Legal Question in Medical Leave in Texas

Re: Death without a will

Under the laws of intestacy, the estate will pass as follows.

If any of the deceased spouse’s surviving descendants are not also descendants of the surviving spouse, then the community property is divided. The surviving spouse retains one-half of the community property, that is, the one-half the surviving spouse already owned by virtue of it being community property. The descendants of the deceased spouse inherit the deceased spouse’s one-half of the community property. All of the deceased spouse’s descendants are treated as a group regardless of whether the other parent is or is not the surviving spouse.

Unlike most states, Texas has retained a vestige of the common law distinction between the descent of real property and the distribution of personal property.

The surviving spouse receives one-third of the deceased spouse’s separate personal property with the remaining two-thirds passing to the children or their descendants. These interests are outright.

The surviving spouse receives a life estate in one-third of the deceased spouse’s separate real property. The rest of the property, that is, the outright interest in two-thirds of the separate real property and the remainder interest following the surviving spouse’s life estate passes to the deceased spouse’s children or their descendants.