Texas Probate Attorneys | 6 Offices Serving Families Statewide

We handle everything—using our detailed process to ensure every step is done right. We prepare all documents, file with the court, cover court fees upfront, and guide you clearly from start to finish. You’ll know exactly what to do and when, because probate is our specialty.

The most common factor for probate to occur is that someone passes away and the family wants to divide the assets. Usually, the trigger is someone wants to change a deed to a home or take out a loan against it.

If there are no assets, there is no reason to go through a probate. Sometimes, probate is expensive. Why spend thousands of dollars to get nothing? If there are no assets, there is nothing to do.

If there is a will the beneficiaries will be notified. If there is no will, there is a kind of hierarchy to the heirs identified by the court. The spouse has the first right to be appointed as administrator. If they don’t want to do it, the judge must decide which of the children to appoint as the administrator. Then creditors come in. Creditors oftentimes have a big debt that they are trying to recover.

You only have four years to probate a will. After that, you might fall into an exception, but usually, the judge won’t allow you to probate that will anymore.

If you don’t probate a will within four years after someone passes away, that will usually become invalid. You lose your opportunity to have the will probated, which can lead to harsh consequences.

The number one high-risk factor for probate litigation is when heirs don’t get along or stop communicating. If anyone is unhappy or got an unequal share, it’s a very high-risk situation for probate litigation because it’s so easy to begin a dispute.

The best way to avoid probate litigation is to avoid probate and the best way to do that is with a revocable living trust.

If your loved one has passed away and you have their will, you need to call an attorney and they need to examine the will to see if you need to have the will probated. Most people don’t realize that will have to be admitted to the probate courts in order to be effective, and if you wait too long after someone passes away you may lose your right to have the will probated!

The first thing you should do is hire an attorney, Texas does not allow people to probate a will without an attorney to assist. Usually, we just need about 20 minutes of questions answered, as well as a copy of the death certificate and the original signed will. From there, it should take about two to three months before your attorney can get a hearing scheduled in front of your county’s probate court.

Yes!! If you don’t have the will probated, then the deceased person’s name will still be on the deed records as the owner and if you ever go to sell or refinance the house you will not be able to do so until you have the will probated with the local probate court. Waiting usually makes things more complicated, and therefore more expensive.

These terms are used to transfer ownership of assets outside of probate, so they “trump” the terms of a will. They are similar to designating a beneficiary on financial assets and allow family members to access funds immediately and quickly without having to wait until an executor has been appointed in probate.

A handwritten will is called a holographic will, and it is legal even if there are no witnesses. These wills lead to some of the most complicated and difficult situations in probate courts and often result in years longs processes that cost tens of thousands of dollars to resolve.  This simple reason is that most people who handwrite a will don’t know the legal terms that need to be used to make going through probate simple, and this often leads to major mistakes that require intense supervision by a probate judge.

Of course, if the will was forged or written when the deceased didn’t have full mental capacity, a will contest is warranted.  Other situations arise if the executor is not following the terms of the will, such as selling assets that were specifically left to individuals, spending estate funds for their own personal gain, selling assets below fair market value to close confidants, and failing to report a proper inventory or accounting.  Perhaps the most common is when an executor is taking years to administer an estate and is just not doing the job they were tasked with.