What is probate and how is it carried out in Texas?

It is Mandatory to plan your basic estate procedures to get a surety that your family or trusted people get your property and other assets after you die. If the will is not pre-planned, then there should be a person you can trust with dividing your property. It saves the family from unnecessary debts and probate. In case you did not fulfill the requirements mentioned above, the court takes control of your estate plans.

Here is how the process is executed:

Basics of probate to know:

When a person in Texas dies and there is no specific proof of transferring the property like payments to beneficiaries or survivorship right in joint ownership, the property gets distributed by a procedure called ‘probate’.

Private refers to a process in which the court gets involved to legally distribute the dead person’s property. It overlooks its debts and other payments from its assets. A proper team is hired to make this process easy and to protect the rights and interests of people. The court and the hired team that handles the whole process is altogether called probate administration.

If there is a drafted will of the decedent, it’s a personal representative and the executor has to file a probate. There is a specific time duration set by the court for every type of probating process and everyone is bound to follow it.

Periods for probate procedure:

For a drafted will, there are four years to file probate by the person who had drafted the will. If he does not do so within this period, the court handles all the proceedings under the law of intestacy. The property gets distributed per this law.

In case of a general probate procedure, the court takes about six months or even a year to execute it. It takes more time when the will is not identified and the court supervises the proceedings more deeply.

Although it takes a lot of time filing and executing the probate process, the beneficiaries are not deprived of the funds they claim to get. There are some assets like insurance policies, pensions, profit sharing or IRAs that are transferred by the companies directly to the person named in the documents. These assets are called a non-probate estate.

It is mandatory to hire a probate attorney to handle the court proceedings. The court does not allow non-lawyers to file a probate case and represent themself in estate court. The attorney better knows the rules and regulations to file certain probate. The experience with him will be quite easy and helpful.

Steps to follow in Texas probate:

The probate should be filed in a Texas estate court. There are the following 8 basic steps that everyone follows in the probate procedure:

• Filing
• Posting
• Validating the will
• Asset cataloguing
• Identifying the beneficiaries
• Informing the creditors
• Solving the misunderstandings
• Dividing the assets

All these steps are followed for a smooth and legal probate procedure. After all the disputes are resolved and debts are cleared, beneficiaries get the assets that are remaining.