Do I have any inheritance rights if I am the son from my dad’s prior relationship but married a woman who had kids and they then had kids from their marriage?
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Do I have any inheritance rights if I am the son from my dad’s prior relationship but married a woman who had kids and they then had kids from their marriage?
They are both now deceased.
Asked on July 9, 2019 under Estate Planning, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 4 years ago | Contributor
If your father had a will, you get whatever--if anything--he left you, and if he left you nothing in the will, you get nothing: a parent is allowed to disinherit a child by leaving him/her nothing in a will.
If there is no will, the estate passes by "intestate succesion" (the rules for who gets what when there is no will). TX is a community property state: to oversimplify, anything over than inheritances (which are part of "separate property") acquired or earned during marraige is community property, and anything pre-marriage or inherited by the spouses in separate property.
Leaving aside additional complictions, such as some assets owned jointly (joint bank or. brokerage accounts; real estate owned as "joint tenants with right of survivorship") never become part of the estate but go directly and instantly to the surviving spouse, or that life insurance goes to the named beneficiaries, in TX, the surviving spouse gets:
* 1/2 the community property
* 1/3 the deceased's separate property
* the right to use any real estate for life
And all the children of the deceased, whether with that spouse or not, will share equally in:
* the other 1/2 of the community property
* the other 2/3 of the separate property
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