The new Texas inheritance laws taking effect in 2025 come mostly from Senate Bill 1448, which reworked parts of the Estates Code covering inventories, service on deceased beneficiaries, and self-proving affidavits as of September 1, 2025. Those updates sit on top of changes from earlier sessions that made remote online notarization permanent, refined Transfer on Death Deeds, and set rules for handling digital assets after death. If you are writing a will, serving as an executor, or trying to sort out an estate without one, here is what the current law actually requires.
What Changed Under Senate Bill 1448
SB 1448 passed during the 89th Legislature and took effect September 1, 2025. Three changes matter most for anyone dealing with a Texas estate.
First, the estate inventory. A personal representative must file the inventory within 90 days of qualifying, and it must state whether the decedent was married at death. If so, each asset and each listed claim has to be classified as either separate property or community property.1Texas Legislature Online. 89(R) SB 1448 – Senate Committee Report Version – Bill Text The classification question isn’t new in Texas practice, but pushing it into the statute forces the issue early, when records are fresher and disputes are easier to resolve.
Second, self-proving affidavits attached to copies of wills. When the original will can’t be found but a copy exists that includes a copy of the self-proving affidavit, the copied affidavit is now sufficient to make the will self-proved, so long as the affidavit meets the standard form requirements. The Legislature said this was meant to clarify existing law, not change it.1Texas Legislature Online. 89(R) SB 1448 – Senate Committee Report Version – Bill Text
Third, service on deceased beneficiaries. When a person who survived the decedent has since died, service must now go to that person’s personal representative or distributees. If neither exists, service must go by publication, and the court may appoint an attorney ad litem to protect unknown interests.
SB 1448 also let courts adjust, correct, or settle a personal representative’s account with or without notice or citation, which speeds up routine accountings that would otherwise stall on procedural steps.
Remote Notarization and How Wills Must Still Be Signed
Texas made Remote Online Notarization permanent in the 88th session, but that authority does not change how a will itself gets signed. A valid Texas will must be in writing, signed by the person making it, and witnessed by at least two credible people who are 14 or older and who sign in the testator’s presence.2State of Texas. Texas Estates Code Section 251.051 – Written, Signed, and Attested Courts read “in the testator’s presence” as physical presence in the same room. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act in Texas explicitly excludes wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts, so an electronic signature cannot replace ink on paper for the will itself.3State of Texas. Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 322.003 – Scope
Where remote notarization does help is the self-proving affidavit. That is a separate sworn statement the testator and witnesses sign in front of a notary after the will has already been executed, and it lets the court accept the will later without calling the witnesses to testify. Allowing that affidavit to be notarized remotely is genuinely useful for people with mobility limits or who live far from a notary.
The remote notarization must follow specific security steps. The notary verifies identity during a live two-way video and audio session using personal knowledge or a combination of government-issued photo ID, credential analysis, and identity proofing, secures the communication against interception, and retains a recording of the session.4State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOV’T Section 406.110 The signer does not have to be located in Texas, but the notary must be commissioned as a Texas online notary public.5Texas Legislature Online. C.S.S.B. 1780 Analysis
Transfer on Death Deeds
A Transfer on Death Deed lets a property owner name someone to inherit real estate automatically at the owner’s death, moving the property outside probate entirely. Texas has authorized these deeds since 2015, and the requirements now sit in Chapter 114 of the Estates Code.
To be valid, the deed must contain the essential elements of a recordable deed, state that the transfer happens at the owner’s death, and be recorded in the county clerk’s office in the county where the property sits before the owner dies.6Justia. Texas Estates Code Chapter 114 – Transfer on Death Deed Recording is what makes it effective. A signed deed sitting in a drawer does nothing.
Revoking one is just as formal. The owner must sign a new Transfer on Death Deed that expressly revokes or contradicts the earlier one, or sign a separate revocation instrument, and the revocation must be acknowledged after the original deed was acknowledged and recorded in the same county before the owner dies. A will cannot revoke a Transfer on Death Deed. People sometimes update their estate plan through a new will and assume the deed follows along. It doesn’t.6Justia. Texas Estates Code Chapter 114 – Transfer on Death Deed
Circumstance changes are handled in the statute. A final divorce judgment automatically revokes the deed as to the former spouse beneficiary, if notice of the judgment is recorded before the owner’s death. When multiple owners hold property with right of survivorship, all living owners must agree to revoke.
Medicaid Estate Recovery
One reason people use Transfer on Death Deeds is to keep property out of the probate estate. The Texas Medicaid Estate Recovery Program seeks repayment from assets that pass through probate after a Medicaid recipient dies. Because a Transfer on Death Deed moves real estate outside the probate estate, the property generally is not subject to a MERP claim. Bank and investment accounts with transfer-on-death beneficiary designations work the same way. This can preserve a family home when an aging parent has received Medicaid-funded long-term care.
Faster Probate Paths
Not every estate needs full court administration. Texas offers two streamlined options, each with a catch that surprises families.
Small Estate Affidavit
A Small Estate Affidavit is available only when someone dies without a will and the estate’s value, excluding the homestead and exempt property, does not exceed $75,000. At least 30 days must have passed since the death, and no one can have applied for or been appointed as a personal representative.7State of Texas. Texas Estates Code Section 205.001 – Entitlement to Estate Without Appointment of Personal Representative All distributees must sign, and a probate judge must approve it.
The real property limits are strict. A Small Estate Affidavit can transfer title to real estate only if the property was the decedent’s homestead and the heir inheriting it was actually living there with the decedent at the time of death. A surviving spouse or unmarried child who lived on the property qualifies. A child in another city does not. And if the decedent owned any non-homestead real property, this process cannot transfer that property at all. Rental homes, vacant lots, and second homes push the estate onto a different track no matter the total value.
Muniment of Title
When someone dies with a valid will, a Muniment of Title is often the fastest route. The court reviews the will, finds it valid, and enters an order that itself serves as legal authority to transfer property to the named beneficiaries. No executor is formally appointed, and there is no ongoing administration.
To qualify, the court must be satisfied that the estate owes no unpaid debts other than debts secured by a lien on real estate, or must find there is no other reason to appoint an executor and administer the estate.8State of Texas. Texas Estates Code EST Section 257.001 Muniment of Title is not limited to estates whose main asset is real property. It works for any estate with a valid will and no unsecured debts, whether the assets are real estate, bank accounts, or personal property.
Dying Without a Will in Texas
When a Texan dies without a will, the Estates Code decides who inherits. The results are clean for straightforward families and jarring for blended ones.
For community property, the question is whether all of the deceased spouse’s children are also children of the surviving spouse. If they are, the surviving spouse keeps the entire community estate. If any of the deceased spouse’s children came from a prior relationship, the surviving spouse keeps only their own half of the community property. The deceased spouse’s half goes to the deceased’s children.9State of Texas. Texas Estates Code Section 201.003 – Community Estate of an Intestate
Picture a couple whose main asset is the home they bought together. One spouse has a child from an earlier marriage. If that spouse dies without a will, the child from the prior marriage inherits half of the home. The surviving spouse still owns their own half, but they now co-own the property with a stepchild whose priorities may not line up. Selling or refinancing requires cooperation.
For separate property, when the deceased spouse had children, those children inherit all of the separate real property in fee simple, subject only to a life estate in one-third of it for the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse gets one-third of the separate personal property, and the children take the remaining two-thirds. Length of the marriage and whether the children had any relationship with the decedent are irrelevant to the default. Overriding these defaults takes a will.
Creditor Notices and Deadlines
Estate administration has hard timelines on the creditor side, and missing them can leave a personal representative personally exposed.
Within one month of receiving letters testamentary or of administration, the personal representative must publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the letters were issued, requiring creditors to present claims within the time set by law.10State of Texas. Texas Estates Code Section 308.051 – Required Notice Regarding Presentment of Claims in General
Beyond the published notice, the representative may also send direct written notice to any known unsecured creditor. That permissive notice triggers a hard deadline: the creditor must present its claim within 120 days of receiving the notice, or the claim is permanently barred.11State of Texas. Estates Code Chapter 403 – Exemptions and Allowances; Claims Sending those notices to known creditors isn’t required, but doing so starts the clock and gives the estate a clean cutoff before distribution.
Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency
Texas adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act in 2017, giving executors and other fiduciaries a legal framework for managing a deceased person’s digital accounts. The law covers email accounts, social media profiles, digital photographs, and online financial accounts.12Texas Legislature Online. 85(R) SB 1193 – Enrolled Version – Bill Text
Access follows a clear priority. If the deceased used an online tool provided by the platform to designate a recipient or set disclosure preferences, that direction controls. Google’s Inactive Account Manager and Facebook’s Legacy Contact are examples. If the person didn’t use a platform tool, instructions in a will, trust, or power of attorney apply. The platform’s terms of service govern only to the extent the person left no other instructions. A specific direction at any level overrides whatever sits below it.13State of Texas. Texas Estates Code Section 2001.051 – User Direction for Disclosure of Digital Assets
Cryptocurrency is where the framework runs out. A fiduciary may have legal authority to access a crypto wallet, but without the private key that authority does nothing. Unlike a bank account, no court order can compel a blockchain to release funds. Anyone holding cryptocurrency should store private keys or seed phrases somewhere the executor can actually reach and should include explicit instructions in the estate plan for those holdings.
For every kind of digital asset, the most useful thing you can do is keep a current inventory of accounts and credentials, stored securely but accessible to your named executor. Without that, even a fiduciary with clean legal authority can spend months chasing platform-specific procedures.