Ebook · for executors, administrators and trustees

Executor’s Guide to Southern California Probates

What happens to the house, and everything in it, during a California probate. Plain English, written by DB (David Bruce), a C.A.R. Certified Probate & Trust Specialist and CPRES.

The expensive mistakes are usually small ones made early: a missed deadline, a sale that has to go back to court, a house sold before anyone checked what it could bring, a tax basis nobody wrote down. The guide shows you where they are before you get there.

  • The first thirty days, and whether you even need probate
  • Full vs. limited authority, and what it means for selling the house
  • The two four-month clocks most people miss
  • What to do with a house full of a life

Includes a checklist and a glossary. Read it cover to cover, or go straight to the chapter you need this week.

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What’s inside

In the order the questions tend to come up.

Part One

Where you are

The first thirty days. Do you even need probate?

Part Two

Opening the estate

Filing, publication and the hearing. Letters, and what you just became. Bond: why the number is what it is.

Part Three

The clocks

Full authority, limited authority, and what it means for the house. The two four-month clocks. The probate referee.

Part Four

The house

Selling under full authority. Court confirmation, the 90% floor and the overbid. When the lender’s clock is running. As-is is a decision, not an escape.

Part Five

The contents

A house full of a life, and the categories with their own rules.

Part Six

Money and taxes

What probate actually costs. Basis, timing and Prop 19.

Part Seven

Los Angeles

Stanley Mosk, probate notes and the realistic timeline.

Plus

Checklist and glossary

A checklist to work from, and the court’s words in plain English.

Who wrote it

DB started at eight years old in his father’s auction, estate sale and cleanout business, and has been inside thousands of homes since. Thirty-two years in construction and 18 years as a REALTOR® came after, along with the C.A.R. Certified Probate & Trust Specialist and CPRES designations.

CALL DB310-895-9018

For educational purposes only. Not legal or tax advice. David Bruce is not an attorney; please discuss any legal matter with your attorney. David Bruce, REALTOR® · DRE #01839192 · eXp Realty · Equal Housing Opportunity.

A look inside

One page from Chapter 7, shown as it appears in the book.

Page 37 of the Executor’s Guide to Southern California Probates. A side-by-side table compares the two clocks that start the day Letters first issue: the Inventory and Appraisal, due in four months, and creditor claims, which run the later of four months or 60 days after notice to that creditor. Below it, a timeline shows both clocks counting from Letters.
Page 37 of the guide. Tap the page to enlarge it.

The two four-month clocks

Two deadlines start on the same day, run for the same four months, and have almost nothing to do with each other. People mix them up constantly.

Both start on the date Letters were first issued. Not the date of death, not the day the petition was filed, not the day you remember standing in the courtroom. If you write one date on the inside cover of this guide, make it that one.

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