Georgetown Probate Attorney

Losing someone you love is hard enough without a confusing court process on top of it. A Georgetown probate attorney from our team can walk you through paying a loved one's debts, settling their estate, and carrying out their final wishes under Texas law. Michalk, Beatty & Alcozer, L.P. has guided Central Texas families through probate for more than two decades, and Georgetown, one of the fastest-growing cities in the country and the seat of Williamson County, gets that same steady hand. Georgetown is part of our broader Central Texas probate practice, and this page covers the local detail specific to Georgetown and Williamson County.

You don't need to arrive already knowing how Texas probate works. That's what we're here for. We'll walk you through what has to happen, in what order, and why each step matters for your family's situation.

How Our Georgetown Probate Attorney Helps Williamson County Families

No two estates look the same. Some move through the Williamson County court system in a few months without any real disagreement. Others get complicated fast, whether that's a will nobody can find, heirs who don't see eye to eye, or a piece of property that's hard to split fairly. A good number of the families we help in Georgetown are settling an estate for a parent or spouse who retired to Sun City, the large active-adult community here, and are sorting through a lifetime of savings, investment accounts, and sometimes a second home, on top of their grief. Others are newer Georgetown residents who moved from out of state during the city's growth boom and are dealing with a will that was never updated for Texas law, or was never written at all. We tell you early which kind of case you're facing, so you're not guessing what comes next.

Texas Probate Courts: Filing Right Here in Georgetown

Georgetown has an advantage a lot of our other Central Texas markets don't: it's the county seat, so Williamson County probate matters are filed right here instead of requiring a drive to another town. The historic Williamson County Courthouse, a Beaux-Arts building dating to 1911, sits on the downtown square and anchors the county's judicial system. Depending on how your case is classified and whether anyone contests it, your matter could be handled by a county court at law exercising probate jurisdiction or, in a contested case, district court. Williamson County does not have a freestanding statutory probate court the way some of Texas's largest counties do, so probate matters here are generally assigned to a county court at law rather than a dedicated probate bench. A straightforward, uncontested application usually moves through a faster track. A will contest or a dispute over how an executor is handling the estate typically goes in front of a judge with broader power to sort out disputed facts. Knowing which court has jurisdiction, and having a lawyer who already knows the courthouse staff and local filing practices, makes a real difference in how quickly your case moves.

What Happens During Texas Probate

Probate is the legal process that lets an executor collect what a deceased person owned, pay their outstanding debts, and distribute whatever is left to the people named in the will. If someone dies without a will, Texas intestacy law steps in to decide who inherits, and the court appoints an administrator to carry that out instead of an executor.

Most cases start with an application filed in the county where the deceased person lived. A hearing follows where the court reviews the will, if there is one, and officially names the executor or administrator. From that point, the executor takes inventory of everything the estate owns, lets creditors know the estate is open, pays what's legitimately owed, and hands out what remains to the heirs.

Who Inherits Without a Will in Texas

When there's no will, Texas law follows a specific order based on which relatives are still living. A surviving spouse with no children usually inherits everything. If the couple had children together, the spouse typically keeps all the community property, though the kids may still be entitled to a share of any separate property the deceased person owned on their own. Things get more layered when one spouse has children from a previous relationship, since Texas splits community property differently in that scenario instead of giving it all to the surviving spouse.

If there's no spouse and no children, the estate generally passes to parents, then to siblings, and further out through the family if none of those relatives survive. This surprises a lot of families who assumed a longtime partner, a stepchild, or a close friend would automatically inherit. Under Texas law, none of them do unless a valid will says so.

Property That Passes Outside of Probate

Not everything a person owns has to go through a Williamson County probate case. Life insurance payouts and retirement accounts, things like a 401(k) or an IRA, generally go straight to whoever is listed as the beneficiary, regardless of what the will says. The same goes for bank accounts set up as "payable on death" and property owned jointly with a right of survivorship, like a home a married couple owned together, both of which transfer automatically to the surviving owner.

Knowing what falls outside of probate changes how big a case actually looks on paper. Plenty of families expect a lengthy court process when, in reality, most of the estate transfers on its own, leaving just a smaller piece, like a car titled in one person's name, for the court to sort out.