Article on The Story of the Texas Estates Code

William D. Pargaman (Saunders, Norval, Pargaman & Atkins, LLP) recently published an article entitled, The Story of the Texas Estates Code, Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal, Vol. 6 Bk. 2, Summer 2014. Provided below is an excerpt from the introduction of the article:

On January 1, 2014, our new Estates Code replaced Texas’ beloved Probate Code, which has been with us for almost six decades—these changes were enacted into law in 2009, 2011, and 2013, and they went into effect on January 1, 2014. But, the story of the Texas Estates Code goes back more than half a century.

Here’s what this article will attempt to discuss: Texas’ fifty-year-old contienuing statutory revision program; the backstory behind our Probate Code; the reasons why Texas replaced the Probate Code with the Estates Code; the organization of the Estates Code; construction issues related to the replacement of the Probate Code; some of the substantive changes that were included with the enactment of the Estates Code; and a few free resources the reader may find helpful.