What is the Process of an Independent Administration?
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An independent administration is one of the forms of probate in Texas. Probate is the process of transferring assets from a deceased person to their heirs. There are seven main types of probate in Texas.
Independent Administration
Dependent Administration
Muniment of Title
Affidavit of Heirship
Small Estate Administration
Determination of Heirship
An independent administration is probate where a judge appoints an executor or administrator independent of court oversight.
This can happen with a will, or if all the heirs agree, without a will.
The steps of an independent administration are as follows:
Draft and file the application
Send out Waivers to Beneficiaries
File the Waivers with the Court
Set up a hearing
If a beneficiary refuses to sign a waiver, serve citation on that beneficiary
Attend hearing
If no issues and the judge signs the order, get letters.
After a personal representative is appointed, file a notice to creditors.
60 days after the notice to creditors, then file the inventory.
We will help you with all 9 of these steps. However, that is not all that needs to be done. The next step is to administer the estate. You do not need an attorney to assist you with this process. If you would like an attorney to assist you with this, you will have to pay an additional amount. Let me give you the things you will be responsible to handle so you can decide if you want to hire an attorney to do this.
Sent notice to all secured creditors.
Sent notice of appointment to beneficiaries,
Send notice to Comptroller if decedent remitted or should have remitted taxes,
Determine if unsecured creditors should receive notice,
Fule Publisher’s Affidavit
Handle any secured creditors claims,
Approve or reject claims,
Distribute the property.
These last eight steps are billed at an hourly rate by most attorneys. The reason for hourly billing is the uncertainty of the required amount of time for each task.
This is the process of an independent administration, and I hope this helped.