Good idea. I wish I had taken a lump sum, paid all the tax then (and I was in a no income tax state at the time), and invested it in an after-tax account. Then I could pay CG tax on the earnings, not ordinary income. Oh well, too late now.
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That is the story of my life… 
I messed up on my message, United has a former Continental QC Inspector still working at about 88 years old. I couldn’t believe it.
Better man than me…! [or more broke?]
Robert - still dealing with my mother’s estate, but my mom passed in NC, I live in GA, and I see you are in CA. Likely some of the rules are different. Some thoughts and recommendations from my painful experience:
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Your son or anyone else you completely trust need to be COOWNERS of all accounts with assets: checking, savings, credit cards, loans, etc. I thought my mom was squared away with a will and me with POA. The will helps, the POA is only useful when the person is alive. I found myself locked out of her accounts.
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Your son and you need to go to California’s probate court website and read. A lawyer will happily bill you until you run out of money (or your estate does). You need to know a little to detect BS.
My story is a case in point. My mother was in her 80s and in bad health. Due to family issues, I could not get her to go to a nursing home for proper care. Her only significant asset was her home. When we finally got our estate attorney to agree to the sale of the home we learned that in NC, real estate or the proceeds of it’s sale do not go through probate - it goes directly to the heirs. I instantly understood why my attorney had been wishy washy.
In NC, probate is simple/trivial for low value estates. With the house out of the equation, my mom’s assets were less than $5k. My sister passed away two months later, and I had to be named the Administrator. Same issue - the lawyer NEVER mentioned this.
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The administrator nor executor provide any funds, so if the attorney asks for a retainer fee, find another attorney.