Will or living trust?

A will says who inherits and, for parents, who should raise minor children; it usually goes through probate, the court process that settles an estate. A funded revocable living trust lets the assets in it pass to beneficiaries without probate. Online, the price gap is a few hundred dollars.

LegalZoom puts it plainly: if you die without funding your living trust, your estate will be subject to probate². Funding means transferring ownership: recording a new deed for a home, retitling bank and brokerage accounts, and assigning other property to the trust. Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by beneficiary designation instead.

If you are unlikely to finish that work, a will plus up-to-date beneficiary designations may get you most of the way for less.

Many states let small estates skip full probate. California is one example. For a death on or after April 1, 2025, heirs can use the small estate procedure under Probate Code sections 13100 and 13101 when the estate is worth no more than $208,850; the limit was $184,500 for deaths from April 1, 2022 and $166,250 before that³. At least 40 days must have passed since the death⁴.

California also raised the limit for a petition to transfer the decedent's primary residence to $750,000 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025³. The amounts are next adjusted on April 1, 2028³. Other states set their own limits; check your state court's self-help pages.