Texas route screening
Available only where the decedent died INTESTATE. Distributees may collect the estate by affidavit if 30 days have elapsed since death, no personal representative is pending or appointed, the estate assets (excluding homestead and exempt property) exceed known liabilities (excluding those secured by homestead/exempt property), and the value of estate assets excluding homestead and exempt property does not exceed $75,000.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
Threshold evidence and currency
Currency: No later session-law supersession is recorded in the reviewed source set for this threshold. The edition/currentness label below is the basis for the published figure.
Controlling citation: Tex. Est. Code § 205.001 — eff. September 1, 2017..
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
The distributees of the estate of a decedent who dies intestate are entitled to the decedent's estate without waiting for the appointment of a personal representative of the estate to the extent the estate assets, excluding homestead and exempt property, exceed the known liabilities of the estate, excluding any liabilities secured by homestead and exempt property, if: (1) 30 days have elapsed since the date of the decedent's death; (2) no petition for the appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted; (3) the value of the estate assets on the date of the affidavit described by Subdivision (4), excluding homestead and exempt property, does not exceed $75,000;
The headline limit is not a count of everything the person owned. It is a test of the property and deductions named by this procedure. Classify title and beneficiary status first; property that transfers by a valid survivorship right, beneficiary designation, or funded trust follows its own transfer path.
This screen counts the probate estate within the statute’s stated scope, not merely cash accounts. Solely owned real property can therefore affect the amount test. That does not necessarily mean the same simplified procedure transfers the house; counting scope and transfer authority are separate questions.
The statute excludes categories of exempt property that this worksheet cannot classify from a dollar entry alone. A result near the limit remains provisional until those exemptions are identified from the actual property and family facts.
The reviewed route requires 30 days after death before the affidavit or petition can be used. That is a minimum timing condition, not a promise that the institution or court completes the transfer on that day.
The statute requires facts the asset list cannot derive:
Leaving one blank keeps the result undecided. The calculator never substitutes zero for a legal input nobody supplied.
Assemble the death date, will status, asset titles, beneficiary confirmations, values, enforceable liens, family facts, and any prior court filing before signing anything. Then use the court publisher’s current artifact for the selected route.
Texas does not publish a single statewide set of fill-in probate forms; many counties require an attorney to open an administration and publish their own local forms and fee schedules.
If the state publishes no statewide form, that is a finding—not a missing link. Contact the Statutory Probate Court / County Court or clerk in the proper county for its packet and current filing instructions rather than borrowing an unofficial form from another county.
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.
Texas eligibility map
The Texas threshold is one screen, not a complete legal conclusion. This map pairs the recorded ceiling with the property scope, deductions, date, and court artifact that have to be checked before relying on a likely-qualifies result.
| Question | Recorded Texas answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Small estate affidavit (Estates Code ch. 205) | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | probate property within the rule's stated scope; gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $75,000 | Establish unsecured debt before treating the screen as decided. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | 30 days after death; No deadline is recorded here: Texas creditor deadlines run from multiple independent triggers (permissive notice by publication, required actual notice to secured/known creditors, and a claim-presentation window) set out across Estates Code ch. 308 and ch. 355; the operative periods depend on the notice type and are not a single statewide day count. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule. | Ask the Statutory Probate Court / County Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | Estates Code § 352.002 entitles the executor/administrator to a 5% commission on all amounts actually received or paid out in cash in the administration, but the aggregate commission may not exceed 5% of the gross fair market value of the estate. Cash on hand or in accounts at death, life-insurance proceeds, and cash paid to heirs/legatees are excluded from the commission base. Section 352.003 permits alternative reasonable compensation for unusual efforts. The relevant base is money received and paid out during administration. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Eligibility inputs
A threshold is useful only when the amount is measured the way the source describes. Keep this table with the asset worksheet so an empty or misclassified field cannot look like a confirmed qualification.
| Input | Registry record |
|---|---|
| Threshold | $75,000 |
| Property scope | probate property within the rule's stated scope |
| Value basis | gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet |
| Waiting period | 30 days after death |
| Required extra facts | unsecured debt |
Case-file context
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Texas descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Texas has no single statewide opening probate filing fee. Government/Local Government Code fixes only itemized per-service fees; the amount to open an administration is a consolidated charge set by each county clerk, so it varies by county.
No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.
Estates Code § 352.002 entitles the executor/administrator to a 5% commission on all amounts actually received or paid out in cash in the administration, but the aggregate commission may not exceed 5% of the gross fair market value of the estate. Cash on hand or in accounts at death, life-insurance proceeds, and cash paid to heirs/legatees are excluded from the commission base. Section 352.003 permits alternative reasonable compensation for unusual efforts.
Estates Code § 352.002 entitles the executor/administrator to a 5% commission on all amounts actually received or paid out in cash in the administration, but the aggregate commission may not exceed 5% of the gross fair market value of the estate. Cash on hand or in accounts at death, life-insurance proceeds, and cash paid to heirs/legatees are excluded from the commission base. Section 352.003 permits alternative reasonable compensation for unusual efforts. The relevant base is money received and paid out during administration.
No deadline is recorded here: Texas creditor deadlines run from multiple independent triggers (permissive notice by publication, required actual notice to secured/known creditors, and a claim-presentation window) set out across Estates Code ch. 308 and ch. 355; the operative periods depend on the notice type and are not a single statewide day count.
Court-material note: Texas does not publish a single statewide set of fill-in probate forms; many counties require an attorney to open an administration and publish their own local forms and fee schedules.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Texas ceiling is $75,000, and it is tested against probate property within the rule's stated scope, on a basis this site records as gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet. Counted that way, $56,300 sits below the Texas figure and $93,800 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Texas counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Texas ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $56,300 | Below $75,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $93,800 | Above $75,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Texas does not publish a single statewide set of fill-in probate forms; many counties require an attorney to open an administration and publish their own local forms and fee schedules.
Source trail
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
Reviewed source note: The distributees of the estate of a decedent who dies intestate are entitled to the decedent's estate without waiting for the appointment of a personal representative of the estate to the extent the estate assets, excluding homestead and exempt property, exceed the known liabilities of the estate, excluding any liabilities secured by homestead and exempt property, if: (1) 30 days have elapsed since the date of the decedent's death; (2) no petition for the appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted; (3) the value of the estate assets on the date of the affidavit described by Subdivision (4), excluding homestead and exempt property, does not exceed $75,000;
What this means: Fetched from tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources, the Texas Legislature's own statutes content host that backs statutes.capitol.texas.gov (which now serves a client-rendered app shell with no server-side statute text).