In our latest video, we dive into the specifics of how the Texas Estates Code—not judges, attorneys, or even the families themselves—strictly determines heirship. Understanding these laws is vital because they often include children from prior relationships or even siblings in the distribution of assets.
We explore several critical scenarios, such as:
- Blended Families: How children from outside the current marriage may have a claim to both separate and community property.
- Separate Property: Why siblings might inherit a portion of a home or land purchased before a marriage, even if there is a surviving spouse.
- Half-Siblings: The unique Texas rule where half-siblings inherit half as much as full siblings.
Providing accurate family history is the most important step in this legal process. Misidentifying heirs can lead to costly errors and delays during the court’s investigation.
Watch the full video to learn how to correctly identify heirs and ensure your family’s estate is handled properly according to Texas law. If you have questions about the heirship process, we are here to help.
Video Transcript
0:00 Intro
0:23 Heirs of An Estate
1:08 Existing Children
1:45 Surviving Spouse
2:22 Half-Siblings
2:50 Percentages Matter
0:00 Intro
For families in Texas that have a loved one who did not leave behind a will, a lot of times, the biggest question that we’re gonna get asked is, “Who takes the estate?”. A common misconception is that if the deceased individual was married, the surviving spouse takes all. Few, few cases, that may be the case, but typically you’re going to have children that are going to be involved, and sometimes even siblings of the decedent will be involved.
0:23 Heirs of An Estate
So, we did have our prior video that discussed how an heirship is done in Texas, and the various steps required to accomplish that, but here we’re going to talk about how it is Texas actually determine who are the heirs of an estate. And I’ll frequently have people say, ‘well, this person hasn’t seen the family in ten years”, like they’re not getting anything; or I’m gonna tell the judge because they shouldn’t get anything. And while I can empathize, that that probably is the case, the judges do not decide who the heirs are. The courts don’t decide, the attorney doesn’t decide, the families don’t decide. It is the Texas Estates Code lays out who the heirs of the estate are and what percentages they are entitled to if your loved one did not have a will.
1:08 Existing Children
So, if you have a surviving spouse, an important thing to consider is, are there children from outside that marriage? If there are children from outside that current marriage, they will have an interest in not only some of the separate property of the decedent, but they will actually also have an interest in the community property of the decedent. So the surviving spouse in that scenario is not going to take 100% of the community property. The surviving spouse will maintain their 50% interest in any community property, but the decedent’s children from any prior relationships will actually take the decedent’s 50% of the community property.
1:45 Surviving Spouse
Another interesting scenario is if you have a surviving spouse and there are no children—say the decedent never had or adopted any children—then the family automatically thinks the surviving spouse takes 100%. While the surviving spouse takes 100% of the community property, the siblings of the decedent actually will have an interest in any separate real property that the decedent had. So if there’s a home or land that the decedent purchased prior to that marriage to the surviving spouse, there are other heirs that can actually come into play and be interested in the estate and need to be served notice of the estate.
2:22 Half-Siblings
Another interesting scenario here in Texas is half-siblings. Say you have a decedent that was not married and did not have any children and both of their parents have passed away, or one of their parents has passed away. In that case, the surviving parent would take 50% of the estate and the siblings would take the remaining 50% of the estate. However, if there are half-siblings of the decedent, here in Texas, half-siblings take half as much as full siblings.
2:50 Percentages Matter
So, when you’re listing out the percentages in your heirship application, again, it’s very important to make sure you’re providing your attorney as much information as possible because the last thing we want is to file an application with incorrect percentages. Have the attorney ad litem that we discussed in one of our other videos do their investigation and give us a call and say, “Actually, some of these siblings are half-siblings, so your percentages in your application are wrong.” So very important to make sure you’re laying out all the family information upfront so that we can make the correct determination based on the Texas Estates Code who those heirs are going to be.
So if you have any other questions about heirships for a loved one that did not have a will, you can give our firm a call or visit our website below and we’d be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you.