Serving as executor looks straightforward until real work begins: securing property, filing inventories, paying debts, and keeping meticulous records. Family members balancing careers and caregiving may lack time or expertise, risking missed deadlines that incur court fines. Emotional ties can cloud judgment about asset sales, especially when a family home…
Smartphones, hard drives, and cloud accounts store value far beyond family photos. Cryptocurrency wallets can hold six-figure sums, and NFTs sometimes trade for more than downtown condos. Digital art also carries copyright rights that affect future royalties. Unlike traditional property, these assets are invisible during a walk-through of the deceased’s…
Real estate, mineral interests, and timberland located outside Texas are governed by the laws of the state where the property sits. Dallas families who own cabins in Broken Bow, farmland in Arkansas, or production wells in Louisiana cannot transfer those assets with a Texas-only probate. Ancillary probate—an additional court proceeding…
Oil and gas royalties feel like passive mailbox money, yet probate treats them as complex real property interests. Each royalty check stems from a lease that must be located, interpreted, and confirmed for accuracy. Executors must verify the decedent’s percentage ownership in every producing well, then track revenue back to…
Texas probate law lets personal representatives choose between independent and dependent administration, and that decision directly affects how long heirs wait for assets. Independent administration removes most court oversight, empowering an executor to act without asking a judge for routine approvals. Dependent administration, by contrast, keeps the probate judge involved…
Misconceptions about probate spread faster than brisket recipes at a backyard cook-out. Friends repeat half-truths, and online forums mix other states’ rules with Texas procedure. Believing the wrong story can push families into expensive, time-consuming missteps. Let’s bust five common myths—and share a few practical tips—with insight from an Austin…
Until you go through the probate process, you have no reason to know how the probate process works. At McCulloch & Miller, we are experts in probate so that you don’t have to be. One question our clients often ask is how long probate takes from beginning to end. The…
Muniment of title is a process that can simplify estate distribution for beneficiaries, but it is not always the right tool for a decedent’s estate. How exactly does muniment of title work? And how can you know if it is right for your estate? Today’s blog post addresses these questions…
One common goal in the estate planning process is crafting a plan that allows your beneficiaries to avoid probate. Probate can often be a long and drawn-out process, and many of our clients use various estate planning tools to avoid probate court altogether. One such tool, which we discuss on…
At McCulloch & Miller, we believe that every client’s estate plan should make things as easy as possible both for our client and for their loved ones. One tool that we often use to simplify estate planning is the payable-on-death designation or the transfer-on-death designation. These mechanisms are known for…