Large and Complex Estates

How hard a big estate will be depends mostly on whether the assets hold their value while the case is open and whether the family can agree on what they’re worth. It also matters a great deal whether the other beneficiaries have already hired lawyers. Families usually lead with the inventory total, but by the end of the case it’s rarely what decided things.

Kreig LLC handles Travis County estates that have outgrown routine paperwork. Think of a business that has to keep operating during the administration, a decedent who owned LLC or partnership units instead of the assets themselves, or beneficiaries who read the same balance sheet in very different ways.

What Makes an Estate Complex

Complexity comes from what the estate owns and how it’s held. An estate made up of cash and publicly traded securities can be large and still close quietly. A smaller estate built around one closely held company can run well past a year, because nearly every question in it depends on a valuation somebody has a reason to dispute. These are the assets that change the work:

• A business that needs someone with authority to make decisions right away, before anyone agrees on what it’s worth.
• Partnership and LLC interests, which are controlled by the company agreements as much as by the will.
• Property in another state, which usually means an ancillary proceeding on that state’s schedule.
• Mineral interests with title gaps, suspended royalties or division orders that were never corrected.
• Valuations open to challenge, including marketability and control discounts that change every beneficiary’s share.
• A trust running alongside the estate, often holding assets the will also tries to give away.

Travis County handles that last situation better than most Texas counties. It has two statutory probate courts, Probate Court No. 1 and Probate Court No. 2, both at 200 W. 8th Street. Williamson County, just to the north, has five county courts at law and no statutory probate court.

Property Code Section 115.001 gives district courts original and exclusive jurisdiction over trust proceedings, and subsection (d) makes an exception for jurisdiction conferred by law on statutory probate courts. Estates Code Section 32.006 gives a statutory probate court jurisdiction over actions by or against a trustee and actions involving a trust, and Section 32.007 makes that jurisdiction concurrent with the district court. In practice, a Travis County probate judge can hear the estate dispute and the trust dispute together.

How We Handle a Complex Estate

1. Read everything before filing anythingWe start with the will, the trust, the entity agreements, the deeds, the tax returns and the existing docket. The costly mistakes tend to happen when someone files before they have the whole picture.
2. Protect assets that are losing valueThat might be a company nobody can sign for, a note that’s gone unpaid or a lease about to expire. Travis County has no drop-in docket, so every hearing has to be specifically set, and we ask for settings early.
3. Settle the valuation question earlyWe decide what gets appraised, who does it and as of what date. An appraisal ordered after the parties have dug in gets attacked over who paid for it.
4. Understand the people as well as the assetsWe find out which beneficiaries have lawyers, which ones need cash soon and which one is likely to sue. That shapes our strategy more than the balance sheet does.
5. Build a record that holds up in courtThat means authenticated documents, identified witnesses and records custodians we can actually locate. In Travis County, a document-heavy case is proved with live testimony.
6. Close the estate so it stays closedWe get an approved accounting, signed releases and proper transfer documents for every entity interest and every parcel. Distributing without them leaves the door open to a later lawsuit.

Common Mistakes in Large Estate Administrations

Most of the damage we’re hired to repair comes from an administration that kept running on routine habits after the estate stopped being routine.

Contested hearings are live and in person

In a document case, many lawyers want to hand the judge a binder with an affidavit attached and appear by video. The Travis County probate courts don’t allow that in a contested matter.

Local Rule 4.2(b) prohibits remote appearances in a contested case when documentary evidence will be presented at the hearing. Local Rule 4.3 prohibits affidavits signed by witnesses in lieu of live testimony or depositions unless authorized by law. A document-heavy estate dispute is tried in person at 200 W. 8th Street.

Courtesy copies of long filings

Under Local Rule 5.3, if you want the court to consider a motion or response longer than 15 pages including exhibits at a hearing, you should deliver a courtesy copy to the court as soon as possible. A valuation dispute passes 15 pages easily.

The rule exists because the judges read the exhibits before the hearing. We deliver the courtesy copy every time so the court has seen our evidence before we stand up to argue it.

Court review of attorney’s fees

When an estate pays its lawyers, the court looks closely at the bill. Estates Code Section 352.051 entitles a personal representative to reasonable attorney’s fees necessarily incurred in connection with the proceedings and management of the estate, so a fee application has to show the work was both.

We put our own engagement terms in writing before any work begins. Nothing on this page is a quote.

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Working With the Estate’s CPA and Financial Advisor

An estate this size comes with professionals already involved. There’s usually an accountant who has prepared the returns for years, an advisor who knows which accounts have beneficiary designations, and sometimes an appraiser hired well before the death. Problems with them usually come from poor communication, and outright disagreement is rare.

An advisor might rebalance an account that turns out to be evidence. An accountant might take a valuation position that a beneficiary later reads back to the executor on the witness stand in a Travis County courtroom. So we decide early who speaks for the estate, what information gets shared and which decisions wait for the court. In a contested matter we also set the boundaries of privilege. You’re welcome to bring your CPA to the first call, or have them call us at (512) 273-7444.