Mother in Law died without a will in Texas

I live in Texas. My Mother in Law passed away Saturday, without leaving a will. She has 4 children, and she had verbalized her wishes to have her estate split 4 ways, but never put it in writing. All of the kids agree that they will split the estate as she wished. She had one of the kids on her bank accounts, etc., so he could have access to the money if she did pass away. My question is...do we have to go through a lawyer since everyone agrees? We'd like to avoid paying a lawyer if it's possible to split this estate without one. If it is possible, how do we go about it, and approximately how long will it take? The estate is worth approximately 250,000.00. Thank you very much for your time....you can e-mail me at:

[email protected]

Angie

SEPT. 13, 2001

DEAR FELIX:

You really should seriously consider consulting with a local probate lawyer to see what the legal consequences could be if your family does not file to have this estate probated.

There is a simple solution to your situation. All that is needed is to have someone in the family file papers at the courthouse for this to be an intestate probate (without a will) and that person would also be named as "personal representative" (means the same thing as executor) for the estate. That person would be responsible for claiming all assets, paying all outstanding bills (including paying for the ad in the newspaper that notifies creditors of the death and where to submit their claims for payment), paying taxes (if any), funeral bill, etc. Then after all expenses have been deducted, whatever money is left over is then split amongst the heirs.

THE PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE GETS TO CLAIM A 5% FEE FOR HIS/HER SERVICES. Handling the estate will be a simple matter of filling out forms and submitting them at the proper time, but you may also want to consider hiring a probate attorney to consult with in case any questions or problems might arise along the way. Entire process should take no more than a month or so.

SINCERELY,

[email protected]

Your mother-in-law dying without a will is called "intestate". Texas has some fairly specific property distribution LAWS that come into play in this case. A table of distribution (depending on heirs and survivors) can be found at:
http://www.bradie-law.com/page0004.htm
And a chart at:
http://www.brownmccaroll.com/chart.htm

Regretably, if she owns property or has title to any assets (house, auto, stocks, etc.), the estate may need to be probated to get a court order to direct the document holder (mortgage company, lender, etc.) to change ownership records.