Texas probate courts enforce what your documents say, not what you meant when you signed them. A will drafted before a divorce, a second child, or a major asset sale still stands as written, and Bexar County’s three dedicated probate courts will administer it on exactly those terms. The result can be an inheritance that goes to the wrong person, a gift that fails entirely, or a family left without the authority to act during a medical emergency.
At Wilson Law, we’ve guided San Antonio families through estate planning reviews for over 40 years, and the cases that create the most heartbreak are rarely the ones where someone had no plan at all. More often, they involve a plan that was thoughtfully prepared years ago and never revisited. The documents didn’t fail. Life changed, and the documents didn’t.
The Two-Track Rule: Scheduled Reviews & Immediate Triggers
Most estate planning attorneys recommend reviewing your plan every three to five years even when nothing dramatic has happened. Tax law shifts, asset values change, and relationships evolve in ways that gradually pull a plan out of alignment. A regular review catches those quiet drifts before they become courtroom problems.
But some life events can’t wait for a scheduled review. Texas law doesn’t automatically revise estate planning documents when major changes occur. A divorce doesn’t update your trust. A new grandchild doesn’t rewrite your will. The documents remain legally operative in their original form until you act.
Family Changes That Demand an Immediate Update
Divorce is the most urgent trigger. Under Texas Estates Code Section 123.001, all provisions in a will (gifts and fiduciary appointments alike) are read as if the former spouse predeceased the testator. That protection creates a vacuum if no backup beneficiary was named. Beyond the will, a former spouse may still be named as agent under a power of attorney, which is governed by separate statutes and doesn’t carry the same automatic revocation. A plan built around a marriage can therefore require a full document review, not just a will amendment.
Marriage works in the opposite direction. Texas is a community property state under Texas Family Code Section 3.002, which means marriage shifts the legal presumption of who owns what. A plan drafted before the marriage may not reflect the new ownership structure, particularly for property each spouse owned separately before the ceremony.
Children born or adopted after a will is signed also require immediate attention. Texas Estates Code Section 255.053 addresses pretermitted children (those born or adopted after a will is signed who aren’t provided for in it). If a child qualifies as pretermitted under that section, they may receive a statutory share of the estate, and the calculation may not match what the parent would have intended had they updated the will at the time.
Financial & Asset Changes That Require a Review
Asset changes are the category most people underestimate. If your will bequeaths a specific item (a piece of real estate, a vehicle, or a brokerage account) and you later sell it or transfer it, that gift fails entirely through a legal concept called ademption. The named beneficiary receives nothing in its place unless the will explicitly provides for that possibility. No court will substitute a different asset because the testator probably would have wanted something equivalent. The document controls.
Property not addressed by any estate planning document may pass under Texas intestate succession laws rather than your stated preferences, which means the state’s default distribution rules apply, not yours.
The federal tax landscape also changed significantly in 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, permanently raised the federal estate tax exemption to $15 million per individual starting January 1, 2026, eliminating the sunset provision from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that had been a planning concern for years. Estate plans built around strategies designed to address that old sunset framework should be reviewed against the new permanent baseline to confirm the approach still makes sense.
The Documents People Forget: Beneficiary Designations & Powers of Attorney
The will is rarely the only document that needs attention. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts operate entirely outside the will. Under Texas law, those designations override whatever the will says. A retirement account naming an ex-spouse will pass to that ex-spouse regardless of a divorce decree and regardless of what the will directs. An outdated designation can redirect a significant asset to someone the account holder stopped intending to benefit years ago.
Powers of attorney carry their own update risk. The Texas Legislature overhauled Chapters 751 and 752 of the Texas Estates Code in 2017, changing the statutory durable power of attorney form and the rules governing whether financial institutions must accept those documents. Older powers of attorney may face resistance from banks and investment firms during an emergency, precisely when the document needs to work without delay. If your durable power of attorney predates 2017, scheduling a review is worthwhile regardless of anything else that may have changed.
A new health diagnosis makes this especially urgent. Incapacity affects two distinct domains at once: your finances and your medical care. A durable financial power of attorney and a medical power of attorney serve different functions, and a diagnosis is the event most likely to require both to operate simultaneously. Reviewing them together (along with your advance directive, the document that records your treatment preferences in writing) closes the gap between what you want and what a hospital or financial institution can legally honor.
Moving to Texas or Changing Your Asset Picture
Out-of-state wills are valid in Texas if they were properly executed under the laws of the state where they were signed, but they often lack a Texas-compliant self-proving affidavit. A self-proving affidavit, authorized under Texas Estates Code Section 251.1045, allows a court to accept the will without requiring the original witnesses to appear and testify. Without one, the family may need to locate witnesses who signed the document years or decades earlier, adding cost and delay to probate proceedings in Bexar County.
Digital assets are a category that no estate plan from even ten years ago fully anticipated. Texas law recognizes digital estate planning, but accessing a deceased person’s accounts, cryptocurrency holdings, and online financial assets requires explicit authorization in the estate planning documents. Without clear instructions naming an authorized agent and addressing each type of account, family members may find themselves legally locked out of assets they didn’t know required a specific grant of access.
Bexar County operates three dedicated statutory probate courts (Probate Courts 1, 2, and 3) handling exclusively probate, guardianship, and trust matters. Unlike many Texas counties that route these cases through general jurisdiction courts, Bexar County’s dedicated courts move through estate matters with focused attention. That focus works in a family’s favor when the documents are current. When they aren’t, the court still applies the law to what’s written, not to what anyone believes was meant.
An Estate Plan Protects the Life You’re Actually Living
The point of an estate plan isn’t the signing day. It’s every day after, when the people you named rely on those documents to reflect what you actually want. A plan built around a prior marriage, a prior asset picture, or a prior version of federal tax law protects a life you’re no longer living.
Updating doesn’t always mean starting over. Sometimes a review confirms that the core documents still hold up and only the beneficiary designations need attention. Sometimes the documents are fine but a newer statutory form would protect you better. The only way to know is to look. We’ve worked with San Antonio families on estate planning reviews for over four decades, and we’re glad to help you figure out what, if anything, needs to change. You can reach us at (210) 405-4919 to set up a time to talk.