Probate is a court case, and like any court case it starts with somebody filing a petition and ends with a judge signing an order. Everything in between is paperwork, waiting, and notice to people who may not want to hear from you.
Here is the whole sequence, in the order it actually happens in Los Angeles County, with the parts that usually go sideways marked as such.
Step one: somebody files a petition
A person named in the will, or an heir if there is no will, files a petition for probate and lodges the original will with the court. Not a copy. The original, the one with the wet signature, which is why I spend a surprising amount of my week asking families to look in a safe deposit box they do not have the key to. The court sets a hearing date, usually a couple of months out, and the case is assigned to a probate department. Notice then has to be published and mailed to every heir and everyone named in the will, and one missed name gets your first hearing continued.
Step two: the court appoints someone
If nobody objects, the judge appoints the executor or administrator and issues Letters, which is the one-page document that banks and title companies actually care about. Until you have Letters, you have no authority over anything. You cannot close an account, you cannot list the house, you cannot even talk to the mortgage servicer in most cases. Ask for authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act at the same time, because without it routine acts become noticed motions.
What Letters do not do
Letters give you authority, not immunity. Every act you take is still measurable against what a careful person would have done with someone else's money. I have seen executors treat the appointment as a finish line when it is closer to a starting gun.
Step three: marshal the assets and notify creditors
The personal representative has to gather and secure everything the decedent owned, get it appraised, and file an inventory with the court. Meanwhile, known creditors get direct notice, and they have a limited window after that notice to file a claim. Late claims can often be barred. Early distributions cannot be un-made.
- Open an estate bank account under the estate's own tax ID and stop using the decedent's accounts
- Keep paying property insurance and property taxes on real estate, because a lapsed policy on a vacant house is a catastrophe waiting for a windstorm
- Track every dollar in and out from day one rather than reconstructing it eighteen months later from bank PDFs
- Send creditor notice to anyone you have reason to know about, including a hospital or a credit card issuer you would rather ignore
Step four: the final petition
When debts and taxes are resolved, the representative files a petition for final distribution with an accounting, or a waiver of accounting if all beneficiaries sign off. The judge approves fees, approves the plan, and signs the order. Only then does money leave the estate. Assets then get retitled or transferred, and receipts go back to the court to close the file.
Questions we get asked
Do all of the assets go through probate?
No. Anything with a valid beneficiary designation, a payable-on-death form, or joint tenancy survivorship passes outside the case. Probate only reaches what was titled in the decedent's name alone with no beneficiary attached, which in Los Angeles is very often just the house.
Can the family agree to skip probate?
Not by agreement. Title companies and banks answer to the court order, not to a family consensus. If the asset requires probate to transfer, it requires probate, though the simplified procedures may apply depending on value.
Who gets paid first out of the estate?
Administration costs and certain priority claims come before general creditors, and general creditors come before beneficiaries. Beneficiaries are last in line, which is the sentence nobody wants to hear at the first meeting.
Does an executor have to hire a lawyer?
It is not technically required, but the court holds a self-represented executor to the same standard as a lawyer, and in Los Angeles most probate departments will not walk you through your mistakes. The statutory fee also comes out of the estate, not out of the executor's pocket.
If you are holding a death certificate and an original will and you are not sure whether a case even needs to be opened, bring both to a free 45-minute consultation and we will tell you in that meeting whether the estate qualifies for a simplified procedure. Call (310) 555-0219.