According to Texas law, a copy of a will is not a written will. It is only proof of a written will. While the Texas Probate Code allows courts to probate a written will based on the proof that a copy of a will provides, there are burdensome restrictions.The most significant restriction is that the applicant must prove that the original will was not revoked. The problem is that Texas law allows for a person to revoke their will by destroying it. Therefore the courts presume that if a will cannot be produced, it has been destroyed AND if it has been destroyed, it was revoked. That means that in order to get the will probated with only the copy as proof, you will have to also prove that the original was not destroyed. And as you may have learned in middle-school science, proving a negative can be very difficult. This doesn’t mean that you should not ever make copies of your executed will. They can be a convenient way to share your plan with loved ones. But don’t put your loved ones in the situation of having to try to probate a copy of your will after you are gone. Make sure they know where the original will is located. If you have lost track of your original will, make the small investment of time and money to get a new original Texas will drafted today.
