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Estate planning, probate and your home
What happens to a San Diego home when the owner dies: probate, living and irrevocable trusts, intestate succession, Medi-Cal recovery and reverse mortgages.
Not legal or tax advice. This page is general information about California and San Diego County rules as of 2026. Laws, amounts and deadlines change. Confirm with the agency and talk to a licensed attorney or CPA before acting.
The court process
Probate
When it is needed
- Assets in the person's name alone with no beneficiary
- California small estate limit: $208,850 (deaths on or after April 1, 2025)
- A primary home up to $750,000 can use a simpler court petition (AB 2016) instead of full probate
What passes outside probate
- Property in a trust
- Joint tenancy and community property with right of survivorship
- Transfer on death deeds
- Payable-on-death accounts, life insurance, retirement accounts with beneficiaries
Cost and time
- Statutory fees: 4% of the first $100k, 3% of the next $100k, 2% of the next $800k, for both the attorney and the executor
- Often 9 to 18 months
Living vs. irrevocable
Trusts
Revocable living trust
- You stay in control and can change it
- Avoids probate and keeps things private
- Plans for incapacity (successor trustee steps in)
- Does not protect assets from creditors or Medi-Cal eligibility rules while you are alive
- Property keeps your Prop 13 value and homeowners exemption
Irrevocable trust
- Hard or impossible to change
- Can remove assets from your estate for tax or long-term care planning
- Transfers into it can affect Medi-Cal eligibility; ask an elder law attorney about look-back rules
- Needs an attorney; mistakes are expensive
Do not forget
- Record a deed into the trust; a trust with no deed does nothing for the house
- Name successor trustees
- Prop 19: inherited homes keep the low tax base only if a child lives there as a primary residence and files within 1 year
No will, no trust
Does the state take everything?
No. If someone dies without a will in California, their property goes to relatives in an order set by law (intestate succession, Probate Code 6400 and following): spouse or partner and children first, then parents, siblings, grandparents, nieces and nephews and more distant relatives. Community property goes to the surviving spouse. The state only takes the property (it "escheats") if no relative can be found, and even then it is usually sold and the money held so heirs can claim it later.
How does the government find out?
- A death certificate is filed with the county and reported to Social Security.
- Someone (family, a creditor, a landlord) files a probate petition with the court.
- If no one steps forward, hospitals, care homes, the Medical Examiner or landlords can refer the estate to the County Public Administrator, who investigates assets.
- Unpaid property taxes: after 5 years of default, the Tax Collector can sell the home at a tax sale.
- Medi-Cal (DHCS) must be notified within 90 days of the death of someone who received Medi-Cal, if there is a probate.
- Unclaimed bank accounts and property go to the State Controller; search at ucpi.sco.ca.gov.
Long-term care
Medi-Cal and Medicare: can they take the house?
Medicare
- Federal health insurance for 65+
- Does not do estate recovery
- Does not pay for long-term custodial care
Medi-Cal estate recovery
- California may recover what it paid for nursing home and long-term care for people 55+
- Since 2017 it can only recover from the probate estate
- A home of modest value (below 50% of the county median) is exempt
- Recovery is deferred while a surviving spouse or partner is alive, and is waived for a child under 21 or a blind or disabled child
- Hardship waivers are available (form DHCS 6195)
Trusts and Medi-Cal
- A home in a revocable living trust is not part of the probate estate, so it is generally outside estate recovery
- Your home is exempt for eligibility while you or a spouse live there or intend to return
- 2026 asset limit is back: $130,000 per person plus $65,000 per additional household member (the home is exempt)
Can they force a sale?
- DHCS files a claim in probate; it does not seize the house while a spouse lives there
- The claim can be paid from the estate, by heirs, or from a sale
- Heirs can ask for a hardship waiver or deferral
HECM reverse mortgages
Reverse mortgages, trusts and heirs
When it comes due
- When the last borrower dies, sells or moves out for 12+ months
- Lender sends a due-and-payable notice; heirs should respond within 30 days
- Heirs usually get 6 months to sell or refinance, plus up to two 90-day extensions
What heirs can do
- Sell and keep any equity
- Pay off the lesser of the balance or 95% of appraised value to keep the house
- Sign a deed in lieu if underwater; it is non-recourse, so heirs never owe more than the house is worth
Married couples
- Both on the loan: the survivor keeps living there with no payments
- Eligible non-borrowing spouse (married at closing and named): can stay, but must certify within 30 days
- Spouse not on the loan and not eligible: loan comes due
Living trusts
- HUD allows homes held in a revocable living trust if borrowers are the beneficiaries and trustees
- At death, the successor trustee deals with the lender
- Call 800-CALL-FHA for HUD help
Next steps
Get the right help
- An estate planning attorney for wills, trusts and Medi-Cal planning.
- A CPA for step-up in basis and capital gains.
- A broker for selling an inherited or reverse-mortgage home within the deadlines.
We help families sell or keep inherited San Diego homes and can refer estate attorneys.