After a Person Dies in Texas, Accessing the Deceased’s Accounts Should Be A Top Priority

The way you can access a deceased person’s accounts in Texas depends on several factors:

#1) Is there a valid last will and testament or a trust?

If the deceased had a living trust, that trust should have been “funded” during the person’s lifetime.  That means that the person’s accounts should have been put into the trust.  If the living trust was funded, then when the person died, there was nothing in his/her name.  In other words, if the deceased person had a Texas living trust in which the trust owned the accounts, the trustee named in the living trust documents can access the bank accounts immediately upon the death.

If the deceased person did not have a living trust but did have a Texas last will and testament, the accounts owned by the deceased individual typically cannot be accessed immediately.  Rather, the will must be probated first.  This requires that you hire a Texas probate attorney to assist you with the process of validating the will with the Texas probate judge. 

Since the probate process in Texas takes weeks or months, you won’t be able to access the deceased person’s accounts immediately if there was no living trust.  At the conclusion of the probate process, the executor named in the will gets a document called “letters testamentary” from the probate judge.  The letters testamentary is the golden ticket providing access to the deceased person’s accounts.

#2) Are there beneficiaries designated on the deceased persons accounts?

If the deceased person had designated beneficiaries on the accounts, then the designated beneficiaries are the only ones able to access those accounts.  Many retirement accounts and life insurance policies have designated beneficiaries.  After the death, those companies have well-defined policies for collecting those funds.  It usually entails sending off a death certificate and completing some company-specific forms.

On checking accounts and savings accounts, the deceased may have designated a person as a “joint tenant with right of survivorship.”  You’ll often see this abbreviated as JTWROS or JTROS.  If the account has a joint tenant with right of survivorship, then the person designated as the joint tenant simply automatically owns the balance of the account upon the death of the original accountholder.  The joint tenant will simply need to provide a death certificate to the bank to remove the deceased accountholder’s name.

#3) What type of account is it?

Above we discuss the process for accessing a deceased person’s checking accounts, savings accounts, trust accounts, and accounts with beneficiary designations.  What about electronic accounts, such as email accounts, Apple iTunes accounts, etc.?

There’s good news on this front!  Texas has enacted the “Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act.”  Under the Act, the user (the deceased person) has the power to grant authority to a fiduciary (which includes a power of attorney agent and the executor of his will and estate).

This law is great because it gives the user the power to decide what digital account access to allow.  If, for example, the deceased accountholder didn’t want his executor to be able to access his personal email account–then he can specify that with the provider.  On the other hand, if the accountholder didn’t specifically select to exclude fiduciary access from his digital accounts, then the executor would be able to access the digital account after the probate.

Accessing the digital accounts can actually be an important piece of the puzzle for an executor.  This is because financial account information is often included in the deceased’s emails.  So, getting access to an email account is a great way to discover where the deceased person held financial accounts.

Request Your Consultation

 To ask a legal question or get legal help from the Texas estate planning attorneys and probate attorneys at Shutt Law Firm, use the online contact form, schedule a Texas probate consultation, or call (214) 302-8197.

Visit www.ShuttLawFirm.com for more information on Texas probate, how to become executor so you can access the accounts, avoiding probate with Texas revocable living trusts, or other Texas estate planning documents, contact the Richardson Estate Planning Attorneys at office@shuttlawfirm.com.

Shutt Law Firm’s office is conveniently located just north of Dallas, Texas, and just South of Plano. The law office is near the intersection of highway 75 and Arapaho Road in Richardson, TX.

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You can also call Shutt Law Firm at (214) 302-8197 for more information on the topic discussed in this article or to discuss a different legal matter.

Please consider the Shutt Law Firm if you want to know about how to get a trust in Texas, more about a Texas Last Will and Testament, or you need Dallas Estate Planning Attorneys serving Richardson, Plano, Allen, McKinney, Garland, Addison, Rockwall, TX, Collin County, Dallas County, or surrounding North Texas area.

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DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this brief article constitutes legal advice. The information provided herein is merely provided in the spirit of education and is believed to be accurate as of the time it was originally prepared, and laws change. If you have a legal question, you should consult a lawyer for your specific legal situation. Further, nothing in this article shall be construed to have started an attorney-client relationship. No such relationship exists until both you and and an attorney at Shutt Law Firm sign an engagement letter.

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SHUTT LAW FIRM, PLLC