An asset never made it into the trust. That is usually fixable without a full probate.
A refinance took the house out and it was never deeded back. An account was opened after the trust was signed. The trust says it owns the asset; the title says otherwise — and until that is resolved you cannot sell, refinance, or distribute it.
Several routes fix this. Only one of them is a court petition.
Five ways an asset outside the trust gets resolved
These are ordered cheapest first, and that order matters: a §850 petition is the right answer only when nothing simpler reaches the asset. Your Legal Document Assistant reads the actual deed or account titling before anything is prepared.
When a §850 petition is not the answer.
These petitions turn on a signed writing, not on what everyone remembers the person intending. For real property California requires a written instrument; where the person who owned the asset never signed anything describing it as trust property — or signed it into a different trust than the one being administered — the petition is a hard one, and we will say so before you pay for it.
- A beneficiary is contesting the trust or the asset
- The asset was signed into a different (earlier) trust
- The trust paperwork does not describe the asset at all
- Out-of-state real property is involved
A fraction of the cost. A fraction of the wait.
Whichever route your asset needs — an affidavit or a court petition — you pay a flat fee, not an attorney's hourly bill.
- Hourly billing for a petition that is largely paperwork
- The same statutory schedule if it becomes a full probate
- Attorney rates even when the trust documents are clean
- The cheapest qualifying route, not the most expensive one
- Prepared, filed, served, and tracked to the signed order
- A registered California LDA — a real person you can call
Three steps. No legalese.
Tell us what happened
Talk it through with a real person, free — or answer five plain-language questions and see which path your situation qualifies for. Either way, nothing to pay to find out.
We prepare the documents
We generate your filing-ready paperwork, and a California-registered Legal Document Assistant reviews every document before it reaches you. Revisions are included.
You sign, we file & serve
Your LDA files with the court and serves every person the statute requires — the part self-filers most often get wrong — then tracks the case to the signed order. You are not calling the clerk. On the no-court paths there is nothing to file or serve: we build the recording packet to your county’s rules, and you can record it yourself or we can.
A real California LDA behind every filing.
ProbateClear isn't a faceless app. Your documents are prepared and reviewed by registered, bonded California Legal Document Assistants — licensed professionals who do this every day.
I became a founding partner because ProbateClear does the heavy document lifting — so I can focus on what families need most from me: careful review and a steady hand through the process.
Probate paperwork rewards structure: the right documents, prepared correctly, filed on time. That's the discipline I built over a career in IT and project management — now in service of families.
After years inside law firms, I watched families pay full attorney rates for paperwork that never needed one. For a straightforward estate, that money should stay with the family — and that's what I get to protect here.
Start with the first-30-days checklist.
A calm, plain-English guide to settling a California estate in the first 30 days — what to handle, and in what order, so you always know your next step. We'll email it to you.
Not sure which of these your asset needs?
Talk it through with a registered California Legal Document Assistant — free — or answer five questions and see the published eligibility limits for each route side by side with your answers.