California’s Adoption of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. 2023. Hoge Fenton (link)

AB 2245: California’s New Law and Its Impact on Estate Planning. 2023. ALM Law (link)

The forgotten history of what California stole from Black families. 2022. The Guardian (link)

California returning land to Black couple's heirs, 2021. TC Palm (link)

California does not have a state inheritance tax or estate tax. The state inheritance tax was abolished in 1982.

For California residents, federal estate taxes may apply for estates exceeding $12.06 million (or $24.12 million for couples). A federal estate tax return is due nine months after death.

The will must be filed with the local authority to create a record of who inherited your assets. Learn more here. In California, wills must be filed within 30 days in order to be effective (California Legislative Information).

If dying with a valid will, estates worth $184,500+ must open probate cases for will execution. Court supervision ensures wishes are fulfilled.

For estates under $184,500, an Affidavit for Transfer can avoid lengthy probate. Requires death certificate, ID, and heirs' signatures.

California is a community property state. Spouses equally own all property acquired during the marriage. Exceptions are gifts and inheritances.

Quasi-community property obtained before moving to California is treated like community property.

Separate property is acquired before marriage or after divorce. It is divided into real property (land/home) and personal property (movable assets).

Learn more about children's shares.

Heirs’ property owners own real estate as “tenants in common.” This is a specific bundle of legal rights.

Any decisions about the property require unanimous decisions from all owners.

Decisions made without a 100% agreement of the owners can be voided. This includes contracts such as leases to others, loan applications, sales of timber, etc.

Co-owners can voluntarily agree to divide or sell the property physically. It requires 100% agreement of all owners. To be effective, it’s important that an attorney confirm who the current legal owners are.

Court ordered physical division, and sales are called partition actions. In a partition action, the court must first determine if the property can be physically divided equitably and proportional to every owner’s share. If it cannot be physically divided, the court must order the sale of the property.

In California, co-owners have a right of first refusal in a partition action to purchase the petitioning owner’s share of the property.

In California, the court must obtain an appraisal of the property's fair market value and order a sale on the open market.

Court actions for the partition of family land should be viewed as a last resort because they are expensive and leave family members with little or no decision-making authority.

Individuals and families with generational real estate should consider placing ownership in a trust or business entity to have the ability to set the rules for how decisions are made, including divisions and sales of the property.