A dependent administration is probate with the judge in the room for every significant act. It is slower and it costs more than an independent administration. Sometimes it is also the only thing standing between the estate and the person running it.
The difference is permission. A dependent representative cannot sell estate property on their own judgment. Selling takes an application to the court showing the sale is necessary or advisable, and for real estate the application has to be in writing, describe the property, and come with a verified exhibit. Then an order, and then a report of sale the court confirms.
Tex. Est. Code §§ 356.251, 356.252.
There is also a reporting calendar. No later than the sixtieth day after the first anniversary of the date the representative qualified and received letters, an annual account has to be filed: a sworn written exhibit listing the claims presented during that first year, which ones were allowed, which were paid, which were rejected and on what date.
Tex. Est. Code § 359.001.
And the representative does not start until they qualify, which means filing the oath or declaration and the required bond with the clerk.
Tex. Est. Code § 305.002(a).
Every order is a hearing, or at least a submission, and every hearing is attorney time. In an estate holding one house and a bank account, that overhead can swallow a visible share of what the heirs were going to receive. In an estate holding a business, several tracts, or mineral interests, the same overhead buys something worth having: a record of every decision, signed by a judge, that is very hard to attack later.
Part of our job early in a dependent administration is deciding which acts genuinely need an order and which can be grouped, so the estate is not paying for a hearing a month.
If you are the one worried about what the other side will do with the assets, asking the court for a dependent administration, or opposing an application for independent administration, is often more effective than suing after the money is gone. The supervision is preventive. A surcharge claim two years later is not.
See also: removing an executor or administrator.
El Paso County has two statutory probate courts, and in a county with statutory probate courts those courts have exclusive jurisdiction over probate proceedings, contested or not. The administration, from the application through the final decree and discharge, is treated as one proceeding, so every order in the estate comes from the same court under the same cause number.
Tex. Gov’t Code § 25.0731(b); Tex. Est. Code §§ 32.001(d), 32.005.
Whether you are applying for a dependent administration, opposing one, or already in one and stuck, bring the application and any orders already signed. We can tell you quickly what the next three filings need to be.
The first conversation is short and free.