Dike, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

You probably need to file a small estate affidavit for both of your parents in the counties where they died. If your mother and father died with less than $50,000.00 in assets (not including their homestead real estate), you may file a small estate affidavit to transfer their assets to your name. It's unclear if you have siblings, but if you do, each of you will own equal shares of the property left behind. I recommend you contact an estate planning attorney to advise you on the specifics of your case. Good luck.

He passed away in California, California law will control. In Texas you would have a problem. Why did you think you were his legal executor if there was no will or probate proceeding appointing you? While people do start collecting the assets of the deceased right away (frequently to pay final expenses), until appointed, you do not have the right to do so. Taking the assets may be theft. You may need to get all of your receipts together to demonstrate where the money went. You will have a problem since you found cash in the hoard. You will not be able to prove the amount you found. Your step siblings may always hold out that it was more than it really was.

There are too many issues here to easily answer. There is no such thing as common law bigomy, so your mother was your father's wife and next of kin when he passed.