SB1839

What the clerk sends: electronically, the transferring clerk sends the transfer certificate and document index, final orders, signed transfer order, copies of the original case papers, prior transfer certificates and indexes, and a bill of accrued costs. Separately, the clerk sends the original will, or the paper copy offered under Section 256.156 when the original cannot be produced in court. This is a document-transfer rule, not automatic approval of a copied will. Final law, Section 1.

Delivery and payment: the will must travel by a “qualified delivery method.” The existing definition allows courier hand delivery with a delivery receipt; certified or registered mail with a return receipt; or a Treasury-designated private delivery service with proof of delivery. If applicable, the applicant who requested the transfer pays this delivery cost. The act does not set a flat dollar amount. Final law; Estates Code delivery-method definition.

Changes during passage: the introduced bill would have added separate subsections requiring physical delivery and payment by the party requesting transfer. The Senate substitute instead revised the existing electronic-records subsection, removed its express reference to an electronic copy of a will, added the separate original-or-paper-copy delivery requirement, used the existing “qualified delivery method” definition, and specified the requesting applicant’s cost responsibility “if applicable.” This version survived unchanged in the Senate-passed, House committee and enrolled texts. No floor amendments are indexed. Introduced; Senate substitute; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Receiving courts and people handling an estate may benefit from having the appropriate physical will document with the transferred case. Clerks take on the delivery step, and the requesting applicant may bear its cost. The act does not change who inherits or eliminate the need to prove a missing will. It applies to proceedings pending or commenced on or after September 1, 2025—not only newly filed cases. Final law, Sections 1–3.

The May 1 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local-government fiscal implication and assumes costs can be absorbed using existing resources. The March 25 and April 4 notes reached the same conclusion for earlier versions. That government-budget estimate does not mean delivery is free to the applicant; the act expressly assigns that cost when applicable. No individual delivery-cost estimate or appropriation is provided. May 1 fiscal note; Introduced fiscal note; Substitute fiscal note; Final law.