Will and Inheritance Statistics in Texas: 25+ Facts (2026)

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Most Texans will die owning something worth passing on: a house, a truck, a retirement account, a small business. Far fewer will leave behind a valid will that says who gets it.

This page pulls together the most reliable numbers we could find on wills, deaths, estates, and inherited wealth in Texas, drawing on US federal data (Census Bureau, CDC/NCHS, the Federal Reserve), state records, and the major national estate-planning surveys. Every figure below links to its source in the list at the foot of the page. Updated July 2026.

Contents:

Do Texans actually have a will?

There is no clean, state-only survey of will ownership in Texas, so the honest picture comes from national polling applied to a state that holds roughly one in eleven Americans. The national numbers are not encouraging, and by several measures they are getting worse.

1. Only about 24% of American adults had a will in 2025

Caring.com's annual Wills and Estate Planning Study found that just 24% of US adults reported having a will in 2025, down sharply from 33% in 2022. That is a nine-percentage-point drop in three years, the opposite of the trend you might expect.1

2. Other polls put the figure closer to 46%

Estimates vary with how the question is asked. Gallup, polling US adults, found that 46% said they had a will describing how they want their estate handled.2 The gap between surveys is wide, but even the highest credible number means a majority of adults have nothing in writing.

3. Will ownership rises steeply with age

Pew Research Center reports that about 32% of US adults have created a will, but the share climbs with age: roughly 46% of adults in their 60s and 66% of those in their 70s have one.3 Since most estates are settled for older decedents, that skew matters.

4. Around 60% of adults have no estate plan at all

AARP's survey work found that roughly 6 in 10 American adults lack a will or broader estate plan.4 Applied to Texas, that points to millions of adults with no documented instructions for their assets or their minor children.

5. Procrastination is the number one reason, cited by 43%

Among people without a will, 43% told Caring.com they simply "haven't gotten around to it," the top reason every year since 2022. Nearly a quarter, 24%, said nothing at all would prompt them to start.5

6. Higher-income Texans are far likelier to plan

Wealth predicts planning. Among Americans 70 and older, Pew found 83% of upper-income adults had a will versus 51% of lower-income adults in the same age band.6 The people with the most to lose from intestacy are often the least prepared.

GroupShare with a willSource
All US adults (Caring.com, 2025)24%Caring.com
All US adults (Gallup)46%Gallup
All US adults (Pew)32%Pew Research
Adults in their 70s (Pew)66%Pew Research
Upper-income adults 70+ (Pew)83%Pew Research

Deaths and estates in Texas each year

7. Texas is home to 31.3 million people and about 11 million households

The US Census Bureau put Texas at 31,290,831 residents as of July 2024, with roughly 10.99 million households and about 13% of residents aged 65 or older.7 That is a very large base of estates forming every year.

8. More than 214,000 Texans died in 2023

Based on CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality data, well over 200,000 Texas residents die each year, on the order of 214,000 in 2023, with heart disease, cancer, and accidents the leading causes.8 Every one of those deaths opens the question of who inherits.

9. The US recorded about 3.07 million deaths in 2024

Nationally, the CDC counted 3,072,666 resident deaths in 2024.9 Texas alone accounts for roughly 7% of that total, one of the largest streams of estate transfers of any state.

10. Likely well over 100,000 Texas estates a year involve no will

If national will-ownership rates hold in Texas, a large share of the roughly 214,000 residents who die each year leave no valid will. Even using the more optimistic surveys, that points to well over 100,000 Texas estates a year passing at least partly under intestacy rules rather than by a written plan.10

11. Life expectancy in Texas is about 77 years

The CDC reports Texas life expectancy at 77.1 years.11 With a large and aging population, the annual volume of Texas estates is set to grow for decades, not shrink.

The great American wealth transfer

12. An estimated $84 trillion will change hands by 2045

Cerulli Associates projects that $84.4 trillion in wealth will be transferred in the US through 2045, the largest intergenerational handoff in history.12 Texas, with its outsized share of population and business owners, is a major part of it.

13. US households already hold about $169 trillion in net worth

For scale, the Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts put total US household and nonprofit net worth at roughly $168.8 trillion in late 2024.13 That is the pool the wealth transfer is drawn from.

14. Heirs are set to receive $72.6 trillion, charities $11.9 trillion

Of the projected transfer, Cerulli expects $72.6 trillion to flow to heirs and $11.9 trillion to charitable causes.14 Whether an individual estate follows those intentions or state default rules depends almost entirely on whether a will exists.

15. The median US family is worth about $193,000

The Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances found a median family net worth of $192,900 and a mean of $1.06 million.15 Most people underestimate how much passes through their estate once a home and retirement savings are counted.

16. Baby boomers alone will pass down about $53 trillion

Cerulli attributes roughly $53 trillion, about 63% of all transfers, to baby boomer households.16 In Texas, that generation controls a large share of the state's homes, farms, and family businesses.

Texas net worth and what is at stake

17. Texas per-capita personal income is about $68,000

Federal data compiled by the St. Louis Fed put Texas per-capita personal income at $67,942 in 2024.17 Income is not the same as inheritable wealth, but it signals a state where most households have meaningful assets to protect.

18. It takes about $5.3 million to reach the top 1% in Texas

Estimates of the Texas top-1% net worth threshold sit around $5.32 million.18 The larger the estate, the more expensive and contested an intestate outcome becomes when there is no will to direct it.

19. About 63% of Texas homes are owner-occupied, worth a median of $283,800

The Census Bureau reports a Texas homeownership rate of 62.6% and a median value of owner-occupied homes of $283,800.19 For most families the home is the single largest asset that will pass at death.

20. Texas homeownership has held near 62% for a decade

Federal Reserve data show the Texas homeownership rate hovering close to 62% to 64% across recent years.20 That stability means millions of Texas households consistently hold real property that needs to be transferred cleanly, ideally through a will rather than probate court.

What happens when a Texan dies without a will

21. Intestate estates are divided by the Texas Estates Code, not your wishes

When a Texan dies without a valid will, the estate is "intestate" and is distributed under the Texas Estates Code rather than any personal instruction.21 The law, not the family, decides who receives what.

22. The court appoints an administrator, often with a bond

Without a named executor, a Texas probate court must appoint an administrator to settle debts and distribute property, frequently under dependent administration that requires a bond and court approval for nearly every step.22 That is slower and costlier than administering a clear will.

23. Spouses and children split the estate by fixed statutory shares

Chapter 201 of the Texas Estates Code sets rigid formulas for intestate succession, dividing property between a surviving spouse and children in set fractions that surprise many families, especially in blended households or with separate versus community property.23

24. Texas recognizes handwritten (holographic) wills

Texas is one of the states that recognizes a valid will written entirely in the maker's own hand, without witnesses.24 The barrier to having a will in Texas is genuinely low, which makes the low ownership rates above all the more striking.

If you are one of the millions of Texans in the "no will yet" column, the fix is far simpler than most people assume. You can put a clear, valid Texas will together in one sitting with our guided will builder, and if you want the state-specific context first, see how many Texans have a will.

Sources

  1. 1Caring.com, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  2. 2Gallup, How Many Americans Have a Will? (news.gallup.com)
  3. 3Pew Research Center, Experiences With Estate Planning (pewresearch.org)
  4. 4AARP, Survey on adults without wills or estate plans (aarp.org)
  5. 5Caring.com, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  6. 6Pew Research Center, Estate planning by income (pewresearch.org)
  7. 7US Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Texas (census.gov)
  8. 8CDC/NCHS, Stats of the States: Texas (cdc.gov)
  9. 9CDC/NCHS, FastStats: Deaths and Mortality (cdc.gov)
  10. 10Caring.com, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  11. 11CDC/NCHS, Stats of the States: Texas (life expectancy) (cdc.gov)
  12. 12Cerulli Associates, $84 Trillion in Wealth Transfers Through 2045 (cerulli.com)
  13. 13Federal Reserve, Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1) (federalreserve.gov)
  14. 14Cerulli Associates, transfers to heirs and charities (cerulli.com)
  15. 15Federal Reserve, 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (federalreserve.gov)
  16. 16Cerulli Associates, baby boomer wealth transfer share (cerulli.com)
  17. 17St. Louis Fed (FRED/BEA), Per Capita Personal Income in Texas (fred.stlouisfed.org)
  18. 18Windfall, Top 1% net worth threshold by state (windfall.com)
  19. 19US Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Texas (housing) (census.gov)
  20. 20St. Louis Fed (FRED), Homeownership Rate for Texas (fred.stlouisfed.org)
  21. 21TexasLawHelp.org, Probating an Estate Without a Will (texaslawhelp.org)
  22. 22Texas State Law Library, Probate Law guide (guides.sll.texas.gov)
  23. 23Texas Estates Code, Chapter 201 (Intestate Succession) (statutes.capitol.texas.gov)
  24. 24Texas State Law Library, wills and holographic wills (guides.sll.texas.gov)
Max Kuch

About the author

Max Kuch

Max Kuch writes about estate planning, wills and inheritance for Texas Will Template. He gathers the numbers from official Texas and US public data, then explains what they mean for anyone thinking about putting their wishes in writing.

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Frequently asked questions

Yes, provided you finish it the right way. Under Tex. Est. Code Sec. 251.051 and 251.052, a holographic will is valid when it is written wholly in your own handwriting and signed by you. No witnesses are required and no date is required. What we hand you is a clean, correctly structured draft. It becomes a legally valid holographic will the moment you copy the whole thing out by hand on paper and sign it yourself.

Because Texas recognizes two separate paths, and printing points you toward the harder one. A typed or printed will has to be signed in front of two credible witnesses to be valid. A holographic will skips the witnesses entirely, but only if it is written completely in your own handwriting. If you print our draft and sign it alone, it is neither a valid witnessed will nor a valid holographic will. Copying the full text by hand is what makes the witness-free route work, so the handwriting is not a formality, it is the whole point.

Texas gives you unusually wide freedom here. There is no forced heirship and no elective share, so you are not required to leave a fixed portion to your spouse or to your children, and you can disinherit an adult child if you choose. One thing you cannot give away, though, is property that is not fully yours. Texas is a community property state, which means your surviving spouse already owns one half of everything the two of you acquired during the marriage. Your will can only dispose of your own half of the community property plus your separate property, so name what is genuinely yours to give.

Keep the signed original somewhere safe and dry, and make sure the person you named as executor knows exactly where it is, because a copy is far weaker than the original if the will ever has to be probated. If you want extra security, the clerk of the county where you live can hold your will for safekeeping during your lifetime under Tex. Est. Code Sec. 252.001, whether you are in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio or anywhere else in the state. Texas has no statewide will registry, so there is no central database to file it in.

We strongly recommend against a single shared document. A holographic will has to be wholly in one person's handwriting, so two people physically cannot create one valid handwritten will together. Beyond that, joint wills tend to lock the survivor into terms that are painful to change after the first death. The clean solution is two separate mirror wills, one in each spouse's own handwriting, each signed by that spouse. You can make them say almost the same thing while keeping each one independently valid and freely revocable.

Yes, and it is easy. A Texas will has no expiration, but life does not stand still, so revisit it after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death or a move. The safest way to make a change is to handwrite and sign a brand new holographic will that revokes all previous wills, then destroy the old signed original so no stale version can surface later. Avoid scribbling edits in the margins of a finished will, since alterations can raise doubt about what you actually intended.

No, and we do not pretend it does. This service gives you a solid, well-organized draft for a straightforward estate, which covers a great many Texas families perfectly well. But if your situation is complex, for example a blended family, a business, property in more than one state, a beneficiary with special needs or a plan that involves a trust, you should have a Texas estate attorney review it. Think of this as a strong, affordable starting point, not as legal advice.

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