By Jay Greene—
Probate is a word most people nod at without knowing what it means. It sounds like paperwork. It is closer to a year in court.
Here it is in plain terms.
What is probate?
It is the process a family goes through in court to move what you owned into their names after you die. A judge oversees it. It happens whether or not you left a will. It takes time, it costs money, and the whole file is public while it happens.
What does it actually cost?
In California, that is not a number your family gets to negotiate. The state sets it, as a share of what you owned. Two things make it bigger than people expect. It is based on the full value of your home, not on what would be left after the mortgage is paid. And it is paid twice—once to the lawyer, and once to whomever the court puts in charge of handling everything.
On a typical San Francisco home, the two together come to somewhere around $56,000. That is before the filing fees and the other costs that sit on top.
How long does it take?
Plan on about a year for an estate where nothing is complicated. It will be longer if a house has to be sold, or if a creditor shows up, or if the family disagrees about anything at all. During that year, the house usually cannot be sold or refinanced without the court’s say-so. That is the part families feel most.
Didn’t the state make this easier?
It did, a couple of years ago, for smaller estates. For a great many families around California, that change is genuinely enough.
Around here it usually is not. A typical home in this city is worth roughly twice the cutoff, so the shortcut does not reach it. One house is often all it takes.
Does having a will keep us out of it?
No, and this is the part that surprises people most. A will tells the court what you wanted. It does not let your family skip the court. If anything, a will is the instruction manual for the very process people are hoping to avoid.
Then what actually works?
A living trust—but only if you move things into it. That second half is where most plans quietly fail. Signing a trust creates an empty container. Someone still has to put your house and your accounts inside it. A trust with nothing in it does not keep anyone out of court, no matter how carefully it was written.
How do I know if mine is?
There is a version of this check you can do at your kitchen table in about a minute. Pull out a bank statement and read the name printed at the top. If it is just your name, that account is not in your trust. If it says your name followed by the word “Trustee,” it is. Then look at the deed to your house—the recorded one, not your mortgage statement. The mortgage only shows who borrowed the money. It says nothing about who owns the property.
What steps can you take now?
1. Read the name on your bank and investment statements.
2. Find the deed to your home and check whose name is on it.
3. If either answer is “I’m not sure,” that is the thing worth an hour of someone’s time.
None of this is urgent until the day it is, and by then the people who have to deal with it are the ones you were trying to protect. An hour now is the whole difference.
Contact Greene Law Firm, P.C. today. Call 415-905-0215 or email info@greenelawfirm.com for a free initial assessment. Flexible meeting options are available for Bay Area clients.
Statements in Compliance with California Rules of Professional Conduct. The materials in this article are for educational purposes only and are not legal advice, and they are not a guarantee or prediction regarding the outcome of any legal matter. Consult an estate planning attorney for personalized guidance.
Attorney Jay Patrick Greene, Esq., CPA, founded Greene Law Firm, P.C. of San Francisco, which is licensed in California, Alabama, and Florida. He has over 15 years of experience concerning wills, trusts, probate, elder law, and asset protection. For more information, visit: https://assetprotectionbayarea.com
Trust Essentials
Published on October 22, 2026
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