Table of Heirship: What It Is and When You Need One

• A Table of Heirship documents who the heirs are and what share each is owed when no probate court order already says so.
• California's small-estate affidavit threshold is $239,700 for deaths on or after 1 April 2026; below that line, an estate often bypasses formal probate entirely.
• Estates that do go through county probate generate a case number and heir list, which the State Controller's separate Estates of Deceased Persons File tracks.
• The 10 per cent fee cap under CCP §1582 applies to property reported under §1530, not to county probated estates, where the Controller states there is no fee restriction.
• There is no deadline to claim unclaimed property in California, except for estates that have been permanently escheated.

You found a relative's name on a record, but no paperwork names you

You searched a property record or a probate estate listing and recognized a parent’s or sibling’s name. There is a balance sitting with the State. But there is no will in hand, no attorney already appointed, and no single document that says, in writing, who the heirs are and what each one is owed. This is the gap a Table of Heirship is built to close.

It is not a mysterious or proprietary form. It is a document, usually assembled by an attorney, a genealogist, or a firm experienced in estate claims, that sets out the decedent’s family tree as it bears on inheritance: who survived, how each survivor relates to the decedent, and what fraction of the estate each is entitled to under intestate succession or a will. Where probate has run its course, the probate court’s final distribution order already does this job. A Table of Heirship becomes necessary where that order does not exist.

What is a Table of Heirship, exactly?

Think of it as a substitute for the probate court’s own finding on heirship, prepared for a situation where no court ever made that finding. It typically states the decedent’s date of death, lists every person with a legal claim to the estate, states the relationship of each to the decedent, and sets out the share each is due. It is supporting evidence, not a legal determination in itself.

Which relatives actually count as heirs under California’s intestate succession rules, and in what order, is a question of law that depends on the family structure involved. We do not answer that question for a reader, and no recovery firm should. That determination belongs with an estate attorney. What we can do is help identify that a probate estate or property record exists, and help assemble and file the documentation a claim requires once heirship has been established.

Does the estate even need one? The $239,700 line

California’s small-estate affidavit procedure, under Probate Code §13100 et seq., lets an estate skip formal probate when its value falls at or under the statutory threshold, which stands at $239,700 for deaths on or after 1 April 2026. Below that line, heirs commonly use a sworn affidavit rather than opening a full probate case. That affidavit process produces no court order naming heirs, which is exactly where a Table of Heirship, or an equivalent declaration, tends to matter most.

Above that line, an estate ordinarily goes through formal probate. That generates a case number, an appointed administrator or executor, and in most cases a final order that already identifies the heirs and their shares. We index 37,166 probate estates, of which 4,438 remain claimable, holding roughly $59,038,273 in aggregate. The State Controller maintains a separate Estates of Deceased Persons File, refreshed each April and October, listing the decedent, the heirs on record, the county, the probate case number, and the remaining balance. You can browse that data on our probate estates page.

Does the 10 per cent fee cap apply to an heir's claim?

Not always, and the distinction matters for anyone comparing recovery services. California law caps a finder’s fee at 10 per cent of the property recovered, but only for property reported under Code of Civil Procedure §1530. County probated estates arrive through the Probate Code instead, and the State Controller states there are no fee restrictions for investigators filing for the owners or heirs of county probated estates.

Our standard fee is 10 per cent of what is recovered regardless of which path an estate took to reach the State, and we collect nothing before the State approves the claim and pays. An agreement that asks for money upfront, before the Controller has approved and paid the claim, is invalid under CCP §1582(a)(1)(B). Read more about how the law treats finder fees on our finder fee law page, or see our pricing directly.

What documents actually back up a claim as an heir

Once heirship is settled, whether by a probate order or by a Table of Heirship and supporting affidavit, the claim itself has its own paperwork requirements. Cash claims of $1,000 or more must be notarized, and all claims involving securities or the contents of a safe deposit box must be notarized regardless of the amount. A California notary may charge at most $15 per signature for an acknowledgment and $15 for a jurat, under Government Code §8211.

Safe deposit box contents are a special case worth knowing about if that is what you are chasing: the State inventories and auctions the contents, so what it holds afterward is sale proceeds, not the original items. For a fuller rundown of what paperwork a claim needs, see what documents the State needs and claiming as an heir or executor.

What to do if you are still not sure you need any of this

There is no deadline to claim unclaimed property in California. The one exception is an estate that has been permanently escheated, where the State has taken title outright and no claim will be paid; everything else sits waiting, indefinitely, until someone comes forward. So there is no rush that should push you into signing anything before you understand what you are dealing with.

The more useful first step is simply finding out whether a record or a probate estate exists at all, and if it does, whether it sits above or below the small-estate line. Run a free search first. If a probate estate or a sizable property record turns up and the heirship picture is not straightforward, our full-service recovery handles the documentation and filing, and we are paid only out of what is actually recovered.

Questions People Ask

Figures on this page are from our copy of the State Controller’s published file as it stood on 12 October 2026. The State republishes the file weekly, so current totals will differ. Search is always against the latest copy.