What happens to my property if I die without a will while
married, and I have no children or other living descendants?
In Texas, the probate code assumes that you would want your
surviving spouse to inherit all of your one-half interest in your community
property, as well as all of your separate personal property.
If you owned any separate real property, though – in other
words, you owned real estate that was not part of the community property estate
with your surviving spouse – Texas law assumes that you would want to keep some
of that real property “in the family.”
WARNING: THIS GETS COMPLICATED.
Here’s how the Texas probate court will divide your separate
real property:
If you are survived by your spouse and both of your parents
(natural or adopted, but not step-parents), your surviving spouse will inherit
one-half and each of your parents would inherit one-fourth;
If you are survived by your spouse and only one of your
parents, and there are no living siblings or descendants of siblings (nieces,
nephews, etc.), your surviving spouse will inherit one-half and your surviving
parent will inherit one-half;
If you are survived by your spouse and only one of your
parents, and there are living siblings or descendants of siblings (nieces,
nephews, etc.), your surviving spouse will inherit one-half, your surviving
parent will inherit one-fourth, and any living siblings (or their descendants)
will split the other one-fourth into equal shares;
If you are survived by your spouse, but neither of your
parents, and there are living siblings or descendants of siblings (nieces, nephews,
etc.), your surviving spouse will inherit one-half, and any living siblings (or
their descendants) will split the other one-half into equal shares; or
If you are survived by your spouse, but neither of your
parents, and there are no living siblings or descendants of siblings (nieces,
nephews, etc.), your surviving spouse will inherit all of your separate real
property.
Since this situation only happens if you die without a valid
will, you can avoid all of that convoluted analysis by simply making a will, which we highly recommend to everyone.
There is a very good explanation with pie charts of the
foregoing here: http://www.co.travis.tx.us/probate/pdfs/DnD_diagrams.pdf.
By: Cynthia W. Veidt
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