Removing an Executor in Fort Worth

If an independent executor has stopped returning your calls or sold estate property to a friend, more emails won’t fix it. In Tarrant County you fix it by filing. This page covers what the Estates Code lets you ask for and what the Tarrant County probate courts require before they’ll hear it.

Removal requires proof of specific grounds

A judge won’t remove an independent executor because the family has lost confidence in that person. The Estates Code lists the grounds for removal, and you have to plead and prove facts that fit one of them.

• Removal without notice (Section 404.003) covers narrow situations, such as an executor who can’t be served or who has misapplied or embezzled estate property.
• Removal with notice (Section 404.0035) covers the more common grounds, including failure to account, gross misconduct or gross mismanagement, and a material conflict of interest.

Chapter 404 was amended as recently as 2023, so older articles on executor removal may be out of date.

Tex. Est. Code §§ 404.003, 404.0035.

Most removal cases start with a demand for an accounting

Most people who want an executor removed don’t have proof yet. They just aren’t getting answers. Section 404.001 addresses that. Once 15 months have passed since letters were first issued, an interested person can demand a sworn accounting of what came into the estate, what went out, and what is left. If the executor doesn’t comply within 60 days, you can ask the court to compel it.

That accomplishes two things. It forces the executor to disclose what happened, and if the executor still doesn’t comply, it creates a record of the failure to account that a removal request can rely on.

Tex. Est. Code § 404.001.

The certificate of conference

The Tarrant County probate courts won’t set a motion, objection or special exception for hearing unless the lawyer filing it certifies something close to this:

Probate Court No. 1’s published policies say the rule is strictly enforced and that a motion shouldn’t be filed or set without good-faith compliance. In practice that means a call to the executor’s lawyer comes first. Sometimes the accounting shows up after that call and no motion is needed.

Tarrant County probate courts’ local rules, Rule 2.04(b).

Your case belongs to one judge

Tarrant County has two statutory probate courts, No. 1 and No. 2, both in the courthouse at 100 West Weatherford Street. Under the local rules, every application for relief goes first to the judge of the court your case is assigned to. Probate Court No. 1’s policies also call for a scheduling order in every contested case unless the court decides otherwise.

Tarrant County probate courts’ local rules, Rule 2.06(b).

What removal doesn’t do

An order removing an executor ends that person’s authority over the estate. It doesn’t recover anything the executor took or wasted. Getting the money back is a separate claim, usually for breach of fiduciary duty, and it is often litigated alongside the removal using the same evidence. Contested cases like this commonly take more than a year.

What to have ready for the first call

• The order appointing the executor and the date letters were issued. The 15-month period under Section 404.001 runs from that date.
• Any inventory or accounting you have received, even if it is partial or late.
• What you believe happened to specific assets, and how you know.

Work we don’t take

We handle contested cases only: removal, breach of fiduciary duty, will contests, contested heirship and dependent administrations. We don’t handle uncontested administrations, simple wills or estate planning.