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I am a 61 year old Texas resident who is scheduled for a heart procedure tomorrow and I have not executed a will (I plan on executing one soon after the procedure). In the unlikely event of my death I am wondering what my 29 year old son's maximum legal right is to my estate of approximately $1M net value. I have remarried so my current wife is my son's step Mother and she has a 25 year old son from a previous marriage that I did not adopt. My wife would receive my pension and social security for the rest of her life.
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Texas Already Tried: Nothing
In general, your son would receive 2/3rds of your separate personal property and 1/2 of your separate real estate/property. Separate property is property acquired before marriage or during marriage by gift or inheritance. All other property is community property.Re community property, your spouse would take her one half and your son would take the other half.Note: for a quick and complete expression of Texas intestate succession, see this link.If you want to alter this outcome, then you can write a holographic will right now and give it to your son, just in case (if you give it to your spouse, it may disappear in the event of your untimely demise -- nothing against your spouse, but this sort of thing happens routinely). A holographic will must be written entirely in your own handwriting, and signed and dated by you at the bottom . Do not line out or insert anything. So, if your handwriting sucks (like mine), then draft what you want and then write out a final copy, and destroy all of the drafts, so that the final is a complete and accurate expression of whatever you want to occur in the event of your death. Hope this helps. NOTICE: My goal here is to entertain while educating the public about the law. I hope my answer is useful and informative to you. During our conversation, the website may ask you to rate my answer. If you rate my answer lower than the middle rating, then the website retains your entire payment, and I receive nothing. It is entirely your choice as to how you rate my answer. However, because your payment to me is in the nature of a donation/gift, rather than as compensation for any services rendered, you are entitled to know how your rating affects the final distribution of your donation. If you need to contact me again, please put my user id at the beginning of your question ("To Socrateaser"), and the system will send me an alert. Please Click the following link for IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION. Thanks and best wishes!socrateaser41114.6933858796
Experience: Retired (mostly)
socrateaser - Does a prenup when I got married protecting my 401K in the event of a divorce have an effect upon my death when pertaining to separate property acquired before marriage.
A 401(k) is controlled by federal ERISA law. State law is entirely preempted. If the named beneficiary is your son, then he gets the entire account balance, regardless of any other document to the contrary. Similarly, if your spouse were the named beneficiary, then no Will or state law could contradict your spouse's rights in the account. So, the prenup has no controlling power over the 401(k), unless there is no named beneficiary on the account -- in which case the prenup would control the character of the account proceeds as to whether or not it is separate or community property. But, the prenup is not a Will, so it cannot control the distribution of the account. The intestate statutes would control who gets what, if the 401(k) has no named beneficiary.Hope this helps. NOTICE: My goal here is to entertain while educating the public about the law. I hope my answer is useful and informative to you. During our conversation, the website may ask you to rate my answer. If you rate my answer lower than the middle rating, then the website retains your entire payment, and I receive nothing. It is entirely your choice as to how you rate my answer. However, because your payment to me is in the nature of a donation/gift, rather than as compensation for any services rendered, you are entitled to know how your rating affects the final distribution of your donation. If you need to contact me again, please put my user id at the beginning of your question ("To Socrateaser"), and the system will send me an alert. Please Click the following link for IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION. Thanks and best wishes!