Q: Husband and wife die within a day, the wills left everything to the other. Is propety divided equally between heirs?
Married only to each other and 5 biological children together.
A:
It depends on what the wills say. Sometimes wills contains "survivorship" clauses. If there is no such clause, then the default section of the Texas Estates Code says one spouse would have to survive the other by 5 days in order to be considered to have survived. So, under the default provisions of the Code, since they died within 5 days of one another, the assets would go to the alternate beneficiaries listed in the Wills.
This is a unique situation, so you should definitely seek out a law firm with lots of probate law experience. The bad news is that you'll need to hire a probate attorney to probate these wills. The good news is that many firms, like ours, offer a reduced rate when we do two probates at once.
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