Inheritance Disclaimer and Renunciation Requirements in Texas

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and covered interests

Texas Property Code Chapter 240 is the Texas Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act. Section 240.002 defines "disclaim" to reach inheritance, wills, survivorship arrangements, insurance and annuity contracts, retirement and benefit plans, and trusts. Section 240.003 applies the chapter to any interest in or power over property whenever created. This page covers an adult acting personally under § 240.006, not the chapter's separate fiduciary and representative rules.

Whole, partial, and conditional disclaimer

Section 240.006 allows a person acting personally to disclaim all or part of an interest or power. Section 240.009(b) lets a partial disclaimer use a fraction, percentage, monetary amount, term of years, limitation of a power, or another interest or estate. Unlike Florida's act, Chapter 240 does not expressly authorize a conditional disclaimer, so the table does not treat conditions as a general Texas option.

Writing or record and required contents

Section 240.009(a) requires a writing that declares the disclaimer, describes the interest or power, and is signed. Texas adds a state-specific item in subsection (e): an individual must state under penalty of perjury whether the child-support-obligor bar in § 240.151(g) applies. Omitting that statement does not invalidate the document if the disclaimer is not actually barred by the child-support rule.

Signature, witnesses, acknowledgment, and notary

The general effectiveness list in § 240.009(a) requires the disclaimant's signature but does not require witnesses, an acknowledgment, or notarization. A separate recording or transaction rule could affect a particular asset, but Chapter 240 does not turn those formalities into a universal condition for every disclaimer.

State deadline, irrevocability, and federal-tax overlay

Chapter 240 states no fixed Texas validity deadline. Its practical clock is event-based: the right can be lost through the bars in § 240.151 before the document becomes effective. Section 240.009(c) makes the disclaimer irrevocable on the later of delivery or filing under Subchapter C and statutory effectiveness under §§ 240.051-240.056.

Federal tax qualification remains separate. Section 240.057 recognizes a disclaimer treated under the Internal Revenue Code as never transferred to the disclaimant. The federal definition in 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) adds a nine-month receipt deadline and other conditions; it is not a fixed state-law deadline inside Chapter 240.

Delivery, filing, and recipient

Section 240.101 allows personal delivery, first-class mail, fax, e-mail, or another method likely to result in receipt. Certified mail with return receipt requested counts on the mailing date if sent in good faith to an address likely to work. The recipient depends on the interest:

• A will or intestate interest goes to the personal representative. If none serves, it is filed in the official public records of a county where the decedent lived at death or owned real property (§ 240.102).
• A testamentary-trust interest goes to the trustee, then the personal representative, with the same county-public-record fallback (§ 240.103).
• An inter vivos trust interest goes to the trustee, or to the listed court or county- record fallback if none serves; before irrevocability it goes to the settlor or transferor (§ 240.104).
• A beneficiary-designation interest goes to the person making the designation before irrevocability. Afterward, personal property goes to the distributor and real property must be recorded in the land's county (§ 240.105).
• A survivorship-property disclaimer goes to the person who takes the disclaimed share (§ 240.106).

Real-property recording and notice

Section 240.111 generally says a disclaimer may be recorded like the instrument that transferred the interest, and nonrecording does not defeat validity between the disclaimant and successor takers. The express exception is § 240.105(c)(2): after a beneficiary designation has become irrevocable, a disclaimer of the designated real- property interest must be recorded in the official public records of the county where the land lies. Section 240.111 does not itself state a general constructive-notice effect.

Acceptance, transfer, insolvency, and creditor bars

Section 240.151 bars a disclaimer after written waiver, acceptance through possession or dominion and control, voluntary transfer or a contract to transfer, or judicial sale. Texas does not add Florida's general insolvency bar. Instead, it has a targeted child-support rule: a child-support obligor cannot disclaim property available to cover arrears that have been administratively determined in a Title IV-D case or confirmed and reduced to judgment.

For an effective interest passing at death, § 240.051 says the disclaimer relates back to death and the disclaimed property is not subject to the disclaimant's creditors. That general protection does not erase § 240.151(g)'s child-support exception.

Effective date and destination

Under § 240.051(b), a death-transfer disclaimer takes effect and relates back to the decedent's death. A governing-instrument clause addressing disclaimers controls the destination. Without one, an individual is generally treated as dying immediately before effectiveness; intestate property passes as if the disclaimant died immediately before the decedent. Sections 240.0511 and 240.0512 add descendant and estate rules for their covered circumstances. The disclaimant does not select the successor recipient.

What trips people up

The child-support statement is part of the Texas document. It must address whether the § 240.151(g) bar applies and be made under penalty of perjury, even though omission does not invalidate a disclaimer that is not actually barred.

The no-fixed-deadline rule does not protect someone who already accepted or transferred the property. Chapter 240's bars can arise long before a federal tax deadline or any planned filing date.

Real-property recording is not one universal rule. Section 240.111 is generally permissive, but § 240.105(c)(2) makes county recording mandatory for a real-property interest disclaimed after its beneficiary designation becomes irrevocable.

Common questions

Does a Texas disclaimer need a notary? Not under Chapter 240's general effectiveness list. A particular recording or transaction may present a separate question.

Can I e-mail the disclaimer? Texas expressly allows e-mail and fax, but the correct document still must reach the correct statutory recipient or filing office.

Can ordinary creditors take the disclaimed property? Section 240.051 generally protects an effective death-transfer disclaimer from the disclaimant's creditors, but Texas separately bars disclaimers against specified established child-support arrears.

Statutes and sources

• Tex. Prop. Code §§ 240.002, 240.003, 240.006 — covered interests, chapter scope, and an adult's whole-or-part authority. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/pr/pdf/pr.240.pdf (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Tex. Prop. Code § 240.009 — writing, contents, signature, partial forms, irrevocability, and child-support statement. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/pr/pdf/pr.240.pdf (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Tex. Prop. Code §§ 240.101-240.106 — delivery methods, recipients, and filing routes. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/pr/pdf/pr.240.pdf (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Tex. Prop. Code §§ 240.105(c)(2), 240.111 — real-property recording exception and general nonrecording rule. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/pr/pdf/pr.240.pdf (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Tex. Prop. Code § 240.151 — waiver, acceptance, transfer, judicial-sale, and child-support bars. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/pr/pdf/pr.240.pdf (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Tex. Prop. Code §§ 240.051, 240.057 — relation back, creditor protection, destination, and federal-law recognition. https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/pr/pdf/pr.240.pdf (accessed 2026-08-01)
• 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) — separate federal qualified-disclaimer requirements. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2024-title26/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleB-chap12-subchapB-sec2518 (accessed 2026-08-01)