Hi there! My name is Seth, and I am a licensed attorney. Please know that my responses are for general information only and do not constitute legal advice. Also, you may experience a wait time between responses because I work with multiple customers at the same time. Please know that I will respond as soon as I can. I appreciate your patience. I am reviewing your question now…

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Thank you. Please allow me a few moments to provide you with an answer.

Because your father died domiciled in New Mexico but left a Texas bank account, you have to give the Texas bank something it can legally rely on: either (1) letters of appointment issued by a probate court or (2) a Texas-compliant small estate or successor affidavit that meets the exact requirements of the Texas Estates Code.

The bank is refusing the “successor-interest” form you showed it, so the simplest path is usually to open a basic probate case in New Mexico, have the court appoint the surviving spouse (or another heir) as personal representative, and then ask that representative to obtain certified Letters of Administration (or “Letters of Personal Representative”). Texas Financial Code §201.101 allows a Texas bank to honor letters issued by another state once it is satisfied they are authentic.

Many institutions, however, want those foreign letters “domesticated”: you record a certified copy of the letters and the New Mexico order in the deed records office of the Texas county where the bank is located, then present the recorded (“exemplified”) copy to the branch. That gives the bank clear statutory protection under Texas Estates Code §505.004.

If the only estate asset is the sub-$50,000 Texas account, you can avoid a full New Mexico probate and instead use Texas’s own small estate procedure: Estates Code §134.101 lets a financial institution pay funds of an intestate decedent (up to $250,000) based on a notarized “Small Estate Affidavit for Financial Institution” signed by all heirs and containing specific language set out in the statute. Every heir must promise to indemnify the bank. Some banks supply their own form; others accept the statutory wording typed on plain paper.

File nothing with a court; you simply give the bank the affidavit, a certified death certificate, and proof there is no pending probate. If the bank still hesitates, you can force compliance by delivering the affidavit by certified mail—once 90 days pass without written rejection, the bank is liable to the heirs if it still refuses to release the funds (§134.104).

Because you live in Arkansas and cannot appear at the Texas branch easily, start by asking the bank’s estate-services department which of the two documents it will accept: (a) domesticated New Mexico letters or (b) the §134.101 successor affidavit. Choose the route it prefers, gather the heirs’ signatures, attach the death certificate, and overnight the packet. If the bank rejects the affidavit in writing, your fallback is the quicker New Mexico probate and domestication process; once letters are in hand, Texas law leaves the bank no discretion to hold the money.

Please let me know if this answers your question. I am happy to clarify anything you need clarified.

Whether the real estate interests pass through probate or go directly to named heirs depends on how each property is titled rather than on who is listed as a “co-signer” on the loan. If your father and his wife (or your mother, on the New Mexico property) held title “as joint tenants with right of survivorship” or “as tenants by the entirety,” your father’s death automatically vested full ownership in the surviving co-owner, and that share never enters probate or passes under a beneficiary designation.

The same is true if the deed was recorded in New Mexico as a community property interest with right of survivorship. In those circumstances, any “direct beneficiaries” named in a will or trust would receive no interest in those particular parcels, because the survivorship clause overrides testamentary gifts.

If, on the other hand, a deed lists your father and the co-signer simply as “tenants in common” (or is silent on survivorship wording), each owner holds an undivided share that does fall into the deceased owner’s estate; your father’s interest would then pass according to his will or, if there is no will, under New Mexico’s intestacy rules. Likewise, if title is solely in his name and the spouse merely co-signed the mortgage note, the house remains probate property even though the loan was joint; the lender’s lien continues, but the equity is distributed through the estate.

Because deed language controls, pull a certified copy of each property’s recorded deed. If survivorship wording appears, the surviving co-owner simply records an affidavit of survivorship (and a death certificate) in the county where the property lies. If no survivorship language appears, the personal representative handles the interest through probate, and named beneficiaries (or intestate heirs) can receive their shares once the court approves. Joint mortgage liability does not by itself determine inheritance; only the deed’s legal ownership form does.

Have I fully addressed your concerns today?

Great! I certainly wish you all the best! Have a wonderful day.