Muniment of title, an affidavit of heirship and a full independent administration produce very different title positions, and the underwriter treats them very differently. Tell us the path early and we will tell you what will be required to close on it.
Everything below describes title practice and underwriter requirements. None of it is legal advice, and we are not your client's lawyer.
Letters Testamentary and Letters of Administration both establish authority, but underwriters typically want them dated within a recent window, and a personal representative's power to sell depends on whether the administration is independent and whether the will grants a power of sale. Dependent administrations bring a court order into the file.
An efficient path where it fits, but it creates no personal representative. The underwriter's requirements for insuring a conveyance following a muniment are specific and worth confirming before you rely on it as the plan.
An affidavit of heirship is a recorded instrument that carries evidentiary weight after it has been of record for a period; a judicial determination of heirship produces a far stronger position. Which one an underwriter will accept, and on what facts, is the question worth asking before the sale is under contract.
A will generally must be admitted to probate within four years of death, with limited exceptions. Files where that window has closed are common, solvable, and slow — and the timeline is the thing a listing agent needs to hear early.
A decedent domiciled elsewhere who owned Texas land raises an ancillary proceeding question. Separately, transfer on death deeds move title outside probate but leave a creditor window that underwriters watch carefully.
WG Title is a title and escrow company, not a law firm. WG Law is a separate, independently operated company. We do not advise your client and we do not take your client.
Often, on the right facts, but the requirements differ from a sale by a personal representative and are worth confirming for the specific file before you commit to that path with your client.
Underwriters generally want them recent. Rather than guess a number that may be stale, send us the file and we will confirm what ours wants for that transaction.
That is one of the most common files we see. The available paths differ substantially in cost and time, and the earlier the question is asked the more options are still open.
Yes. Tell us the domicile and what has already been filed there, and we will tell you what our underwriter will need for the Texas property.
Identical at every Texas title company: the basic title insurance premium and the promulgated endorsement charges. These are set by the Texas Department of Insurance. No company can discount them, and any company implying it can is describing something that is not legally possible.
Set by each company: the escrow or settlement fee, and the incidental charges around it. These are not promulgated, they do vary, and they are the fair thing to compare.
We would rather tell you which is which than let you assume we are cheaper on something nobody can be cheaper on.
A commitment without the instruments it references is not reviewable. The most useful thing a title company does for real estate counsel is deliver a complete, legible exception package promptly and then answer questions about it.
What that requires →This is the sub-practice where title problems are created quietly and discovered years later — at a refinance or a sale, when the fix is far more expensive than it would have been during the divorce.
What that requires →FIRPTA withholding, exchange sequencing and rollback exposure all resolve at the closing table. A title company that understands what it is being asked to do is worth more here than almost anywhere else.
What that requires →The stay following an order approving a sale is the most common reason a bankruptcy closing misses its date — not because anyone did anything wrong, but because the calendar was set as though the order were immediately effective.
What that requires →Send the matter type and where it stands. We will tell you what our underwriter will want before you order a commitment.
