Correct in Texas, if you die the estate will be divided between spouse and sibblings despite what your will?

Question

When my father died, I had to sign my share of our home back to my mother despite the fact that dad had a will giving all assets to my mother. Is this law still in effect?

Answer 1

i haven't read any other answers on here, so if i repeat, i'm sorry, but its hard to build off someone else's answer.

SInce it was a house, its likely that it was owned in Joint Tenancy by your father and mother. This mean that your father had no share of the house to give away if he was the first to die. Joint tenancy is a term of art in the law, which means it has a specific definition, and that includes 'right of survivorship' meaning the surviving tenant gets all of the deceased tenant's interest without going through probate. The house was only ever partially owned by either parent, they agreed when they bought it, that the first to die would have their interest automatically go to the survivor. this meant that your dad didn't have a half interest to give away at his death.

The will giving all assets to the mother....that's not making sense to me....how did you end up with a share in the house in the first place if not through the will?

for your initial question, you can do pretty much what you want with your will, but there are certain things the court is not going to allow, such as shutting a widow(er) out of a share in the estate. Also, a longtime married couple has a joint estate anyway, so even if the car is in his name, its not his to give away at death, its marital property. usually a surviving spouse will get 1/2 the estate if there are no children, and a 1/3 if there are. so if a husband writes a will saying i give $5,000 to my wife and the rest to Uncle Bob, and his part of the estate (after her share of the marital property is deducted) is still 1 million dollars, the court is not going to allow this (provided the wife challenges it) she'll get 1/2 of that if there are no kids, and 1/3 if there are. DO REMEMBER, that probate law (what we've been talking about) is state specific, so there are variances from state to state.

Answer 2

Keep in mind that even though your Mom had her community interest in your Father's estate, your Father's hiers also have an interest in his estate. Was the Will probated? If the Will was not probated (proved) it's a mute point because the estate is just sitting there. If it wasn't, I strongly advise you do so because when your Mother passes, you don't want to have a dead guy in Title (your Father). This could create major issues if you want to sell your parents house after they pass.

Answer 3

The Texas Probate Code seems to be fairly similar to most states' probate codes. Without knowing the specifics of the probate case, it seems most likely you were being asked to waive the "family allowance" payable for a year after death if you did not have or might not have had adequate resources to live on.

Or there might have been a problem with the will itself. Go to the probate court where the will was probated and you should be able to see why you were asked to waive your interest.

Answer 4

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