For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, California lets successors collect a decedent's personal property without probate when the qualifying estate totals $208,850 or less, using the affidavit procedure in Probate Code §§13100–13101. Under Probate Code §890, the figure adjusts every three years, effective April 1. For deaths from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2025, the limit was $184,500. The Judicial Council publishes the current amounts on form DE-300. Here's the procedure in the order you'll actually live it.
Step 1: Confirm the estate qualifies — and know what doesn't count
The $208,850 ceiling covers property subject to the affidavit, not everything the person owned. Assets that pass outside probate are excluded from the calculation: joint tenancy property, accounts with named beneficiaries, property in a living trust, and — under Assembly Bill 2016, enacted in 2024 and effective for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 — a primary residence worth up to $750,000, which moves through its own petition procedure under Probate Code §13151 rather than through this affidavit. A California estate can therefore include a house and still qualify for the small-estate route on its remaining personal property. Whether yours does is arithmetic on form DE-300's definitions, done before anything is signed.
Step 2: Wait 40 days
Section 13100 requires at least 40 days since the death. No filing shortens it. During the wait, banks and transfer agents will generally freeze the decedent's accounts; the 40 days is the price of skipping probate's court supervision, paid up front in delay.
Step 3: Prepare and sign the affidavit
The declaration recites the facts §13101 requires: the death, the 40 days, the value calculation, that no probate is pending, and that the signer is entitled to the property. It's signed under penalty of perjury. California doesn't provide one mandatory statewide form for the §13100 affidavit itself — institutions often have their own versions, which is a common point of friction the court self-help pages don't warn about.
Step 4: Deliver it to whoever holds the property — and accept what you just signed up for
Presented with a conforming affidavit and a death certificate, the holder of the property must transfer it; the statute gives them protection for relying on it. What transfers to you is not only the asset. Under Probate Code §§13109–13112, a successor who takes property by affidavit becomes personally liable for the decedent's unsecured debts up to the value received, and can be required to restore property (with interest) if probate is later opened or a superior claimant appears. Probate's creditor process exists to cut off exactly these claims; the affidavit skips the process and keeps the exposure. For an estate with unclear debts, that difference matters.
The house: the $750,000 petition is not the affidavit
AB 2016's primary-residence procedure is a genuine probate shortcut but a different animal: a petition filed with the superior court under §13151, with notice requirements and a court order at the end. It still involves a courtroom. Pages that describe California as allowing “$958,850 by affidavit” are adding two numbers from two procedures; no affidavit transfers a California house at that value.
Cross a state line and the machine changes
Oregon's affidavit reaches estates up to $275,000 total — but no more than $75,000 of it personal property and $200,000 real property, and unlike California's §13100 it covers the real property. Nevada's affidavit of entitlement stops at $25,000 for most claimants, $150,000 for a surviving spouse, and never touches real property. Arizona's HB 2116 set the personal-property cap at $200,000 and the real-property cap at $300,000 for filings on or after September 26, 2025. Three borders, three definitions of “small.” A decedent with property in two of these states needs both procedures, in each state's order.
Real property has its own affidavit, and a much lower ceiling
The §13100 procedure above covers personal property. California has a separate affidavit for real property of small value under Probate Code §13200, and its ceiling is far lower: $69,625 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, up from $61,500 for deaths from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2025. It uses Judicial Council form DE-305, not DE-300, and it requires six months since the death rather than 40 days. So a decedent whose only real property is a modest parcel may have three separate routes available — the §13100 affidavit for the personal property, the §13200 affidavit for the parcel, and the §13151 petition if the home is the primary residence — each with its own ceiling, form and waiting period.
What would change this page
The triennial adjustment. Today's figures govern deaths on or after April 1, 2025; Probate Code §890 requires adjustments every three years, effective April 1, and the Judicial Council's published schedule names April 1, 2028 as the next adjustment date. This page's numbers change the week the Judicial Council posts the new amounts. Keeping that promise is the work.
Where to read next
- California estate & inheritance tax — the state’s estate, inheritance-tax, and probate overview.
- California transfer-on-death deed — the separate route for real property, and whether California offers one.
- The Executor & Heir’s Guide — the probate deadlines for California, cited to the controlling statute.
Sources & methodology
Sources and current rules
Methodology & sources
The sources this page was written from: California Probate Code §§890, 13100–13101, 13109–13112, 13151, 13200 · Assembly Bill 2016 (2024), effective for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 · Judicial Council form DE-300 (maximum-values schedule) and its Probate Code §890 adjusted-amounts schedule, which publishes April 1, 2028 as the next adjustment date · ORS 114.510 (current rule) · Nevada courts self-help center (current rule) · Arizona Legislature, HB 2116 fact sheet (filings on or after September 26, 2025).
Editorial review draft. The source record supporting the ceiling is listed above when one is available. The procedural questions identified in the article are not yet certified.
This page is educational and is not legal advice. Whether the affidavit procedure is right for a particular estate — and what liability the signer takes on — turns on facts a general page cannot resolve, including debts that have not surfaced yet. Confirm your own situation with an attorney licensed in California.
Sources reviewed August 23, 2026.