Texas Estates Code · Chapter 201
Descent and Distribution
When someone dies without a will in Texas, Chapter 201 decides who inherits, and the answer is rarely as simple as families expect. It turns on whether property is community or separate, and, for married couples, on whether every child is also the surviving spouse’s. Below is an interactive chart that builds the distribution for a given situation, the statute in plain English, and how these shares are actually proved up in the Tarrant County probate courts.
What it is
The default rules that decide who inherits when a Texan dies without a will.
The big variable
Community vs. separate property, and whether every child is also the surviving spouse’s child.
Blended families
If any child is from a prior relationship, the deceased’s half of the community estate goes to the children.
Proving it
These shares still have to be established by a court or affidavit of heirship before title moves.
Build the Distribution for a Specific Situation
Select the person’s situation to see how Texas intestacy law would split the estate. This is general information, not legal advice about your specific estate.
What was the person’s marital status at death?
Logic follows Tex. Est. Code §§ 201.001–201.003 and § 201.101. Read the text of each below.
What Descent and Distribution Really Decides
"Descent and distribution" is the formal name for Texas intestacy: the fallback plan the state applies when a person dies without a valid will. It is not a single rule but a set of them, and the outcome depends on two facts more than any others, how the property is classified, and how the family is shaped. Get those two right and the chart above tells you the rest.
The first fact is the community-versus-separate distinction. Community property, generally what the couple built during the marriage, passes under Section 201.003. Separate property, what a spouse brought in or received by gift or inheritance, passes under Section 201.002, and far less of it goes to the surviving spouse. The same estate can therefore split two different ways at once, which is why intestacy so often defeats what people assume "everything goes to my spouse" means.
The second fact is whether the children are shared. When every child of the deceased is also the surviving spouse’s child, the spouse keeps all the community property. The moment one child is from a prior relationship, the deceased’s half of the community estate goes to the children instead. That is not a loophole; it is the statute working exactly as written, and it is the reason a blended family and a will belong in the same sentence.
How These Rules Play Out in the Tarrant County Probate Courts
Chapter 201 sets the shares, but a chart is not a chain of title. Before a bank releases an account or a title company insures a sale, the heirs and their shares have to be established through the Tarrant County probate process. Here is how that works on the ground:
- The shares are automatic; the proof is not. Section 201.103 vests the estate in the heirs at the moment of death, but no one yet has a document proving who those heirs are. That proof comes from a court proceeding or a recorded affidavit, not from the statute itself.
- Determination of heirship (Chapter 202). For a binding answer, or when an administration is needed, the Tarrant County court holds a determination of heirship, appoints an attorney ad litem for unknown heirs, and enters a judgment naming the heirs and shares.
- Affidavit of heirship (Chapter 203). To clear title to a house without a court proceeding, an affidavit of heirship records the same family history in the deed records. It is cheaper, and often enough when no one disagrees.
- Small estates. When the estate is modest and everyone agrees, a small estate affidavit can collect it without a full administration, applying these same intestacy shares.
- The two courts. All of this is filed with the Tarrant County Clerk’s Probate Division and assigned to one of the county’s two statutory probate courts, Probate Court No. 1 or No. 2, both at 100 West Weatherford Street, Fort Worth, TX 76196.
Your situation may involve exceptions
The chart shows the default rules. Real estates often involve wrinkles, adopted children, half-siblings, the 120-hour survival rule, advancements, or property in more than one state. Our intestate succession practice sorts out who inherits and proves it up, on a flat fee agreed before we start.
The Statute: Texas Estates Code Chapter 201
Chapter 201, on descent and distribution. The text below is the operative language, public record, lightly condensed where a subsection is procedural (flagged inline), with a plain-English note under each section. The complete official version is on the Texas Legislature site.
Sec. 201.001. Estate of an Intestate Not Leaving Spouse
(a) If a person who dies intestate does not leave a spouse, the estate to which the person had title descends and passes to the person’s kindred in the order provided by this section.
(b) The estate descends and passes to the person’s children and the children’s descendants.
(c) If no child or child’s descendant survives, the estate passes in equal portions to the person’s father and mother.
(d) If only one parent survives, the estate is divided in two: one portion to the surviving parent, one to the person’s siblings and their descendants; or, if there are no siblings or their descendants, the surviving parent takes all.
(e) If neither parent survives, the whole estate passes to the person’s siblings and their descendants; and the statute continues out to grandparents and their descendants from there.
This is the order of inheritance when the person had no spouse. It runs down and then out: first to children and their descendants, then to parents, then to siblings and their descendants, then to grandparents’ lines. Each level is only reached if the one before it is empty. It is the backbone the interactive chart above walks through for a single or widowed person.
Sec. 201.002. Separate Estate of an Intestate
(a) If the person leaves a surviving spouse, the estate other than the community estate, the separate property, passes as provided by this section.
(b) If the person has children or a descendant of a child: the surviving spouse takes one-third of the separate personal estate; two-thirds passes to the children and their descendants; and the surviving spouse takes a life estate in one-third of the separate land, with the remainder passing to the children and their descendants.
(c) If the person has no child or descendant of a child: the surviving spouse takes all of the separate personal estate, and one-half of the separate land, with the other half passing to the person’s parents, siblings, and their descendants (and the surviving spouse takes all of the land if none of those survive).
Separate property, what a spouse owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance, is split very differently from community property. With children, the surviving spouse gets only one-third of the separate personal property and a life estate in one-third of the separate land; the children take the rest. Without children, the spouse keeps all the separate personal property but still shares the separate land with the deceased’s parents and siblings. This is the rule that surprises married couples the most.
Sec. 201.003. Community Estate of an Intestate
(a) If the person leaves a surviving spouse, the community estate of the deceased spouse passes as provided by this section.
(b) The deceased spouse’s community estate passes entirely to the surviving spouse if either no descendant of the deceased spouse survives, or all of the surviving children and descendants of the deceased spouse are also children or descendants of the surviving spouse.
(c) If the deceased spouse is survived by a child or other descendant who is not also a child or descendant of the surviving spouse, the deceased spouse’s undivided one-half of the community estate passes to the deceased spouse’s children or descendants instead.
This is the single most important rule for married couples, and the one the chart pivots on. If every child of the deceased is also the surviving spouse’s child, the spouse keeps all of the community property. But if even one child is from a prior relationship, a "blended" family, the deceased’s half of the community property goes to the children, not the spouse. Same statute, completely different result, based on that one fact.
Sec. 201.101. Determination of Per Capita With Representation Distribution
(a) The children, descendants, siblings, or other relatives of an intestate who stand in the first or same degree of relationship take per capita, meaning by persons, in equal shares.
(b) If some of those persons have died leaving descendants, each descendant inherits by representation, taking only the portion the deceased ancestor would have received if living.
This is how the law handles a family member who died before the decedent. Living relatives of the same degree split equally, "per capita." But if one of them has already died leaving children, those children step into their parent’s shoes and divide only that parent’s share, "by representation." It is why a predeceased child’s children (the decedent’s grandchildren) inherit their parent’s portion rather than being cut out.
Sec. 201.056. Persons Not in Being
No right of inheritance accrues to any person unless the person is born before, or is in gestation at, the time of the intestate’s death and survives for at least 120 hours. A person is presumed to be in gestation at the time of death if born before the 301st day after the death.
Two quiet rules with real consequences. An heir has to outlive the decedent by at least 120 hours (five days) to inherit, which resolves who inherits when relatives die close together. And a child conceived but not yet born at the time of death is still an heir. Both can change the entire distribution the chart produces.
Sec. 201.054. Adopted Child
(a) For purposes of descent and distribution, an adopted child is regarded as the child of the adoptive parents, and inherits from and through them as if a natural child; the adoptive parents and their kindred likewise inherit from and through the adopted child.
(b) The natural parents and their kindred may not inherit from or through the adopted child, but the adopted child still inherits from and through the child’s natural parents, except as limited by the Family Code.
Adoption is full inheritance in both directions with the adoptive family. An adopted child inherits from the adoptive parents exactly as a biological child would, and they inherit from the child. Notably, Texas also generally lets an adopted child still inherit from their biological parents, so an adopted child can have two inheriting lines, a point that often gets missed.
Also in Chapter 201, summarized here for length
- Sec. 201.051-201.053. Maternal and paternal inheritance (who counts as a parent), and protection for a buyer who relies on an affidavit of heirship. See the official text.
- Sec. 201.055-201.062. Special cases: children of a void marriage, half-blood collateral kin, convicted or suicide decedents, aliens, and a parent who abandoned the child. See the official text.
- Sec. 201.102-201.103. No distinction based on the property’s source, and the estate vesting in the heirs at the moment of death. See the official text.
- Sec. 201.151-201.152. Advancements: lifetime gifts counted against an heir’s share only when documented as such. See the official text.
Source: Texas Estates Code, Chapter 201, published by the Texas Legislative Council at statutes.capitol.texas.gov. Statutory text is in the public domain. The plain-English notes, Tarrant County guidance, and interactive distribution chart are original and © Fort Worth Probate Attorney.
Descent and Distribution Questions
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