By: Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)	H.B. No. 3136
	(In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 2015;
	May 12, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on State
	Affairs; May 22, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote:
	Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 22, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote

	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to the use of a small estate affidavit to distribute
	certain intestate estates.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Section 205.002, Estates Code, is amended to
	read as follows:
	Sec. 205.002.  AFFIDAVIT REQUIREMENTS. (a) An affidavit
	filed under Section 205.001 must:
	(1)  be sworn to by:
	(A)  two disinterested witnesses;
	(B)  each distributee of the estate who has legal
	capacity; and
	(C)  if warranted by the facts, the natural
	guardian or next of kin of any minor distributee or the guardian of
	any other incapacitated distributee;
	(2)  show the existence of the conditions prescribed by
	Sections 205.001(1), (2), and (3); and
	(3)  include:
	(A)  a list of all known estate assets and
	liabilities;
	(B)  the name and address of each distributee; and
	(C)  the relevant family history facts concerning
	heirship that show each distributee's right to receive estate money
	or other property or to have any evidence of money, property, or
	other right of the estate as is determined to exist transferred to
	the distributee as an heir or assignee.
	(b)  A list of all known estate assets under Subsection
	(a)(3)(A) must indicate which assets the applicant claims are
	exempt.
	SECTION 2.  Chapter 205, Estates Code, is amended by adding
	Section 205.009 to read as follows:
	Sec. 205.009.  CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN REFERENCES. A
	reference in this chapter to "homestead" or "exempt property" means
	only a homestead or other exempt property that would be eligible to
	be set aside under Section 353.051 if the decedent's estate was
	being administered.
	SECTION 3.  Section 205.009, Estates Code, as added by this
	Act, applies to the estate of a decedent that is pending on or after
	the effective date of this Act, regardless of the decedent's date of
	death.
	SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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