HBA-JLV H.B. 2152 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2152 By: Averitt Judicial Affairs 3/26/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, the Texas Probate Code provides that a devise or bequest made to an attorney, an attorney's heir, or an employee of the attorney who prepares or supervises the preparation of a will is void. However, a person who makes a bequest and was related within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity to the testator is excepted from this provision. While the statute itself applies to devises or bequests, the exception only applies to bequests and could be construed to disallow any gift of real estate to the spouse or child of the attorney. In addition, gifts to great grandchildren of the testator are disallowed by current statutes, if those great grandchildren were the heirs of the attorney preparing the will because they are not within the second degree of consanguinity. House Bill 2152 includes the testator's spouse, an ascendant or descendant of the testator, or a person that is related within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity to the testator among persons allowed to make a valid devise or bequest to an attorney RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 2152 amends the Probate Code to provide that a person who makes a devise or bequest to a person who is the testator's spouse, an ascendant or descendant of the testator, or is related within the third degree, instead of second degree, by consanguinity or affinity to the testator, is exempted from provisions providing that such devises and bequests are void. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.