To create a guardianship in Texas, you must do so in writing, or a court will have to appoint a guardian on your behalf if you become mentally unable to create a guardianship. If you create a guardianship, you must sign the guardianship document and date it. You must have your guardianship witnessed by at least two individuals who are at least 14 years old. In limited circumstances, you may be able to bypass the requirement for witnesses if you create your guardianship in your own handwriting or have someone else create it for you in his or her own handwriting in your direct presence.

You can speak with your estate planning attorney about creating a guardianship document. Your attorney can help you appoint substitute guardians, alternates if one of your appointees refuses to serve, or is unable to serve.

The procedure is called an Affidavit of Heirship. In this procedure two disinterested witnesses swear under penalty of perjury that you are the heir of the deceased. After a short proceeding, the heir can then start to sell the assets of the estate. It is important to note that this does not prove forevermore than the person is the appropriate heir. A full Probate proceeding is necessary to do that.

An Affidavit of Heirship is not appropriate in all circumstances. Generally, if the estate has multiple debts, the normal Probate process is the better option as that ensures that creditors are appropriately handled. However, the streamlined process is available and something that you should consider when a relative dies in Texas. Ask an Texas attorney whether or not an Affidavit of Heirship is appropriate for you.

The passport is a valuable legal tool that provides Texans with a rather detailed summary of what happens to their personal possessions and real property when they die with or without a will, or when they die testate or intestate. The guide also explains how the probate procedures work in Texas. Although the Texas Young Lawyers Association did not intend to create the handbook to replace the advice of an attorney, they did intend for it to supplement an attorney’s professional advice. The Texas Probate Passport contains easily accessible “tabs” organized by estate planning topics. If you need some preliminary guidance or an understanding of how the probate process works in Texas, you may want to review this guide before scheduling an initial consultation with our office. The guide contains a useful “Probate Preparation Checklist” of items that you should bring with you to your first scheduled consultation. The guide provides easy-to-understand information regarding the Texas Probate Code.

1.      Probate Passport Project

In 2011, the Texas Young Lawyers Association created the “Texas Probate Passport,” a new project which is essentially a pamphlet outlining the estate planning rights that Texans have. This new informational brochure is available electronically in PDF format, and you can access it here: http://www.tyla.org/tyla/assets/File/TYLA_Texas%20Probate%20Passport.pdf.

The passport is a valuable legal tool that provides Texans with a rather detailed summary of what happens to their personal possessions and real property when they die with or without a will, or when they die testate or intestate. The guide also explains how the probate procedures work in Texas. Although the Texas Young Lawyers Association did not intend to create the handbook to replace the advice of an attorney, they did intend for it to supplement an attorney’s professional advice. The Texas Probate Passport contains easily accessible “tabs” organized by estate planning topics. If you need some preliminary guidance or an understanding of how the probate process works in Texas, you may want to review this guide before scheduling an initial consultation with our office. The guide contains a useful “Probate Preparation Checklist” of items that you should bring with you to your first scheduled consultation. The guide provides easy-to-understand information regarding the Texas Probate Code.

The judicial declaration of heirship is an alternative to the probate process. In some cases, a court may require this type of proceeding if more than four years passes from the date of a decedent’s death or the decedent’s will is not admitted to probate within four years of his or her death.

If there is no written deed or other legal instrument establishing actual ownership of real estate, you may want to consider this type of proceeding. Furthermore, you may take advantage of this proceeding when a decedent passes away without owing money to creditors and without unsatisfied debts. Because of the limited circumstances of when muniment of title procedures may be used, you should discuss the benefits of bypassing the longer probate process with your attorney. Your attorney may be able to suggest an alternative solution if you do not qualify for a muniment of title proceeding.

To proceed with the muniment of title process, you or your attorney must complete an application and pay associated filing fees before scheduling a hearing. You will probably have to provide certain documents, including declarations from witnesses proving the authenticity of a decedent’s will.

Elizabeth Edwards did not want to divorce her husband but instead chose to live apart from him. Because she did not divorce him, he can still benefit from the state’s elective share statute allowing him to receive a minimum share of her estate preventing her from completely disinheriting him. Controversy followed her death, and we learned that she expressly disinherited her husband in her new will created only days before her death. Elizabeth Edwards also had a trust, and although her will is public information, her trust is not. As such, we may not know the terms of her trust and whether John is a beneficiary of her trust. However, John Edwards is worth at least $30 million, and it seems unlikely that he would further damage his public image by fighting her beneficiaries for a portion of her estate.

To understand the importance and unfortunate timing of her newly drafted will, we need to look closer into her personal life. Because Elizabeth Edwards did not legally divorce her husband, John Edwards, her decision to disinherit him may have no legal validity. According to the North Carolina elective share laws, because the two were never divorced, he may be able to receive at least a portion of her estate. The North Carolina Probate Code gives John Edwards the legal right to receive up to one-third of her estate, which is valued at over $1 million. Following her death in 2010, many legal scholars began wondering if her attorneys should have done more to protect her estate and help her write him out of her will sooner. However, since Elizabeth decided against divorcing her husband, her attorneys would have had to convince her otherwise or develop a more rock solid estate plan to disinherit him.

If you die without a valid will, and you were never legally married to your common law spouse, Texas law favors your living blood relatives over your purported common law spouse. This result may not be what you would have wanted, and your estate may pass to those you were never close to. Thus, creating a valid will by complying with the Texas Probate Code is important for everyone, especially those married at common law or those who believe they are legally married at common law.

Since his death, his long-term girlfriend, Eva Gabrielsson, filed a lawsuit asserting a moral right to his estate. Offered over $2 million to settle her lawsuit, Gabrielsson rejected an offer from his heirs to settle her lawsuit. Larsson drafted a will in 1977 leaving his assets to the Socialist Party. Since it was not properly witnessed, Swedish courts declared his will invalid. Because it was invalid, his estate passed to his surviving heirs according to the country’s intestacy laws. Although Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson never married or had children together, many believe she should have received at least some share of his estate, since the primary reason for why they chose to remain unmarried was for security concerns. The pair would have had to disclose their addresses publicly to obtain a Swedish marriage license.

Was the result equitable? If Stieg Larsson drafted a valid will before his death, he most likely would have included her as a beneficiary of his estate. Their relationship, which spanned over three decades, was described by close friends as one filled with support and much love.