Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas
My wife's Dad passed away in july, his wife (my wife's step mother) is the executer of his will.
Is there a time limit on reading his will? Doe's she ever have to make the contents of his will known? She has been giving his stuff away to her two biological daughters and nothing to his two biological daughters. Now she is considering selling their house and property and moving to town and buying a new place of her own. They have 20 acres of land and a house that he purchased and had for 14 years before they got married. His intentions were to separate the land between the four girls evenly. No one can look at the will except the executer according to their lawyer! Are there state laws that require the executer to read the will in a timely manner? They live in Texas. Thank You for your help!
2 Answers from Attorneys
A person having custody of a will is required by the Texas Probate Code to deliver it to the court (Section 75). Most people do that by filing an application to probate the will. The law provides stiff penalties for failure to do so.
No one is the executor of the will until the court appoints them to be. If she has, in fact, been improperly delivery estate property, then there is a good chance that the judge would want someone else to be the executor.
The instructions in the will control and the executor has a fiduciary responsibility which means that he or she is held to a high standard.
You should get a probate lawyer to represent you. If we can help, call us at (817) 336-8500.
Sounds like you're getting some bad information from the surviving spouse's side of this. Wills in Texas are not usually formally "read." More attorneys would be familiar with this exercise from television and movies than their own experiences in probate.
As Mr. Leonard points out, a Will does nothing until it is offered and admitted to probate. If the surviving spouse is acting like she's in charge before this point, she's taking some great risks and may very well be exposing herself to some rather severe liability. The notion that nobody can look at the Will is beyond ridiculous, and I'd be more inclined to believe that this is something that the surviving spouse told you (as her understanding), rather than an attorney.
To answer your most direct question, Yes, there are several laws that protect the beneficiaries under a Will. Learning of their existence will not, however, solve your problem. Your wife needs an attorney, and she needs to visit with one as soon as possible. The longer the present situation continues, the more harm the surviving spouse can do. Looks like Mr. Leonard is nearby in Fort Worth. I too practice in probate exclusively, and I'd be happy to visit with you and/or your wife. Feel free to give me a call at your convenience if you'd like at (817) 937-3789.
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