No will does not mean the state takes the house. It means the Legislature already wrote a will for you, and its version does not know that your daughter took care of you for six years and your son did not.
The estate still goes through probate. What changes is who inherits and who gets appointed to run the case.
Community property generally goes to the surviving spouse. Separate property splits between the spouse and the children in proportions that depend on how many children there are. With no spouse, it goes to children, then to parents, then to siblings, then outward through the family tree until someone is found.
Adopted children inherit as children. Stepchildren who were never adopted usually do not, no matter how many Thanksgivings they hosted. That is the rule that causes the most grief in my office, and it causes it after the funeral, when nothing can be done about it.
An unmarried partner inherits nothing
Twenty-two years together, both names on the utility bills, no marriage and no registered partnership, no will. Under intestacy that partner is a legal stranger to the estate and the house goes to a brother in Fresno who visited twice. I have watched this happen. It is not a hypothetical.
Who runs the case
With no will there is no nominated executor, so the court appoints an administrator based on a statutory priority order that starts with the surviving spouse and moves down through the relatives. When two children both want the job, you get a contested appointment before the case has even begun.
The administrator may also have to post a bond, because there is no will waiving it. Bond premiums are a real cost paid by the estate, scaled to the value being administered, and on a Los Angeles house that value is not small.
The statutory fee schedule does not care whether there was a will. A $1,000,000 estate produces a $23,000 attorney fee and a $23,000 administrator fee either way. The absence of a will adds bond, adds appointment fights, and adds the possibility that the wrong people inherit.
“The cheapest legal document in America is a will. Ours is $1,200 for a full package, and I have never once had a family tell me afterward that it was not worth it. I have had plenty tell me the opposite while sitting across from a sibling they no longer speak to.”
Delia Vasquez-HartWhat to do right now if there is no will
- Order several certified copies of the death certificate, because every institution wants an original
- Secure the property, change the locks if the house is empty, and confirm the insurer knows it is unoccupied
- Build the family tree on paper, including anyone predeceased and their descendants, because the court will need it
- Find out how each asset is titled before assuming any of it needs probate at all
- Decide, as a family, who is going to serve, before two people file competing petitions
Questions we get asked
Does the state get the money if there is no will?
Only if no relative can be found anywhere in the statutory chain, which is genuinely rare. Escheat is the last stop, not the first.
Can heirs agree to divide things differently?
Adults who are all entitled to inherit can agree among themselves, and there are mechanisms to document that. It works when everyone signs. It fails the moment one person does not.
Does a handwritten note count as a will?
California recognizes holographic wills when the material provisions and the signature are in the decedent's own handwriting. Whether a particular note qualifies is a question worth asking before you conclude there was no will.
What happens to a minor child's share?
It generally cannot be handed to a minor. A guardianship of the estate or a court-supervised arrangement holds it until eighteen, at which point it is delivered in full to an eighteen-year-old. Consider how that sounds.
Sketch the family tree, list every asset with how title reads, and bring both to a free 45-minute consultation. We will tell you who inherits under the statute before you spend a dollar on a filing.