If you have searched “California small estate limit” recently, you may have seen a confident claim that the limit rises to $239,700 for deaths on or after April 1, 2026.
It does not. There is no April 2026 adjustment. The small-estate affidavit limit is $208,850, it took effect for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and it holds until the next scheduled adjustment on April 1, 2028. The figure is printed, with the next adjustment date, on Judicial Council form DE-300, the official chart California requires for exactly this purpose.
This post exists because I keep seeing the wrong number repeated, and because in this corner of the law, a wrong number is not a small mistake. Families plan around these thresholds. Banks reject affidavits over them. So here is the real rule, where the false figure likely came from, and how the procedure actually works.
The rule, plainly
When a Californian dies owning a modest amount of property, the estate may not need probate at all. Probate Code section 13100 lets a successor collect the decedent’s personal property, things like bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and vehicles, with a sworn affidavit instead of a court proceeding, when the qualifying estate does not exceed the statutory limit. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, that limit is $208,850.
A few points decide most real cases:
- The date of death controls. The limit that applies is the one in effect when the person died, not when you sign the affidavit. A death in March 2025 is measured against $184,500; a death in May 2025 against $208,850.
- It is gross value, not equity. The calculation uses fair market value at the date of death, without subtracting loans against the property.
- Not everything counts. Section 13050 excludes a list of items from the math, including property passing outside probate, such as joint tenancy assets and accounts with named beneficiaries. And for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the decedent’s primary residence is also left out of the affidavit calculation, because it now has a procedure of its own, covered below.
- There is a 40-day wait. The affidavit cannot be presented until 40 days after the death, and it is unavailable if a probate of the estate is already underway.
- DE-300 rides along. The current form must be attached to the affidavit. It is one page, and it is the source of record for every figure in this post.
Where the false number came from
Probate Code section 890 is the adjustment machinery. Added in 2019, it tells the Judicial Council to recalculate the small-estate figures once every three years, beginning April 1, 2022, using the change in the Consumer Price Index over the prior three-year period, with each value rounded to the nearest $25. The adjustments so far: $166,250 became $184,500 on April 1, 2022, and $184,500 became $208,850 on April 1, 2025.
So the cycle is 2022, 2025, 2028. The figure circulating online appears to be someone’s projection of an annual inflation bump that the statute simply does not provide, published as if it were law and then repeated from site to site. The DE-300 revised April 28, 2025 says it directly: unless the Legislature provides otherwise, these values will next be adjusted April 1, 2028.
I am not naming the sites that carry the wrong figure, because the point is not any one publisher. The point is the habit that protects you: when a website and the Judicial Council form disagree, believe the form.
The number people confuse it with
There is a second figure worth knowing, and mixing the two up is the other common error. Under AB 2016, effective for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, a decedent’s primary residence valued up to $750,000 can be transferred through a court petition under Probate Code section 13151 without a full probate. That is a separate procedure, with a court filing and its own appraisal requirements, and the home’s value does not count against the $208,850 personal-property limit. Other real property of small value, currently up to $69,625, has its own affidavit route under section 13200, with a six-month wait.
Put together, the 2025 changes mean more California estates than ever can pass without full probate. They also mean three different dollar limits, three different procedures, and real consequences for using the wrong one.
Why a fiduciary cares this much about $30,850
The gap between the false figure and the real one is $30,850. An estate worth $220,000 in personal property sits inside the false limit and outside the real one. A family relying on the wrong number could present an affidavit a bank is entitled to refuse, or skip a probate the estate actually requires, and discover the problem months later with interest, penalties, or a stalled transfer attached.
Administration work is mostly this: getting the unglamorous numbers right, on the right form, in the right order. It is why this practice verifies statutes against primary sources rather than repeating what ranks well in a search.
Whether a particular estate qualifies for the affidavit, the primary-residence petition, or needs formal probate is a legal judgment about that estate’s specific assets, and the right person to make it with you is a California probate attorney. What a professional fiduciary does is administer the path once it is chosen: serving as personal representative when probate is required, marshaling and valuing assets, and keeping the process moving. If you are sorting out which situation you are in, the guides on how long probate takes and trusts versus wills are a calm place to start, and a conversation with the practice is always available.