Sacramento County Probate Estates Held by the State Controller

• Sacramento County accounts for 363,576 claimable probate estates in our index, holding $289,784,732 combined.
• 3,226 of those Sacramento County estates are worth $10,000 or more.
• Probate estates reach the State Controller through the Probate Code, a different route than everyday unclaimed property, and the 10 per cent fee cap under CCP §1582 does not apply to them.
• There is no deadline to claim an estate that is still listed, though permanently escheated estates are no longer claimable.
• A recovery agreement must still be in writing, must disclose the estate's details, and cannot charge a fee before the State pays.

How much unclaimed probate money is tied to Sacramento County?

Our index currently shows 363,576 claimable probate estates connected to Sacramento County, together holding $289,784,732. Of those, 3,226 are valued at $10,000 or more. These are not routine bank accounts or uncashed checks; they are balances remaining from estates that went through probate in Sacramento County Superior Court and were, in whole or in part, remitted to the State Controller rather than paid out to an heir.

The figures come from our own index of the State Controller’s published records, built from the Estates of Deceased Persons File the Controller maintains separately from its general unclaimed property database. That file is refreshed twice a year, on the first business day of April and of October, and lists the decedent, the heirs on record, the county, the probate case number, and the remaining balance.

Why would a Sacramento County probate estate end up with the State?

When someone dies and an estate goes through probate, the court is supposed to distribute what remains to the heirs once debts and costs are settled. In practice, an heir sometimes cannot be located, declines to come forward, or a dispute leaves funds sitting with the court past the point the case can stay open. When that happens, the county remits the balance to the State Controller under the Probate Code, not under the Code of Civil Procedure §1530 reporting process that covers most other unclaimed property such as dormant bank accounts or uncashed wages.

That distinction matters, because the two paths carry different rules, including on fees. It is also why a Sacramento County probate estate will not show up through a simple name search of general unclaimed property databases; it sits in the separate Estates of Deceased Persons File instead. See probate estates and the second State file for how that file differs from the main one.

Does the 10 per cent fee cap apply to these estates?

No. The 10 per cent fee cap in Code of Civil Procedure §1582 reaches only property reported under §1530, the general unclaimed property statute. County-probated estates arrive through the Probate Code instead, and the State Controller states plainly that there are no fee restrictions for investigators filing for the owners or heirs of county probated estates (CCP §1582(a)(1); State Controller, Investigators). See what the law says about finder fees for the full picture.

That does not mean anything goes. Several other protections in §1582 still apply regardless of which statute the property arrived under: an agreement must be in writing, must disclose the nature and value of the property, must state that the Controller holds it, and must give the address where the owner could claim it directly. No fee may be collected before the claim is approved and paid. An owner may challenge an agreement at any time as based on excessive or unjust consideration. Our standard fee is 10 per cent of what is recovered, charged only after the State pays, which is the same structure we use on reported property even though the law does not require it for probate estates.

How do I find out if my relative's estate is on this list?

The fastest way is to search by the decedent’s name. Our index covers 14,639,722 State Controller property records in total, plus the separate file of probate estates, including the 363,576 tied to Sacramento County. Use the free property search to check a specific name before doing anything else.

A match on the list does not settle who is entitled to the money. If there are multiple heirs, a will in dispute, or uncertainty about who the court recognized as heir of record, that is a question for a probate attorney, not for us or for the State Controller’s list itself.

What does it take to actually claim a Sacramento County estate?

A claim on a probate estate generally comes from an heir or the estate’s executor or administrator, and the Controller will want documentation tying the claimant to the decedent and to the original probate case, such as the case number, proof of heirship, and identification. See claiming as an heir or executor and what documents the State needs for specifics. Larger claims, and anything involving securities or a safe deposit box, carry notarization requirements under State rules, which we walk clients through rather than leaving them to work out alone.

There is no deadline to file a claim on an estate that is still listed as claimable. The exception is an estate the State has permanently taken title to; those are no longer recoverable, and we will tell you plainly if that is the case rather than take on a claim that cannot succeed.

What should I do next?

Start with a name search to see whether a Sacramento County estate matches your relative. If it does, our full-service recovery handles the documentation, the required disclosures, and the filing itself, and we are paid only out of what is recovered, never before. See pricing for the exact terms, and spotting a finder scam if you want to compare how a legitimate agreement should read before you sign anything, from us or anyone else.

Questions People Ask

Figures on this page are from our copy of the State Controller’s published file as it stood on 9 October 2026. The State republishes the file weekly, so current totals will differ. Search is always against the latest copy.