Joshua Dunegan

The short answer is: almost always, yes. Texas probate courts treat the representation of an estate as the representation of third-party interests, which means that attempting to file as an executor without a licensed attorney is legally impermissible in the vast majority of cases. If you are trying to figure out whether you have to have a lawyer for probate, or whether you can handle this yourself to save money, this page explains exactly what Texas law allows, what it prohibits, and the...

If you have a will, the short answer is: probably yes, but not necessarily in the way you're picturing. Having a will means your estate will likely go through some form of probate in Texas, but "probate" isn't one single process. Texas offers more than one path depending on what you owe, what you own, and how it's titled, and some of those paths are much simpler than the court proceeding most people imagine. Whether your estate goes through full administration, the shortened muniment of title...

If you've ever named someone as a beneficiary on a bank account, retirement account, or life insurance policy, you've probably wondered what actually happens to that money when you're gone. Here's the short answer: in most cases, no. Accounts with a properly named beneficiary generally pass directly to that person outside of probate. The money moves by contract, not by court order. That said, "generally" is doing some work in that sentence, and the exceptions matter. Let's walk through how...