A lot of divorce settlements include a promise about the kids. One parent agrees to leave the children of that marriage a share of everything when he dies. Then life moves on. He remarries, builds new wealth with a new spouse, and puts most of it in both their names. When he dies, the jointly […]
Original wills go missing all the time. Someone moves into assisted living, a house gets cleaned out, papers get shuffled, and years later the family finds a copy of the will but not the signed original. Texas lets you probate a copy, but you have to prove more than you would with the original in […]
Most parents assume the custody fights end when a child turns eighteen. That isn’t always true. When an adult child can’t manage his own affairs, divorced parents can end up back in court, this time fighting over who gets appointed guardian. The stakes are the same as a custody case: medical care, where the child […]
Most families argue about who should handle a parent’s estate. Usually the fight is about competence, or money, or an old grudge nobody has let go of. Every so often the fight is about something much harder: one of the people asking to be put in charge has already hurt somebody else in the family. […]
Families often treat a disclaimer as a courtesy. One heir signs a piece of paper saying he does not want anything, everyone agrees the estate should go to somebody else, and the paperwork moves. It feels like a housekeeping step. It is not. A disclaimer is one of the most powerful documents in Texas probate, […]
What is an indemnity agreement in Texas probate? Learn when banks require one before releasing estate funds and what happens if you refuse.
A will is a snapshot. It captures what someone wanted on the day they signed it. Life keeps moving after that. People die, marriages end, children are born, and the trusts and companies named in the document quietly wind down on their own schedules. The will does not update itself. Most people know what happens […]
Estate fights get personal fast when a house is on the line. A dependent administrator decides the family home has to be sold to pay debts. The heirs see the property as theirs. So when the probate court signs an order allowing the sale, the first instinct is to run to the court of appeals […]
Selling real estate owned by a church or other organization is rarely as simple as signing a contract. The entity has its own governance, its own approval requirements, and its own internal dynamics — and any one of those can turn a straightforward sale into a fight. When those internal issues collide with the technical […]
When a grandparent steps in as both the executor of a child’s estate and the trustee of trusts set up for the grandchildren, family loyalty can blur what the law actually requires. A grandfather who pays for tuition, covers living expenses, and quietly handles the family’s money looks nothing like a wrongdoer. But the legal […]