CA Probate Code 13050: Excluded Property and the $208,850 Limit

California Probate Code Section 13050 lists the property you strip out of a decedent’s estate before comparing it to the small estate threshold. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, that threshold is $208,850, and the exclusions are broad enough that estates with substantial total assets often still qualify.¹ The categories excluded are property that transfers automatically at death, registered vehicles and certain homes, military pay in full, and unpaid employment compensation up to a capped amount.²

Property That Transfers Automatically at Death

Section 13050(a)(1) removes from the estate calculation anything that passes to someone else on its own, without court involvement. That covers several distinct arrangements:²

Joint tenancy property, which vests in the surviving joint tenant at the moment of death.
Life estates and any other interests that terminate at death rather than transferring.
Property passing to a surviving spouse under Section 13500, including community property and quasi-community property the spouse is entitled to receive.
Property held in a revocable trust the decedent could have undone during their lifetime. The statute calls this out as a specific example of the broader automatic-transfer exclusion.

Section 13050(a)(2) separately excludes multiple-party accounts where the funds pass to a surviving party, a payable-on-death payee, or a named beneficiary. If only part of the account belonged to that person, only that part is excluded; the decedent’s share still counts.²

Beneficiary-Designated Accounts

Life insurance, annuities, IRAs, 401(k) plans, and similar accounts with named beneficiaries also fall outside the estate value, but for a different reason. They were never probate property to begin with. They transfer under the contract itself, so Section 13050 does not need to exclude them. The result is the same either way: they do not affect eligibility for the small estate affidavit.

Vehicles, Vessels, and Manufactured Homes

Section 13050(b) excludes an entire class of registered property regardless of value. There is no dollar cap on this one.²

Motor vehicles registered or titled under the California Vehicle Code, including cars, trucks, motorcycles, and off-highway vehicles.
Vessels numbered under the Vehicle Code.
Manufactured homes, mobilehomes, commercial coaches, truck campers, and floating homes registered under the Health and Safety Code.

Because these items have their own transfer procedures through the DMV and the Department of Housing and Community Development, the legislature pulled them out of the probate math entirely. A decedent could own a $150,000 boat and a $75,000 RV, and neither would count against the $208,850 limit.

Military Pay and Unpaid Wages

Section 13050(c) covers two types of money the decedent was owed at death.²

Any amount owed to the decedent for service in the Armed Forces is excluded in full. There is no cap.
Unpaid salary, wages, and accrued vacation from any other employment are excluded up to $20,875 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. That figure is the CPI-adjusted version of a $16,625 statutory baseline.

Only the excluded portion drops out of the calculation. If a former employer owed the decedent $30,000 in back pay, $20,875 is excluded and the remaining $9,125 counts toward the estate value. For most workers the cap easily covers a final paycheck plus unused vacation.

What’s Left That Counts Toward the $208,850

Once the exclusions come out, the estate value is essentially whatever the decedent owned in California in their name alone with no automatic transfer mechanism attached. Typical examples:

Bank accounts titled solely in the decedent’s name with no POD or TOD designation.
Brokerage accounts, individual stocks, and bonds held only in the decedent’s name.
Personal property such as jewelry, art, furniture, tools, and equipment.
Unpaid wages or vacation exceeding the $20,875 cap.

The threshold itself, $208,850, is the CPI-adjusted amount for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. California adjusts it under Section 890 of the Probate Code, generally every three years, so the next change would take effect no earlier than April 1, 2028.

Real Property Counts Toward the Limit

Here is the wrinkle that catches people. Real estate the decedent owned in California, whether solely or as a tenant in common, counts toward the $208,850 threshold under Section 13100, even though the personal property affidavit itself cannot actually transfer real estate.¹ Owning a house does not automatically disqualify you from using the affidavit for other property, but the house’s value goes into the calculation. An estate with $50,000 in bank accounts and a $200,000 interest in a condo blows past the limit even though the bank accounts alone sit well under it.

California provides separate simplified procedures for the real estate itself. If 40 days have passed since the death and the estate’s gross value after Section 13050 exclusions fits under the threshold, a successor can petition the superior court under Section 13150 for an order confirming they inherited the real property, with no full probate.³ Section 13100 also lets you exclude real property that is already the subject of a Section 13151 petition when running the personal property affidavit math.

A separate real property affidavit exists under Section 13200, with stricter rules: a six-month wait after death, a legal description, an inventory and appraisal, a sworn statement that funeral expenses, last-illness expenses, and unsecured debts have been paid, and filing in superior court rather than presentation to a bank.⁴ It carries its own CPI-adjusted value cap, measured against the gross value of the decedent’s California real property after Section 13050 exclusions.

Running the Calculation

Working through Section 13050 is a subtraction exercise. List everything the decedent owned in California. Cross out joint tenancy interests, life estates and other terminating interests, property going to a surviving spouse, revocable trust assets, and the surviving-party or beneficiary share of multiple-party accounts. Cross out every registered vehicle, vessel, manufactured home, mobilehome, commercial coach, truck camper, and floating home. Cross out all military pay owed to the decedent, and up to $20,875 of other unpaid wages and accrued vacation. Set aside beneficiary-designated accounts like life insurance and retirement plans, which were never in the estate. What remains, including any California real property, is what you compare to $208,850.

1
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code – Section 13100
2
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code – Section 13050
3
Justia. California Probate Code – Sections 13150 Through 13158
4
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code – Section 13200