My mother in law passed away in Texas in Jan 08. She had no will. No life insurance that we can locate. She has no real estate. She does however have 5 savings, investments, iras, cd that we have located. 2 of them we were able to get the beneficiary information no problem. The other 3 the companies will not release the beneficiary information without a death certificate (easy) and either a letter of testamentary or a small estate affidavit. From my research I have found these are given when the estate goes through probate. Why do these account need to go through probate if they have beneficiaries ? What are our right to the beneficiary information ?

