Texas Intestate Succession Laws
If any part of a Texas decedent's estate is not effectively disposed of by will, the intestate share will be distributed in the following order and manner:
1. Surviving spouse. A surviving spouse is generally first in line to get any assets from the intestate estate. However, the amount a surviving spouse is entitled to depends on these situations:
If there are surviving children or direct descendants of the decedent, the surviving spouse takes one-third of the personal property in the estate, with the balance going to the children and descendants. The surviving spouse is also entitled to an interest in one-third of the land in the estate for the rest of his or her life (a.k.a., a life estate), with the remainder going to the decedent's children and descendants.
If there are no children of decedent or their descendants, the surviving spouse is entitled to all the personal property in the estate. The surviving spouse also gets outright ownership of one-half of the decedent's lands. The other half of any lands passes according to the distribution rules below (except that the surviving spouse gets everything if there are no surviving father, mother, or siblings, and their descendants, of decedent).
2. Heirs other than surviving spouse. Any part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse as indicated above, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes in the following order to:
Decedent's children and their descendants.
Decedent's parents equally if both survive. If only one parent survives, however, the estate is divided into two equal portions, one of which passes to the surviving parent and the other half passes to the decedent's brothers and sisters and their descendants If no siblings or their descendants exist, the whole estate is inherited by the surviving parent.
Decedent's siblings and their descendants.
If none of the above are available, then the inheritance is divided into two equal shares ("moieties"), one for decedent's paternal kin and one for decedent's maternal kin, and distributed in the following order:
To the grandfather and grandmother in equal portions.
If only one of the grandparents is living, then the estate is divided into two equal parts, one of which goes to the survivor and the other goes to the descendants of the deceased grandparent. If there be no such descendants, then the whole estate is inherited by the surviving grandparent.
If both grandparents are deceased, then the entire portion goes to their descendants, and so on without end, passing in like manner to the nearest lineal ancestors and their descendants.
If there is no surviving grandparent or descendant of a grandparent on either the paternal or the maternal side, the entire estate passes to the decedent's relatives on the other side in the same manner as the half.
3. State of Texas. If there is no taker under any of the above provisions, the intestate estate passes to the state of Texas.
Texas Intestate Succession Law Fun Facts
Relatives of the half blood inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood.
Decedent's children or lineal descendants conceived before decedent's death, but born thereafter, inherit as if they had been born in decedent's lifetime. Other persons, however, have to be alive at the time of decedent's death and be capable in law to take as heirs.
An individual who fails to survive the decedent by 120 hours is considered to have predeceased the decedent for purposes of Texas' intestate succession laws. However, these rules don't apply if the end result is that the state of Texas gets the intestate estate.
Texas' intestate succession laws, as well as other laws dealing with wills and decedents' estates, can be found in the Texas Probate Code.
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