To remove an executor in Travis County, you need a record that shows a statutory ground for removal. A slow or silent executor isn’t necessarily a dishonest one, and the judge won’t remove a fiduciary because the family has run out of patience. The cheapest way to build that record is a written demand for an accounting under Estates Code Section 404.001, made before anyone files a petition.
Most people who call about removal want an application on file this week. In most of those cases the better first step is a written accounting demand.
Texas Estates Code 404.001: once 15 months have passed since the court clerk first issued letters testamentary or of administration, any person interested in the estate may demand a sworn accounting from the independent executor. If the executor doesn’t comply within 60 days after receiving the demand, the person who made it may bring an action in the probate court to compel it.
Count the 15 months from the date the clerk first issued letters, not from the date of death or the date the will was admitted. Pull the letters from the clerk’s file and confirm the date.
The demand helps you either way. If the administration is just slow, the accounting usually ends the argument. If something is wrong, an ignored demand or a sworn accounting with holes in it becomes the core of the removal case. Failing to make a required accounting is itself a removal ground under Section 404.0035(b)(1), so an application with an unanswered statutory demand attached reads very differently from one that only alleges mismanagement.
The court doesn’t weigh whether the executor is likable or whether someone else would do a better job. It applies the grounds the Legislature wrote into Sections 404.003 and 404.0035 of the Estates Code.
Texas Estates Code 404.003 allows removal without notice when the independent executor can’t be served, or when there are sufficient grounds to believe the executor has misapplied or embezzled estate property or is about to. Section 404.0035(b) allows removal after personal service for failing to make a required accounting, gross misconduct or gross mismanagement, legal incapacity, and a material conflict of interest.
The conflict ground applies when a material conflict of interest leaves the executor unable to properly perform their fiduciary duties, which can include an executor who sits on both sides of a transaction with the estate. Section 404.0035 took effect in 2014 and was amended in 2017 and again in 2023, so check that anything you read about removal reflects the current text.
Removal is rarely the only claim in the case. Where estate money has moved, a breach of fiduciary duty claim usually comes with it. Where the problem is the will itself, you’re looking at a will contest instead.
Removing an executor takes away their authority to act for the estate. Clients are often surprised by how much is left unresolved afterward.
A note on fit. We don’t handle muniment of title, small estate affidavits, affidavits of heirship, or routine administration.
Bring the cause number, the date letters were issued, and anything you’ve sent or received in writing. The cause number tells us whether Judge Herman or Judge Chu will hear your application, and the dates tell us whether a 404.001 demand is already available to you.
The first conversation is free and usually short.