Posted: 9/28/2016 12:33:09 AM EDT
| In Texas, how long does this process usually take, assuming the presence of a proper, uncontested will? |
|
I don't know for sure in Texas, but I believe that 'notice' has to be published in the 'newspaper of record' in the county where the probate is being administered giving notice to any creditors who may have a claim against the estate. Then there is a waiting period (30 days?) for those creditors to come forward and file any claim. If everything is in order after that, it shouldn't take more than a month to get the final order. Every state is different and I am currently going through this process in Indiana so my information may not hold true in Texas.
|
| It CAN take up to 4 years. Most are completed in a much shorter period of time. It largely depends on the size of the estate, amount of real property involved, number of bequests and beneficiaries. Last one I did, from time of death to disbursal of all assets was about 7 months. It could have probably been done a little quicker but that's what it took. |
|
Process goes about like this-----
1. Request for an administration is filed with the appropriate court. 2. Notice to creditors is posted. 3. Judge sets a hearing to qualify the Executor. 4. Executor is qualified and the will admitted to probate, letters Testamentary are issued by the Clerk. 5. Executor files an inventory with the Court stating what assets are on hand and any liabilities that must be accounted for. Generally, he will NOT be in a big hurry to do this. Many people who die were very sick at the time. Hospital bills etc....are often slow to arrive, sometimes Medicare and Supplements pay part, some things are not covered, it's not always that easy to figure out for people that don't do it every day.......Understand that once the money is distributed to the Heirs....IT'S GONE. Try asking someone you wrote a check to to cough some of it up to pay a late bill for Old Uncle Henrys hospital stay......Have fun chasing them all over hell and creation trying to get it and prevent the Estate from being sued over it...... 6. Executor distributes property. He may sell items, transfer titles etc.....as part of this process. 7. Executor files a notice of distribution-essentially saying that he has completed his duties and disbursed the property. 8. Estate is closed. |
|
Yeah, sounds kind of ominous. There were some hard feelings and I'm not really sure who the executor was at the time of death. Guess it might be best to wait and see, and maybe hear from the deceased's attorney.
Property will consist of investments. Debts will be medical. |
|
I was executor of my aunt's estate when she died in 2013. The process itself was relatively simple with a little bit of detective work and hacking (ie: accounts, emails, etc) thrown in. For me, the process was complicated by the fact she lived in Brownsville (I live north of Dallas), she had a slow-ass attorney (who I'm guessing didn't have a lot of experience in probate since he was wrong on a lot of stuff), the case had a slow-ass judge who would take month-long vacations, and I had some seriously impatient and opinionated half-relatives pestering me throughout the process which just added to the joy (they didn't contest or anything, just constantly bitched about how long everything was taking).
She died in July 2013. Couldn't get into a judge until October 2013 to start the official probate process, get my letters testamentary, legally access/open/close accounts of hers, pay bills, and actually do anything meaningful/official. Took maybe a year before I could officially start distributing money and/or property. I received the final order wrapping up the estate in June 2015. There was still some residual stuff (income tax etc) that kept coming since the attorney/judge kept drawing out the process longer than I had anticipated. Pretty sure I filed the final, final, final tax return for the estate back in March of this year. She also had property in Arkansas. The attorney here in Texas kept telling me we needed that info on the inventory/appraisement that would be submitted to the judge. He kept insisting on a valuation which didn't exist since it's been family property with out real appraisement in decades. In the end, he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. After I had done some research on my own, I came to realize Texas has no authority/jurisdiction over property outside the state. Told him to fuck off, I'm not spending the time/money on an appraisal, and you have no fucking business doing anything with that property. So guess what? I had to go through the probate process all over again in fucking Arkansas with another fucking attorney, and this just tacked that much more time to the process since dingus in Brownsville didn't know what he was doing and after a year or so finally figured out I need to contact an attorney in Arkansas. Luckily, I did it all by phone/email/snail mail, and it was stupid simple since it was just a single piece of property that this particular attorney has dealt with before. Just took a while since they require a 6-month waiting period before closing everything out. Pepper your angus for the attorney fees if this isn't a cut & dry spouse/sole beneficiary type of deal. |
|
Quoted:
I was executor of my aunt's estate when she died in 2013. The process itself was relatively simple with a little bit of detective work and hacking (ie: accounts, emails, etc) thrown in. For me, the process was complicated by the fact she lived in Brownsville (I live north of Dallas), she had a slow-ass attorney (who I'm guessing didn't have a lot of experience in probate since he was wrong on a lot of stuff), the case had a slow-ass judge who would take month-long vacations, and I had some seriously impatient and opinionated half-relatives pestering me throughout the process which just added to the joy (they didn't contest or anything, just constantly bitched about how long everything was taking). She died in July 2013. Couldn't get into a judge until October 2013 to start the official probate process, get my letters testamentary, legally access/open/close accounts of hers, pay bills, and actually do anything meaningful/official. Took maybe a year before I could officially start distributing money and/or property. I received the final order wrapping up the estate in June 2015. There was still some residual stuff (income tax etc) that kept coming since the attorney/judge kept drawing out the process longer than I had anticipated. Pretty sure I filed the final, final, final tax return for the estate back in March of this year. She also had property in Arkansas. The attorney here in Texas kept telling me we needed that info on the inventory/appraisement that would be submitted to the judge. He kept insisting on a valuation which didn't exist since it's been family property with out real appraisement in decades. In the end, he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. After I had done some research on my own, I came to realize Texas has no authority/jurisdiction over property outside the state. Told him to fuck off, I'm not spending the time/money on an appraisal, and you have no fucking business doing anything with that property. So guess what? I had to go through the probate process all over again in fucking Arkansas with another fucking attorney, and this just tacked that much more time to the process since dingus in Brownsville didn't know what he was doing and after a year or so finally figured out I need to contact an attorney in Arkansas. Luckily, I did it all by phone/email/snail mail, and it was stupid simple since it was just a single piece of property that this particular attorney has dealt with before. Just took a while since they require a 6-month waiting period before closing everything out. Pepper your angus for the attorney fees if this isn't a cut & dry spouse/sole beneficiary type of deal. I'm sorry you have a fucked up attorney. Unless you want your friends and family to go though this bull shit, a couple things you can do is 1) create a trust, the trust basically pre-probates your estate. 2) put together binder of all your assets, bank accounts, stocks, safety deposit boxes and even property you own. Also list all places you owe debt, even credit cards with a zero balance list that way they can be checked if there are any outstanding debts. Keeps these up dated closing accounts, moving money etc. I have all of this not only in documents but on cd's and a thumb drive. Most is kept in my safe, but a second copy is in a safety deposit box at my bank. My girlfriend has a letter to be opened in my death with locations and combinations of safes and deposit boxes. It also tells how to sell items like my guns with approximate values so some donkey doesn't offer her $500 for a $20,000 gun. She is also on the trust so she can possesses all my class 3 firearms. When one of my uncles died, no one knew where everything was, debts owed etc. Took over 5 years to get everything finalized. The fees weren't bad, just took forever. Plus had an attorney that was lazy. When my mom passed away, she had a trust plus put together a binder. I had pretty much everything handled in a few months. |
|
Quoted: Yeah, sounds kind of ominous. There were some hard feelings and I'm not really sure who the executor was at the time of death. Guess it might be best to wait and see, and maybe hear from the deceased's attorney. Property will consist of investments. Debts will be medical. |