A Practice Note providing an overview of avoiding a full estate administration (also referred to as probate) in California. This Note focuses on estate planning techniques that remove property from a decedent's probate estate and, for property that is not successfully removed from a decedent's probate estate, explains various alternative procedures (sometimes generally referred to as summary administration procedures) available in California to transfer property to the decedent's heirs and beneficiaries without a full estate administration, including the use of the Heggstad petition, small estate affidavit, and spousal property petition.