Named Successor Trustee in California? What to Do in the First 90 Days

Losing your mom or your dad is hard enough. Then comes the trust binder, and your name in it as successor trustee.

Maybe you have known for years. Maybe your parent mentioned it once at the kitchen table, and you said “of course” without thinking much about what it would mean. Either way, you are grieving and holding a legal responsibility at the same time, usually on top of your own work and your own family.

If you are like most of the sons and daughters we sit down with, two questions come first. What am I supposed to do? And what happens if I get it wrong? Often a quieter one follows: how do I do this and stay close to my brothers and sisters?

So let us say the most important thing first. Very little is legally urgent in the first few days. Plan the service. Be with your family. Real deadlines do follow, some of them within weeks, and you do not have to face them alone.

Your parent chose you because they trusted you. Carrying this out well is a way of honoring them, and of looking after the family they loved. Let’s walk through what the first 90 days ask of you, one step at a time.

On this page

• What changes when you begin serving as successor trustee
• What to do in the first 30 days
• The notices California requires a trustee to give
• What a successor trustee should do between day 30 and day 90
• How to keep things fair with your brothers and sisters
• The mistakes that create tax, liability, and family problems
• How the family home and Proposition 19 fit in
• When to bring in an attorney
• What a new successor trustee should do this week

What changes when you begin serving as successor trustee?

Your parent spent years looking after what is in this trust. When the trust calls for you to serve, that care passes to you. California law treats it as a fiduciary role. You have a duty to follow the trust’s instructions and to act in the beneficiaries’ interest. You have to treat the beneficiaries impartially, which includes your brothers and sisters even when you are a beneficiary too. And you have to keep trust property safe, keep it separate from your own, and keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed.

That can sound heavy in a week that is already heavy. Here is the good news: a trust administration has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If your parent’s trust was properly funded, the assets in it can generally be administered without probate court. Many California trust administrations take about eight to twelve months. Nothing requires you to have every answer today, and nothing requires you to do it alone.

What the role asks of you first is patience. Do not distribute money, transfer the home, promise anything to a brother or sister, or sign tax-sensitive documents yet. First understand your authority and the order the administration needs to follow. Holding still at the start is not delay. It is how you look after everyone your parent provided for.

You do not have to work this out alone. We have guided California families through trust administration since 2010, as part of the more than 3,000 families our firm has served. Talk with us before you distribute anything, retitle property, or sign transfer documents.

What should a new trustee do in the first 30 days?

Think of the first month as looking after what your parent left behind, so that every later decision is made from solid ground. In the first days and weeks:

• Find and read the complete trust, with every amendment. Look for the pour-over will and any written funeral or burial instructions too.
• Deliver the original will to the court. If you are holding the original will, California generally requires you to deliver it to the Superior Court in the county where your parent lived. The deadline is generally 30 days after you learn of the death. A copy generally also goes to the person the will names as executor. That requirement applies even when no probate is expected.
• Order multiple certified copies of the death certificate. Some institutions accept a photocopy, but others require a certified copy.
• Secure the home and the valuables. That includes vehicles, jewelry, financial records, and digital accounts. If the home will sit vacant, consider changing the locks, forwarding the mail, and telling the homeowner’s insurance carrier. Some policies limit coverage for a vacant home. Ask family to wait before taking keepsakes or furniture.
• Keep essential bills paid. The mortgage, insurance premiums, property taxes, and the utilities that preserve the property.
• Start a simple record. A folder and a running list of what you did and when is enough at this stage. The habit will serve you for the entire administration.

Just as important is what waits: distributions, retitling, sales, and promises about who gets what. Before any of those, confirm your authority and the tax and creditor picture. Your brothers and sisters may ask early what they will receive and when. The kind answer is that everything will be handled properly and in order. That answer looks after them too.

What notices does California require a trustee to give?

The notices exist so that everyone your parent cared about is treated openly and fairly. They also carry some of the first firm deadlines of the administration.

The notice to beneficiaries and heirs. California law generally requires the trustee to notify the beneficiaries and your parent’s heirs that the trust has become irrevocable. The notice is generally due within 60 days of the death. If the death left the trust without a trustee, the 60 days generally run from the day you begin serving.

Serving the notice generally starts a 120-day period in which the trust can be contested. Delivery of a copy of the trust terms can extend that period. The notice has rules for what it must say and when it must be given. It is best to work through those with an attorney. Serving it correctly helps protect you.

Notices that depend on your parent’s situation. If your parent received Medi-Cal, a notice to the Department of Health Care Services is generally due within 90 days of the death. If the trust holds real estate, a change in ownership statement is generally due to the county within 150 days of the death.

Everyone else who needs to know. That generally includes the Social Security Administration and, where they apply, Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, pension administrators, banks, and life insurance companies.

Handled on time, these notices show your family that the administration is open, fair, and moving in order.

What should a successor trustee do between day 30 and day 90?

Next, let’s put together a complete picture of what your parent left, so your family can make informed decisions later. Here are your trustee tasks between day 30 and day 90:

• Inventory everything. Every account, every asset, every debt. Include anything titled outside the trust, which may need its own transfer procedure.
• Get date-of-death values. Investment accounts need them. California real estate generally warrants an appraisal of its fair market value as of the date of death. These values can matter for taxes later, because many assets receive a new income tax basis at death.
• Get the trust its own tax ID. After your parent’s death, the trust generally needs its own taxpayer identification number. It also needs its own bank account to receive income and pay expenses.
• Watch the creditor picture. Identify known debts, verify claims before paying them, and talk with counsel before paying anything disputed.
• Keep the beneficiaries informed. You have a duty to keep them reasonably informed about the trust and what you are doing with it. A short written update on a regular schedule can prevent many disputes before they start.

Each of these steps deserves care, and so does their order. Several tax and property decisions in these months carry deadlines that can be hard to recover from once they pass.

How do you keep things fair with your brothers and sisters?

You want to carry out your parent’s wishes and stay close to your brothers and sisters. You are probably a beneficiary yourself, and the law asks you to deal impartially with every beneficiary. A few habits make that fairness visible to your family:

• Share information before you are asked. Send regular written updates. A beneficiary who asks is generally entitled to a copy of the trust’s terms.
• Use real values. Have the home appraised, so every share rests on the same number.
• Be careful with anything that benefits you. Living in the house, buying it, and being paid for your work as trustee can each be proper. Review each one with counsel and disclose it to the other beneficiaries before it happens.
• Wait on keepsakes. Follow any written list your parent left, and agree on a way to divide the rest before anything leaves the house.

If one of you hopes to keep the family home, raise it early. How the home is distributed can affect its property taxes, as the section on Proposition 19 explains.

Your parent trusted you with all of their children. Doing this in the open is how you honor that. If you are unsure how to handle a distribution or a decision that benefits you, talk with us before acting. If a disagreement ever needs a courtroom, we will help you find the right attorney for that.

What mistakes create tax, liability, and family problems?

Each of these five trustee mistakes can usually be prevented. Preventing them looks after your family’s money and its peace:

• Distributing too early. If you distribute assets and then discover a tax bill or a valid claim, you can be personally responsible for the shortfall. Review taxes and claims before you distribute.
• Missing or poorly documenting the step-up in basis. Delayed or inadequate date-of-death valuations can make the tax benefit harder to document. Your family may then pay more tax than necessary when an asset is later sold.
• Losing the home’s low property tax base. Missing the Proposition 19 deadlines on an inherited home can raise your family’s property tax bill. More on this below.
• Skipping the estate tax return when it still mattered. If a spouse survives, even an estate that owes no federal estate tax sometimes files a return to preserve that spouse’s portability election. That choice should be deliberate, not a default.
• Going quiet with the beneficiaries. Many trust disputes begin as communication problems, not money problems. Regular, plain-English updates can prevent the suspicion that turns a family’s grief into a legal dispute.

A steady process helps keep these from happening to your family. For how an administration runs from start to finish, see our guide to trust administration in California.

How do the family home and Proposition 19 fit in?

The house you grew up in is often the most valuable thing the trust holds, and the one your family feels most. Its property tax deadlines start at the death and run well past the first 90 days, so the decisions about the home start early.

If one of you keeps your parent’s home as a primary residence, Proposition 19 generally requires moving in within one year of your parent’s death. The homeowners’ exemption generally must be filed within that same year. The parent-child exclusion claim generally must be filed within three years, or before the home is transferred to a third party, whichever comes first. A late claim may still be granted, but it generally applies going forward rather than back to the date of death.

How the home reaches that child matters too. A buyout between brothers and sisters after the home is distributed can be reassessed. So do not move money or sign anything involving the home until this analysis is done. If keeping the home in the family is part of the plan, reviewing Proposition 19 before any deed, buyout, or distribution can preserve options that may later narrow.

When should a trustee bring in an attorney?

If you are like most trustees who work with us, you did not go looking for a legal project. California does not require you, as trustee, to hire an attorney. You are a son or a daughter who wants to do right by your family and handle it properly. You would rather carry your family than carry the process.

That is the process we guide you through. Our trust administration team coordinates the notices, valuations, tax questions, and beneficiary communication in the right order, so you are not tracking the deadlines and paperwork alone. We handle trust administration for a flat fee, agreed in writing before the work begins. In many administrations the trust pays the appropriate professional fees, not the trustee personally.

Getting guidance early is one of the choices that helps shield you from personal liability. It also lets you show up for your family as a son or a daughter first, and a trustee second.

What should a new successor trustee do this week?

Start with these three steps this week:

1. Gather what you have: the trust binder, any amendments, and a first set of certified death certificates on order.
2. Secure the home and keep the essential bills paid.
3. Write down the date of death. The notice to beneficiaries and heirs is generally due within 60 days.

Next, review the trust’s terms and the deadlines that apply before deciding which steps can wait. For the bigger picture around the trust, see our guide to what happens when a loved one dies in California.

You do not have to carry this by yourself. We will help you understand where the administration stands, which deadlines apply, and what does not need to be rushed. Talk with us when you are ready for help, or call (949) 718-0420.

Laura Meier, Esq., Founder, Meier Law Firm · Newport Beach, California · Last reviewed October 2026

The law behind this guide: California Probate Code sections 215, 8200, 15681, 16061.7, 16061.8 and 19202, and Revenue and Taxation Code sections 63.2 and 480.