If you are a successor trustee in California, this is the first hard deadline you face, and the one first-time trustees most often miss — usually because nobody told them it existed.
The rule
Under California Probate Code section 16061.7, when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because the person who created it died, the trustee must serve a formal notification — within 60 days — on the people below. (For someone the trustee only learns of later, the statute runs 60 days from that discovery, whichever is later.)
- Every beneficiary of the irrevocable trust,
- Every heir at law of the deceased settlor, and
- The Attorney General, if the trust is a charitable trust subject to the Attorney General's supervision
The notification must include specified content, and it must carry a warning that the recipient has 120 days from the date the notification is served — or 60 days from the date a copy of the terms of the trust is delivered to them during that 120-day period, whichever is later — to bring an action to contest the trust.
The part that catches people out: "heirs at law"
Beneficiaries are easy — they are named in the trust. Heirs at law are different: they are the people who would have inherited under California's intestacy rules if there had been no trust at all.
That group frequently includes people who receive nothing under the trust:
- A child who was deliberately left out
- Children from a first marriage
- An estranged sibling, where there are no spouse or children
- A parent, in some family structures
Trustees regularly notify the beneficiaries they are in touch with, never realizing the statute also reaches the relatives they were hoping not to contact. Leaving those people out is the most common defect in an otherwise well-run administration.
Why serving it protects you
It feels backwards to send a formal notice — with a contest warning printed on it — to someone who might be unhappy. Trustees delay for exactly that reason.
But the clock runs the other way:
- Serve the notice, and a 120-day window opens (extended if a copy of the trust terms is delivered later in that period — the statute runs to whichever date is later). When it closes, that avenue for contesting the trust is generally closed with it.
- Don't serve it, and the section 16061.8 bar never starts running. That avenue stays open far longer than it needs to (other limitation periods still apply), and it follows the distribution — which is why careful trustees hold back until the window has run.
A beneficiary or heir can also petition the court to compel a trustee to provide the notification. Skipping it does not make the obligation disappear; it just moves the conversation to a courtroom.
What the notification has to contain
The statute specifies the required content. In practice, a compliant notice identifies:
- The settlor and the date the trust was executed, plus any amendments
- The trustee's name, address, and phone number
- The address of the principal place of administration
- A statement that the recipient is entitled, on reasonable request, to a true and complete copy of the terms of the trust
- The 120-day contest warning, in the form the statute requires
Getting the warning language wrong is not a technicality — it is the part that makes the clock start.
How it is served, and proving it
The date of service is what everything is measured from, so how you send it matters as much as what you send. Trustees typically use a method that produces proof of mailing and keep a record showing exactly who was served, at what address, on what date, and what was enclosed.
Keep that proof — it is what establishes the start date if the deadline is ever disputed. Note that a late-delivered copy of the trust terms can push the deadline past day 120, so the service date and the delivery date both matter.
Where this sits in the bigger picture
The 60-day notice is one of three clocks that start at a California death:
- 30 days for the custodian of a will to deliver it to the superior court after learning of the death (Probate Code section 8200), even when a trust exists
- 60 days for this trustee notification, which opens the 120-day contest window
- 150 days to report a change in ownership of real property to the county assessor, which ties into Proposition 19
None of them announce themselves. All of them are running whether or not you know.
Getting it right
A registered California Legal Document Assistant can identify who must be served — including the heirs at law, which usually requires working out the intestacy chart for the family — prepare the notification with the statutory content, serve it, and document proof of service. You approve it; they do the paperwork.
Not sure which clocks are already running on your trust? Answer five questions and get a personalized roadmap of every deadline — free, before anything is owed.