In Stephenville, Texas, probate is a legal procedure that a court must go through before giving effect to a will. Before putting a will into effect, a court has to decide that it is legitimate.

As part of this procedure, the court in Stephenville, Texas has various important responsibilities. Most especially, it has to decide if the will is valid, and consider evidence that it is not (if any such evidence exists). The probate court then has to guarantee that the property is distributed in an orderly manner, as close to the terms of the will (assuming it is valid) as possible.

The executor of the estate is frequently named in the will. If not, the probate court in Stephenville, Texas will name will appoint a person to serve as executor. This is typically the person who stands to inherit the most under the will.

The executor is the individual who initiates probate proceedings. The person who stands to inherit the most from the will is typically appointed the executor, because they will have the most inducement to help the process go as quickly as possible, so they can get their inheritance.

Duties of the Executor in Stephenville, Texas

Executors of estates have a various distinct responsibilities. First, the executor must start the probate proceedings. Probate almost always needs to be finalized before the property in an estate can be released according to the terms of the will.

They additionally are obligated to provide notice to the people with a direct interest in the estate that the decedent has died, typically by filing a death certificate.

The executor will also have to collect and make accessible a list of all of the decedent's debts and assets, as well as a list of those who stand to inherit from the decedent.

Because the executor serves as the living representation of the decedent's estate, they are solely accountable for proving the validity of the will. This is a lot of work, but because executors are typically chosen based on how much they stand to inherit from a will once its validity is confirmed, they have a good incentive to see the process to finalization.

How Can A Stephenville, Texas Lawyer Help?

Because of the difficulties involved in probate, it would be smart to hire a reliable Stephenville, Texas probate lawyer, especially if you are the executor of an estate and unsure how to proceed.