AB 1716 Summary

• Clarifies that property passing to a surviving spouse "without administration" refers specifically to property passing without administration under intestate succession provisions, and includes community property with right of survivorship in liability calculations.

• Establishes uniform terminology and procedures for people who receive property from a decedent's estate without probate, calling them "transferees" and defining their liability for the decedent's unsecured debts and obligations to persons with superior rights to the property.

• Allows transferees to voluntarily return transferred property to the estate for administration, and requires the personal representative to reimburse transferees for improvements or debt payments made, or charge them for damage or income received.

• Limits the time to enforce liability against transferees to 3 years after the affidavit is presented or 3 years after discovery of fraud, whichever is later, with no tolling of the period.

• Permits courts to excuse transferees from interest liability in whole or in part if they acted reasonably and in good faith, and applies similar protections and procedures to both small personal property transfers and real property transfers under the relevant probate code sections.