San Antonio, TX Family Law and Military Divorce Blog

You have a valid will, what steps must be taken to make sure that it can properly be admitted into probate?  

For a valid will to be admitted into probate, it must be proven to the court to be the last will and testament of the testator.   Before I explain that, here are the two types of valid wills in Texas. 

1. A holographic will is a testamentary instrument written solely in the testator’s own handwriting.  It can be attached to a document with typed writing on the document, however to be valid, the will itself must only be in the testator’s handwriting.
2. An attested will is a testamentary instrument that can be typed or hand written, but is not entirely in the testator’s handwriting.

1. On the death of the FS, or
2. On death of the SM.

In our previous blog about Federal Civil Service Divorce, we discussed that the Employee must have at least 10 years of creditable service before a Former Spouse qualifies in divorce for award of a Former Spouse Survivor Annuity (FSSA).  To read that blog,

Military members and their spouses do not automatically acquire a new “domicile” when the relocate (“PCS”) to a new duty station in a new State. 

First, let’s distinguish the terms “residence” from “domicile.”  A residence is an address or place where you live.  A domicile is the one residence that you consider to be your permanent home.  To better understand the concept, think of the rich and famous.

Until passage of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), any Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) coverage awarded a former spouse in a military divorce vanished when the former spouse died before the retired servicemember.
Read more . . .

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-92) has changed the landscape of the military retirement system, as follows:

1. Persons entering the military on or after January 1, 2018, will be under the new "modernized" retirement system.
2. Servicemembers with less than 12 years of service as of December 31, 2017 (i.e.
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Family dynamics can turn nasty, particularly after a parent or relative dies and a struggle for a portion of the decedent's estate among family members looms.  What, if any, consequences are there if a person deceives others about the existence or content of the decedent's Will?

The Texas Penal Code Section 32.47 establishes that:

• "A person commits an offense if, with intent to defraud or harm any person, he, destroys, removes, conceals, alters, substitutes, or otherwise impairs the verity [i.e. "truth"], legibility, or availability of a writing, other than a governmental record.

A servicemember's military retired pay stops when the servicemember dies.  Likewise, in military divorce, a former spouse's share of military retired pay also stops when the servicemember dies.  How can the former spouse replace some or all of the income stream from retired pay that terminates on the servicemember's death?  The answer is to have Read more . . .

This is the second in a two-part blog.  This second blog focuses on the two tracks available for finishing a divorce when: (1) the other spouse's whereabouts are unknown; (2) the other spouse has been served by "Citation by Publication"; and, (3) the other spouse failed to file an answer or other responsive pleading.  Before reading this blog, you might want to glance at the first blog by clicking Read more . . .

The law requires that the spouse you are suing for divorce (i.e. the Respondent) be served with a copy of the divorce petition and afforded an opportunity to respond.  How can you meet that requirement when the whereabouts of the other spouse are unknown?

In these situations, the law permits the other spouse to be served with legal notice by "citation by publication."  Citation by publication involves posting the legal notice involving the petition for divorce in a local newspaper.