What Happens If I Die Without a Will in Texas?
It’s always wise to make a careful estate plan, no matter how young you are. We just never know what a day may bring. If you die without a will in Texas, your state will be subject to Texas law and may be distributed in ways that you don’t approve of and to the detriment of your loved ones. Talk to an estate lawyer in Houston, TX to learn more about what will happen with your estate without a will and how to protect it.
Dying Without a Will in Houston, TX Texas
The first thing to understand is what will happen basically to your property, and this depends on whether you are single or married and whether or not you have children.
Single/No Children
If you are single and have no children, and you die without a will, Texas intestacy (from the Latin meaning “without will”) laws will award all your property in shares to your parents, if they are still alive. If only one of your parents is alive, and you have no siblings, everything goes to your surviving parent. If there are siblings, then your surviving parent inherits half of your estate, and your siblings or their descendants have the other half of your estate divided among them equally.
If you only have surviving siblings or their descendants, then your estate passes to them in a particular formula depending on closeness of the relation, and if you have no surviving parents or siblings or descendants of your siblings, then the law mandates that your estate be divided equally between all living relatives on your mother and father’s side, again depending on the closeness of the relationship. If there are no relatives at all, then the estate does something called “escheat,” which means it all goes to the government of Texas.
Single/Children
If you are single, but you do have a child or children, then everything you have goes to your children; or, if all your children are dead, to your grandchildren. If you have some surviving children, but some have passed away, then the estate is still divided equally among your children, but the grandchildren of the deceased child will inherit the portion of their deceased parent.
Married
If you are married when you pass away without a will, your surviving spouse will get all the shared community property if you have no children, and this will also be true if you do have children, so long as they are the children of your surviving spouse, as well. If you have kids from a different marriage, your spouse keeps half the property and the other half goes to those children.
When it comes to your separate property, which are things like gifts or inheritance that belong only to you and not to your spouse, if you have children, your spouse gets a third of this property and a life interest in a third of any separate real estate you might have, while the children get all the rest immediately. If there are no children, but you do have surviving siblings or parents, then your spouse would get all your personal property but only half of your separate real estate. The rest will go to your other relatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Assets Are Affected?
If an asset would normally pass through probate, then it falls under the jurisdiction of these laws. Any asset that does not go through probate does not. Therefore, if you’ve transferred some of your property into a trust or have life insurance with proceeds that go to a beneficiary that you have specifically named, these assets would not the subject to the intestacy laws of Texas. There are other exceptions, so talk to your lawyer
What About Foster Children and Adopted Children?
If your adopted children have been legally adopted, and the adoption is completed, then they are treated exactly as biological children. But foster children or stepchildren that you never formally adopted do not automatically receive anything. If you have placed a child up for adoption, that child is still entitled to a share of your estate if you die without a will.
If you father a child outside of marriage, that child may be able to get a share of your estate, even if you do not acknowledge the relationship, if they are able to petition the court for paternity and inheritance rights and establish that you are their father. They will automatically receive a share if you die without a will under certain other circumstances, such as if you ever acknowledged that you were their father in writing.
What’s a Survivorship Period?
You may have heard of the survivorship period, and this is simply a way of simplifying the probate process in situations where close relatives die in an accident, but not at the same moment. In order for someone to inherit from you through the intestacy laws, they must live longer than you by 120 hours. So, for example, if you and your father were to be in a car accident together, and your father were to die 30 hours after you, his estate would not receive your property in the division.
What About Half Relatives?
If you have a sister or brother, for example, by the same father but not the same mother, they still share equally in their right to your estate under the intestacy laws, if those are the only relatives you have. If you have full-blooded siblings, then they only receive half a share.
Does My Relative Have to Be an American?
Texas law does not require any inheriting relative to be a citizen of either the United States or the state of Texas to get their share of your property. The amount they receive is based on their relation to you, not on their nationality or immigration status.
What About Gifts I Made Before My Death?
If you give one of your relatives a gift before you pass away, this would not be deducted from their share of your estate unless you specifically state that you want it to be that way in writing. In other words, if you are giving a child, for example, some property as an advance on their inheritance, you have to actually make it clear at the time that that’s what you’re doing.
Do I Need an Estate Lawyer?
Probate law is perplexing and obscure, even under the best of circumstances. People have been known to make a will on their own, only for their relatives to discover after their death that the will is entirely invalid because some important step was not done properly. If that happens, the entire estate could be subject to intestacy laws. It’s always best to work with an experienced estate lawyer who can help you not only set up a will but also help you minimize federal tax burdens on your estate, protect certain parts of your estate from creditors and taxes, if possible, and help you think through what the implications will be of all the decisions you make.
For help with your estate, call us now at Hensley & Krueger, PLLC in Houston, TX at (713) 850 9700.
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