Your parent died in Monterrey and the house is still in their name. What now?

No. A U.S. probate court has no authority over real property located in Mexico. Families routinely pay for a full U.S. probate and then discover the Mexican house is untouched. The property changes hands only through a Mexican succession proceeding, filed where the property is.

Through a succession proceeding filed in Mexico, which in most cases can be run under a power of attorney signed at a Mexican consulate near you. Real property and Mexican bank accounts follow that same proceeding. What we need from you is documents and signatures, not plane tickets.

Then it runs as an intestate succession: the law determines who inherits and in what order, rather than the deceased's wishes. It usually takes longer and costs more than a testate succession, because who inherits has to be established before anything can be divided.

They do not all have to travel — heirs abroad can act through a power of attorney. Agreement is a different matter: when everyone agrees, is of age, and there is no dispute, the succession can often run before a Mexican civil-law notary instead of a judge, which is faster. Disagreement sends it to court.

It depends on the court, the route, whether all the heirs agree, and whether the documents are in order. We will not promise you a date, but we will always tell you which stage you are in and what comes next. What stretches these cases out is family disagreement and errors in the certificates.

There is no published flat price, because the range is enormous — a testate succession with one heir is nothing like an intestate case with six estranged siblings and three properties. Start with a consultation — $50 USD for one hour on Zoom — and we give you a real quote from your actual documents.

Not safely. While the property is still titled in the name of the person who died, it cannot be deeded to a buyer. The succession is the mandatory prior step when the family wants to sell, which is why starting it early matters if a sale is the plan.

Usually not. The right to inherit is not generally lost by letting time pass, but it does get harder: property tax and water debts pile up, documents disappear, and sometimes an heir dies too and a second succession opens on top of the first. Sooner is simpler.

Yes, quite a lot. If the name on the birth certificate does not match the deed or the death certificate, the court will flag it. It has to be corrected first through a certificate correction proceeding, which we also handle. This is the single most common reason these files stall.

That is a U.S. tax question, not a Mexican legal one, and we do not answer it. Talk to a U.S. cross-border tax professional before you sell. We can tell you what the Mexican side of the transaction looks like and coordinate with your tax advisor, but we will not guess at your U.S. exposure.

The executor of the estate. The albacea administers the assets and represents the succession while the proceeding runs — paying debts, protecting the property, and carrying out the partition. An heir living in the United States can serve as albacea and can act through a representative in Mexico.