What happens if you die without a will in California

California decides for you

When a California resident dies without a will or trust, they die intestate. The state does not leave the distribution of assets up to the family. California’s intestate succession laws, set out in Probate Code sections 6400-6414, dictate who inherits, in what proportions, and in what order. The surviving family members have very little say in the outcome unless they go through a court process.

The result is not always wrong, but it is rarely exactly right. California’s succession formula was written to cover a general population, not your specific family situation. And the process, a full probate proceeding, takes time and money regardless of what the outcome is.

Who inherits under California intestate succession

The distribution depends on who survives the decedent. California is a community property state, which creates a two-category analysis for married people.

Community property (assets acquired during the marriage with marital earnings) passes to the surviving spouse entirely. This part is simple.

Separate property (assets owned before marriage, or received as gifts or inheritance during marriage) is where the formula gets more complex:

• If there is a surviving spouse and no children: the spouse inherits all separate property.
• If there is a surviving spouse and one child: the spouse gets half the separate property; the child gets half.
• If there is a surviving spouse and two or more children: the spouse gets one-third of the separate property; the children split the remaining two-thirds equally.
• If there is no surviving spouse: the children inherit equally.
• If there are no children: the estate passes to parents, then to siblings, then to more distant relatives, in the order set by Probate Code 6402.

Unmarried partners receive nothing under California intestate succession. Cohabitating for 10 years does not create inheritance rights in California without a registered domestic partnership or a will or trust that names the partner as a beneficiary.

Common situations where intestate succession causes problems

Blended families. If you have children from a prior relationship and a current spouse, California law splits your separate property between them. Your spouse gets a fraction; your children from the prior relationship get the rest, proportionally. This may or may not reflect what you would have chosen, but it is what the formula produces.

Minor children. If your children are minors, their inheritance does not simply wait for them. The court appoints a guardian of the estate (which may or may not be the surviving parent, and may or may not be the same person as the guardian of the person) to manage the funds until the child turns 18, at which point they receive the full amount outright with no restrictions. Many parents would prefer a different arrangement.

Unmarried partners. As noted above, a long-term partner with no formal legal status receives nothing. The estate goes to the next eligible relative, which may be a parent, a sibling, or a more distant family member the decedent had no relationship with.

Estranged relatives. California’s succession law has no mechanism for excluding people you were estranged from. If your closest relative is a sibling you have not spoken to in 20 years, and you have no spouse, children, or parents, that sibling may inherit your estate.

Business interests. If you owned a business interest, California intestate law distributes that interest by the same formula as any other asset. Co-owners may find themselves in an unexpected ownership arrangement with someone else’s surviving relatives.

The probate requirement

Dying intestate in California does not avoid probate. It just means the probate court uses California law to determine the distribution rather than your written instructions. The estate still goes through the Superior Court, the statutory fees still apply, and the timeline is still 12-24 months for a typical estate.

If anything, intestate estates are more likely to have contested proceedings, because there is no document stating your intentions to anchor the process.

For more on what the probate process involves in San Diego County, see the probate page.

Specific assets that do not pass under intestate succession

Not everything is controlled by intestate law. Assets with beneficiary designations, like retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and accounts with payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designations, pass directly to the named beneficiary regardless of the intestate rules.

Property held in joint tenancy passes to the surviving joint tenant by operation of law, also outside of intestate succession.

This means an intestate estate is not necessarily a simple picture. Some assets flow by intestate law through probate. Others bypass it entirely. The interaction between these mechanisms can produce unexpected distributions if they were not coordinated intentionally.

What a will actually fixes

A will does not avoid probate, but it does let you decide who inherits instead of letting California decide for you. You can name specific beneficiaries, leave specific assets to specific people, name an executor you trust, designate a guardian for minor children, and add conditions or restrictions on distributions.

A will combined with a living trust avoids probate for trust assets while still giving you full control over the distribution. For most San Diego County homeowners, that combination is the standard estate plan.

For a comparison of the options, see the wills service page, or the estate planning page for the full coordinating document set.

The guardian question for parents

One thing only a will can do is nominate a guardian for minor children. A trust cannot do this. If you die without a will and leave minor children behind, a court determines who serves as their guardian. The court’s decision follows California law and is generally made in the child’s best interest, but it is not your decision.

Naming a guardian in a will is one of the most concrete reasons parents with young children should have at least a basic estate plan in place. The document does not have to be elaborate. It just has to exist.

Starting a plan in San Diego

If you do not have a will or trust in place, the path forward is straightforward. An estate planning attorney can draft a complete plan in a few weeks. The California State Bar at calbar.ca.gov maintains a referral service for finding a licensed attorney in San Diego County.

Trust Law SD connects San Diego County residents with local estate planning attorneys. Call (858) 925-5546 to get matched with an attorney who can review your situation and put a plan in place that reflects your actual wishes, rather than leaving it to the state’s default formula.

Does California have estate taxes for people who die without a will?

California does not have a state estate tax. The federal estate tax applies to estates above the federal exemption (over $13 million per individual as of 2024). Dying without a will does not affect the estate tax calculation.

Can family members contest California intestate distribution?

The intestate distribution formula is set by statute and generally cannot be contested simply because family members disagree with the outcome. If an heir believes an asset was not part of the decedent’s estate, or that a prior gift should be counted differently, there are legal avenues to raise those claims, but contesting the succession formula itself is not one of them.

How long does it take to settle an intestate estate in California?

An intestate estate that goes through full probate in California typically takes 12-24 months. Contested proceedings can take longer. The timeline is driven primarily by the mandatory court notice periods, the creditor claims window, and scheduling at the San Diego Superior Court.