Texas Probate Law

Probate simply is having the appropriate court in your county, whether Collin, Dallas or Denton, validate the existence of a decedent's will and allow the executor of the will to take care of the business affairs of the decedent's estate.

In Texas, the probate process is typically handled independently of court supervision once the court has given the executor the authority to carry out the decedent's wishes as spelled out in that person's will. Thus, probate is typically straight forward, and neither time consuming or expensive.

The general process followed to probate a will is as follows:

1. Filing an Application for Probate with the original will in the probate court in the county in which the decedent resided at the time of their death;
2. A simple prove-up hearing with the judge to have the executor appointed to handle the estate; and
3. Filing of an inventory of assets and liabilities with the probate court.

The probating of the will gives the executor the authority to act in place of the decedent, to sell the decedent's property, and to distribute it according to the terms of the will. Without the probating of the will, many things like real estate, mutual funds or other types of financial accounts can't be sold or distributed.

Finally, it is important to probate the will within four years of the death of the decedent, as it will be much more difficult, costly and time consuming to get court authority to handle the decedent's estate once the four year period to probate the will has passed.