you list property for your trust. A house with a Santa Monica mailing address can sit inside Los Angeles, and the city line decides which city transfer tax applies on a sale and whether Santa Monica Rent Control covers a rental. The deed into the trust should copy the legal description and parcel number from your current deed, not a street address.
Rent control and the Rent Control Board
Santa Monica's rent control is written into the City Charter as Article XVIII and run by an elected Rent Control Board. In the 2010 Census, renters occupied 33,602 of the city's occupied homes, about 72 percent, against 13,315 owner-occupied homes. If you own a rental here, the Charter attaches duties to ownership that do not stop when title moves into a trust.
First, registration. The City requires owners of controlled property to register their ownership with Rent Control within 30 days of taking title or whenever there is a change in how title is held. The City's own example of such a change is a transfer to a trust. The ownership registration form asks for the trust's name and the name of the trustee, the date the most recent deed was recorded with the County, and the name of the owner before the change; at least one owner must sign the original, and faxed, emailed or photocopied forms are not accepted. Forms go to Santa Monica Rent Control, 1685 Main Street, Room 202, Santa Monica, CA 90401, or through the City's online portal, and staff answer at (310) 458-8751. The Board bills an annual registration fee for each controlled unit in late June, generally due by August 1.
Second, the owner-occupancy rules. The Charter exempts units in an owner-occupied building of three units or fewer, but only when the owner is a natural person holding a 50 percent interest who lives on the property as a principal residence, and the exemption ends when that owner moves out. For an eviction so the owner or a listed relative can move in, the Charter defines the landlord as a natural person with at least a 50 percent ownership interest, and Board Regulation 9002 adds that no corporation, partnership, trust company or association can be the landlord for that purpose. The Board's regulation on the exemption itself, Regulation 2001, goes further: no corporation, trust, partnership, limited partnership or association can be considered an owner-occupant. That wording does not distinguish a revocable trust you control and live in, and we have not found a Board ruling on that point, so a deed into your trust may put the exemption at risk. If you rely on the owner-occupancy exemption, or might want to move a family member into a unit, ask the Board how it treats a building held in your revocable trust before the deed records, and tell us about it in the questionnaire.
Third, your successor trustee. When you die, the trustee steps into your shoes as landlord, and the leases, deposits and rent ledger must follow. The registration should then be updated again to show the successor trustee. Our rental property and living trust guide explains how leases and deposits move with the building.
Neighborhood values
Zillow tracks home values for the city's neighborhoods. On August 31, 2026 its typical values were $4,955,297 in North of Montana, $2,818,558 in Northeast Santa Monica, $2,257,041 in Sunset Park, $1,846,588 in the Pier Area and Ocean Avenue, $1,291,204 in Wilshire/Montana, $1,263,689 in Ocean Park, $1,166,777 in the Pico District, $1,066,233 in Downtown and around the Third Street Promenade, and $1,003,149 in Mid-City. Two practical points follow. The higher the value, the more the statutory fee scale takes, since the 1% bracket runs all the way to $10 million. And in the north end of town a sale can cross the $5 million and $8 million transfer tax lines, a cost for your successor trustee to weigh before listing a house; the trust does not avoid it. Condominium owners should add one more document to the list: after the deed records, send the homeowners association a copy, or the certification of trust, so dues statements and notices go to you as trustee.
Silicon Beach and employer stock
Santa Monica is part of the area known as Silicon Beach. The city is home to the headquarters of companies including Snap, Hulu, Universal Music Group, Lionsgate, Illumination, the Recording Academy and the RAND Corporation, along with many venture-funded startups. For people who work at one of them, the largest asset after the house is often equity compensation, and a living trust treats each kind differently.
Vested shares in a brokerage account can be retitled to you as trustee like any other investment account; the brokerage will ask for the certification of trust.
Unvested RSUs, stock options and ESPP rights are controlled by the employer's equity plan and your grant agreement. Many plans bar transfers during your lifetime and say what happens to unvested awards at death. Read those documents, and if the plan administrator lets you name a beneficiary, decide whether that should be the trust.
Startup shares held directly may need company consent or a stock power to transfer, and some shareholder agreements restrict transfers to trusts. List them in the questionnaire with the company's name.
401(k), IRA and deferred compensation accounts pass by beneficiary designation, not by the trust. Check each form and the contingent beneficiary line.
The trust package we prepare is a standard revocable trust. It does not draft plan-specific provisions for equity awards; if your equity is the bulk of your estate, call us at (818) 337-4071 before you start so we can tell you whether the package fits.
When your children inherit
Proposition 19 limits what a trust can protect at the Assessor's office. Your children keep your Proposition 13 value on the family home only if one of them moves in as a primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year. Even then the protection is capped at your taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027. An example on the rule itself: if your taxable value is $500,000 and the house is worth Sunset Park's typical $2,257,041 when it passes, a child who moves in keeps protection up to $1,544,586 of value, and the new taxable value becomes $1,212,455. If no child moves in, the house is reassessed at full market value. The claim form, BOE-19-P, is filed with the Los Angeles County Assessor within three years. For a rental building, the parent and child exclusion does not apply at all. What the trust can do is say which child may keep the house and how the others are compensated. See our Prop 19 inheritance guide.
How to Create and Fund a Living Trust in Santa Monica
Fill in the online questionnaireTell us about your family, your Santa Monica house, condominium or rental building, any equity awards from your employer, your accounts, and who should act as successor trustee and as guardian for minor children. Your answers save as you go.
Your documents are drafted and reviewed by the attorneyCalifornia attorney Rozsa Gyene prepares the trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive and certification of trust from your answers and reviews the full set before it reaches you.
Sign with a notary and two witnesses for the willA California notary, in Santa Monica or anywhere else in the state, notarizes your signatures on the trust and the power of attorney. Two adult witnesses sign the pour-over will together; the signing instructions explain each page.
Record the deed with Los Angeles CountyRecord a deed from you to yourself as trustee with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, in person at the LAX/Courthouse or Norwalk office or by mail, with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. The deed shows $0.00 county and city transfer tax and cites Revenue and Taxation Code §11930.
Update the Rent Control registration for a controlled buildingIf the property has rent-controlled units, file a new ownership registration with Santa Monica Rent Control within 30 days, naming the trust and you as trustee, and give tenants the trustee's contact details for rent and notices.
Retitle accounts and check beneficiary formsUse the certification of trust to put bank and brokerage accounts in your name as trustee. Leave 401(k), IRA, pension and life insurance accounts in your name and confirm each beneficiary form, contingent beneficiary included, matches the plan.
Advance health care directive with HIPAA authorization
Certification of trust
Assignment of personal property
Personal property memorandum
Funding instructions
The price is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple, plus $100 for each deed, whether for your home or a rental building. You reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071. The office is at 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505, but there is no need to come in; you sign before a California notary of your choosing. To compare our fee with other options, read what a California living trust costs.
Santa Monica Living Trust FAQ
Does the Santa Monica Courthouse on Main Street hear probate?
No. The Santa Monica Courthouse at 1725 Main Street does not hear probate. Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.3 sends probate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship filings to the Central District, so a Santa Monica estate is handled at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, in downtown Los Angeles. The court renumbered the Mosk departments on May 4, 2026, so a notice that still shows Department 18 or 29 now means Department 308 or 240.
What would probate cost on a typical Santa Monica home?
Zillow put the typical Santa Monica home value at $1,667,060 on August 31, 2026. On that gross value Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee at $29,670.60, and §10800 gives the executor the same, $59,341.20 together, with nothing subtracted for the mortgage. The first petition costs another $435 to file and the probate referee takes about $1,667. A living trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
Does Santa Monica's transfer tax, including Measure GS, apply when I deed my house into my trust?
No tax is due on that deed. Santa Monica's own tax runs $3.00 per $1,000 below $5 million, $6.00 per $1,000 from $5 million to $7,999,999.99, and, under Measure GS since March 1, 2023, $56.00 per $1,000 at $8 million or more. Santa Monica's tax is adopted under the state documentary transfer tax law, Part 6.7 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code (SMMC §6.96.010), and it taxes only deeds of realty sold, valued without any loan that stays on the property (SMMC §6.96.020). A deed into your own revocable trust sells nothing, and the County Registrar-Recorder's notice lists a conveyance into or out of a living trust under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930. The deed shows $0.00 and prints that exemption statement on its face.
Where do I record a trust transfer deed for Santa Monica property?
With the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk; the City of Santa Monica does not record deeds. Four county offices record documents: the main office at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk, the LAX/Courthouse office at 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard, 6th Floor, which is the closest to Santa Monica, Van Nuys and Lancaster. By mail, send the deed to the Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250.
I own a rent-controlled building in Santa Monica. What changes when it goes into my trust?
The Rent Control Board needs to hear about it. The City requires owners of controlled property to register ownership within 30 days of taking title or whenever there is a change in how title is held, and the City gives a transfer to a trust as an example of such a change. If a trust owns the property, the registration form asks for the trust's name and the name of the trustee, plus the date the latest deed was recorded and the prior owner's name. The annual per-unit fee is billed in late June and is generally due by August 1.
Will putting my Santa Monica duplex in a trust affect an owner-occupancy exemption or an owner move-in?
Raise it before you record. The City Charter exempts units in an owner-occupied building of three units or fewer only when the owner is a natural person with a 50 percent interest who lives there, and the exemption ends when the owner moves out. For an owner move-in eviction the Charter defines the landlord as a natural person with at least a 50 percent interest, and Board Regulation 9002 rules out corporations, partnerships, trust companies and associations. For the owner-occupancy exemption, Board Regulation 2001 says no corporation, trust, partnership, limited partnership or association can be considered an owner-occupant. Neither regulation says how the Board treats a revocable trust that you control and live in, so ask the Rent Control Board before the deed records.
Can my trust hold RSUs and stock options from a Santa Monica employer?
Vested shares sitting in a brokerage account can be moved into an account titled in your name as trustee. Unvested restricted stock units, incentive and nonqualified stock options and ESPP purchase rights are governed by the employer's equity plan, which usually limits transfers during your lifetime and says what happens at death. Read the plan and the grant agreement, and check whether the plan administrator lets you name a beneficiary. Retirement accounts and life insurance follow their beneficiary forms, not the trust.
How does Proposition 19 affect a Santa Monica house my children inherit?
A trust avoids probate but does not stop reassessment. A child keeps your Proposition 13 value only if a child moves in as a primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year. For transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027 the protection is capped at your taxable value plus $1,044,586, and anything above that is added. The BOE-19-P claim goes to the Los Angeles County Assessor within three years. If no child moves in, the house is reassessed at market value.
