Estate disposition.

(1) Under existing law, upon the death of a person who is married or in a registered domestic partnership, half of the community property and quasi-community property belongs to the surviving spouse, unless the spouses have agreed in writing to divide the property in another manner. Existing law requires, with specified exceptions, that upon the death of a married person, the surviving spouse is personally liable for the debts of the deceased spouse. Under existing law, those debts are chargeable against the fair market value, as specified, of property including community property, quasi-community property, and separate property that passes to the surviving spouse when the deceased spouse dies intestate and the property passes "without administration." This bill would specify that, in calculating the available amount of the community property, quasi-community property, and separate property that passes to the surviving spouse, "without administration" refers to property that passes to the surviving spouse without administration under the provisions relating to intestate succession. The bill would make a conforming change to include community property with a right of survivorship within the scope of the bill. (2) Existing law establishes procedures that authorize a person to receive property from a decedent's estate without probate administration, including both personal property and real property of small value. Under existing law, when the decedent's estate is being administered, or going through intestate administration procedures, a person who receives property from an estate may be personally liable for the decedent's unsecured debts, or the transfer may be subject to the claim of a person with a superior right, as specified. This bill would recast and revise various provisions relating to the transfer of property from a decedent's estate as described above, including generally identifying a person who takes property under the above circumstances as a "transferee" and defining other related terms. Among other changes, the bill would require a transferee to make restitution to a person with a superior right to the property, but with respect to the decedent's debt, the bill would instead make the transferee personally liable to the estate for a share of the decedent's debt, as prescribed. The bill would authorize a transferee to voluntarily return property to the estate for administration, as specified. The bill would revise the treatment of property returned by the transferee to the estate that has produced income while in the transferee's possession, by requiring the value of that income to be returned to the estate if the income would have accrued to the state had the property not been transferred to the transferee.