By: Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini) H.B. No. 3136
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 2015;
May 12, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on State
Affairs; May 22, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 22, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the use of a small estate affidavit to distribute
certain intestate estates.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 205.002, Estates Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 205.002. AFFIDAVIT REQUIREMENTS. (a) An affidavit
filed under Section 205.001 must:
(1) be sworn to by:
(A) two disinterested witnesses;
(B) each distributee of the estate who has legal
capacity; and
(C) if warranted by the facts, the natural
guardian or next of kin of any minor distributee or the guardian of
any other incapacitated distributee;
(2) show the existence of the conditions prescribed by
Sections 205.001(1), (2), and (3); and
(3) include:
(A) a list of all known estate assets and
liabilities;
(B) the name and address of each distributee; and
(C) the relevant family history facts concerning
heirship that show each distributee's right to receive estate money
or other property or to have any evidence of money, property, or
other right of the estate as is determined to exist transferred to
the distributee as an heir or assignee.
(b) A list of all known estate assets under Subsection
(a)(3)(A) must indicate which assets the applicant claims are
exempt.
SECTION 2. Chapter 205, Estates Code, is amended by adding
Section 205.009 to read as follows:
Sec. 205.009. CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN REFERENCES. A
reference in this chapter to "homestead" or "exempt property" means
only a homestead or other exempt property that would be eligible to
be set aside under Section 353.051 if the decedent's estate was
being administered.
SECTION 3. Section 205.009, Estates Code, as added by this
Act, applies to the estate of a decedent that is pending on or after
the effective date of this Act, regardless of the decedent's date of
death.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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