Texas Estate Accounting: An Executor's Guide

Every estate accounting is the same charge-and-discharge account: what you were answerable for on one side, what you did with it on the other, balancing to the penny. The mechanics are covered in How to prepare an estate accounting. What Texas adds is the shape. The document a Texas executor works toward is that account, carrying the figures a Tex. Est. Code §404.001 exhibit draws on. The sworn exhibit language is your attorney's to draft. The figures under it come from months of bank statements and receipts, and they are the same numbers whether anything is ever filed or not.

Because most Texas estates are independent administrations, no accounting lands on a court's desk on a routine schedule. The inventory or affidavit in lieu still does, within 90 days. That does not make the accounting optional. The beneficiaries you ask to sign receipts deserve a clear picture of where the money went.

Most Texas deadlines run from the day letters issue rather than from the date of death. Within 1 month after letters issue, publish notice to creditors in a newspaper in the county where letters were issued, or post or file it if there is no newspaper (Tex. Est. Code §308.051). Within 2 months after letters issue, send certified-mail notice to each creditor holding a secured claim, such as a mortgage or a car lien (§308.053). Confirm the method, timing, and who must be noticed with your attorney.

Texas pays a commission on the cash that moves through the estate rather than on its size. Under Estates Code chapter 352, the commission is 5% of qualifying cash received plus 5% of qualifying cash paid out, capped at 5% of the gross estate under administration.

The exclusions are what usually shrink the figure. Money already on hand or in the decedent's bank or brokerage accounts at death does not count. Neither does life insurance or cash paid to beneficiaries as their share of the estate. An estate whose value sat in accounts at death and passed straight to the family can produce a commission close to nothing. Whether anything beyond chapter 352's math is available in your situation is a question for the estate's attorney.

Confirm every debt and tax is paid first, because an independent executor distributes without court approval. Then distribute and collect a signed receipt from each beneficiary. Nobody reviews the numbers before the money leaves, so those signed receipts matter.

After that you may file a closing report or notice of closing. It is often skipped, and whether your county expects one is worth asking your attorney.

• Confirm all debts and taxes are paid. The independent executor then distributes without court approval.
• Distribute to beneficiaries and collect signed receipts.
• Optionally file a closing report or notice of closing with the court. This step is often skipped, so ask your attorney whether your county expects one.

Software handles the bookkeeping half: every transaction with its date, payee, and category, the inventory valued as of the date of death, each sale carried against the value the item was held at, and a running check that the totals balance.

The rest is yours. The sworn §404.001 exhibit language comes from your attorney. The exhibit also lists any debts and expenses the estate still owes, and any facts showing why the administration should not be closed. The ledger tracks neither. The appraisement and the list of claims in the §309.051 filing are not bookkeeping. Mortgages and liens are not tracked in the ledger, so property prints at gross value and you reduce it when you transcribe. Sign with your full legal name rather than an email address. And whether your administration is independent or dependent is a call for the estate's attorney.

ExecutorLedger is free to use while you record the estate: assets at date-of-death value, every receipt and disbursement, and distributions per beneficiary. The Texas document is a charge-and-discharge account carrying the figures a §404.001 exhibit draws on. It previews free with your real numbers, watermarked, so you see the whole thing first. An accounting-through date produces an interim account for any period. $149 (one-time payment) per estate lifts the watermark from every document. Usually less than one attorney hour, and typically reimbursable by the estate. None of these are court forms. They are court-style documents, ready to transcribe onto whatever your filing requires, and your attorney should read one before anybody signs.