Statement of Information in a Probate Sale: What Title Needs and Why

Sources: Old Republic Title, A Guide to Statements of Information; Lawyers Title, San Diego Statement of Information form.

What a Statement of Information is

A Statement of Information, often shortened to SI, is a short confidential questionnaire the title company asks each party to fill out when a property is sold or refinanced. Old Republic Title describes it as a form routinely requested from the buyer, seller and borrower in any transaction where title insurance is issued. It goes to the title officer, not into the public record.

One point of confusion worth clearing up: California businesses also file something called a Statement of Information with the Secretary of State. Same name, completely different document. If escrow asks for your Statement of Information, they mean the title company’s identity form, not a business filing.

Why title asks for it: the name-match problem

Before a title company insures a sale, it searches public records for anything that could affect the property or the people selling it. Some of those records are tied to the property, like a recorded deed of trust. Others are tied to a person’s name: judgments, tax liens, bankruptcies and similar filings that can attach to real estate the person owns.

Names are not unique. A search for a common name can turn up records for dozens of people who have nothing to do with your sale. The Statement of Information gives title enough identifying detail to say “that judgment belongs to someone else” and move on. Old Republic’s guide puts it simply: the form lets title disregard matters that actually apply to some other person.

Without it, title has two bad options: hold the policy until the match is resolved, or list the unresolved items as exceptions to coverage, which a buyer’s lender will usually not accept. Either way, the escrow waits. The same guide warns that a missing SI can delay the policy and could prohibit the close of escrow.

What the form asks for

Each title company uses its own version, but the questions are close to identical. The Lawyers Title San Diego form, which says it is needed to verify identity and to eliminate judgments and liens against people with similar names, asks for:

• Full name, including middle name and any former last names
• Birthplace, birth date, Social Security number and driver license number
• Marital or domestic partnership status, the current spouse, and any former spouses, with dates and places of divorce or death
• Residence history for the past ten years
• Occupation and employer history for the past ten years
• Whether the person has owned or operated a business, and any bankruptcies, judgments or pending matters that could affect title
• Basic facts about the property, including whether it is owner or tenant occupied and whether there has been recent construction

For a living seller, this takes ten minutes. The details are all in their own head.

Why a probate sale is different

In a probate sale, the seller is the estate. The executor, administrator or trustee signs, and fills out an SI about themselves like any other seller. But the house is still titled in the name of the person who died, and that is the name the public records are indexed under.

So title may need to clear the decedent’s name as well. Anything recorded against that name can matter, and a common name, a Junior and Senior in the same family, or a parent and child who shared a name can produce matches that take real work to rule out. The difference is that the person who could answer the questions is gone. The family has to reconstruct details they may never have known: a parent’s former married name, a first marriage, an address from twenty years ago.

The longer a house sat in a decedent’s name, the more this matters. Older records, more name variations and more family members with similar names all add work for the title officer.

What to gather about the decedent

Every title officer will tell you what they need for a specific file, but this is the list worth starting on as soon as someone is appointed:

• Full legal name and every variation used: maiden name, former married names, nicknames on official records, Junior or Senior
• Date of birth and date of death, and certified copies of the death certificate
• Social Security number, if the family has it
• Marriage history: each spouse, with dates of marriage, divorce or death
• Past addresses and employers, as far back as the family can reconstruct
• The vesting deed for the house, plus the court order and certified letters, or the trust documents
• Anything the family knows about old debts, judgments or a bankruptcy

Two practical notes. Share Social Security numbers and similar details directly with the title or escrow officer through their secure process, not in a group email or text. And if the family simply does not know an answer, say so. Title can often clear a match with other records, but only if they know early that there is a gap.

When to start: early, not at the end of escrow

Most sellers fill out the SI after escrow opens. In a probate sale, that is late. On that 40-year estate, I had a preliminary title report pulled before an attorney was even involved, and I recommend getting one early on any estate file, well before the house is listed, so everyone knows what the record shows while there is still time to deal with it. A surprise found in the first week of escrow is a phone call. The same surprise found three days before closing is a delayed closing.

This fits the larger point about probate timelines: most of the waiting can be used. While the court process runs, the family can clean out the house, prepare it for market, and get the title questions answered. The stage by stage view is in how long probate takes in California.

Trust sales: what title needs from a trustee

When the house is in a living trust, there is no court order. The successor trustee proves authority with documents instead. Title will typically ask the trustee for their own Statement of Information, a certification of trust that summarizes the trust and confirms the trustee’s powers, a certified death certificate, and a recorded affidavit of death of trustee. The certification lets title rely on the trust without reading every page of it.

When a lien really does belong to the decedent

Sometimes the name match is not a mistake. If a judgment, tax lien or other claim really was recorded against the person who died, it is an estate matter, and it has to be dealt with before or at closing. Often it is paid from the sale proceeds through escrow. Sometimes it needs the probate attorney to confirm whether it is still valid or was filed as a claim in the estate. California’s creditor claim period runs four months from the date letters first issue, which is one more reason the timing of the sale and the estate’s legal work need to be coordinated.

If the house also still has a mortgage, that loan is paid off from the proceeds at closing like any other sale; inheriting a house that still has a mortgage covers what happens before the sale. And when several heirs end up owning the house together after distribution, each of them becomes a seller with their own SI, which is covered in how to sell a house with multiple owners. For the full picture of selling an estate home, from authority to closing, see my guide to selling an inherited house in San Diego. If no one has been appointed yet, start with who to call first when you inherit a house, and if there was no will, intestate succession in California explains who the heirs are.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ryan Fisher

Realtor · Founder, Lovery Real Estate

I’m a San Diego Realtor and the founder of Lovery Real Estate, with $56M+ in career sales. I work with sellers across Chula Vista, Bonita, North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights and La Jolla Mesa, and throughout San Diego County, and through the Lovery Concierge Program I front the cost of pre-listing preparation in most cases. A lot of that work is inherited property, probate and trust sales, often with families coordinating from out of state. I am not an attorney, and I make sure the right attorney and CPA are part of the plan from the start.

I was licensed in 2020, founded Lovery Real Estate in 2025, and live in Hilltop in West Chula Vista. Before real estate I was drafted by the Miami Marlins in 2010 out of UC Irvine. I grew up around Fisher Bros. House Moving, the fifth-generation California house-moving business my family ran from the 1850s, and worked in it myself before real estate.

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