Estate Planning Rockwall Tag Archives

When people think of “contesting a will” they typically imagine an rich family member (probably in a wheel chair) who has recently passed away and a greedy family member who just wants to make a quick buck. Why? Because that is how it is always portrayed in movies. In most cases, that is not the reason for contesting the Will of the deceased.

In Rockwall and Kaufman county, quite often we see Wills that were done 30-40 years ago and they my not meet all of the standard requirements of Wills done today. That does not necessarily mean that these Wills are not able to be probated, but if the testator is still alive, it is best to update the Will as there may have been changes to the needs of the estate or a means to update the Will to comply with modern requirements that will help avoid a Will contest.

Sometimes there are very good reasons for contesting the validity of a Will. In Texas, there are five major categories of reasons to contest a Will and if any one of them is present, then the Will should be set aside and not sent forward to be probated.

In Rockwall and Kaufman counties, it is quite normal for families to be blended: one or both spouses had children from previous marriages prior to entering into the current marriage. So, when I talk to potential clients about obtaining a Will, one of the inevitable questions is always “what happens if I die without a Will?” So, lets talk about that for a minute. Recently, I had a couple with a blended family in my office who had substantial assets that they wanted to have distributed upon their death. They had done some research and were aware enough to know that Texas does have a set of laws known as the “laws of descent and distribution” in the State of Texas, but they wanted to know how it would affect their estate if they just used the default rules instead controlling the process through having a comprehensive estate plan. I’ll answer this just like I did with them:

What Happens If I Die Without a Will?

Chapter 201 of the Texas Estates Code addresses this issue and, based on whether you are married, divorced, blended family, adopted children, died without children, and so on and so forth, this chapter deals with any of these such issues.

Articles Tagged with Estate Planning Rockwall

Five Grounds for Contesting Wills in Rockwall or Kaufman County

What Happens If I Die Without a Will?