The trust has a typo in a name — does that affect my inheritance?

When the error does create ambiguity, California has clean ways to resolve it. The simplest is a petition under Prob. Code § 17200, which allows a trustee or beneficiary to bring a matter concerning the internal affairs of the trust to the probate court — including a request for instructions telling the trustee who the beneficiary is. Where the wording needs to be corrected rather than interpreted, a court can reform an instrument to conform it to the settlor's actual intent where clear and convincing evidence shows the terms were affected by a mistake; that is a judge-made doctrine rather than a code section, and it depends on proof. Where the error is not a naming slip but a provision that has become unworkable because of circumstances the settlor did not anticipate, Prob. Code § 15409 permits modification where those circumstances would defeat or substantially impair the trust's purposes. The mistake to avoid is self-help. Do not correct the typo by hand on the original trust, and do not have the trustee sign a memorandum "clarifying" it. That converts a small evidentiary question into a document-integrity fight.