Divorced Brother Died Suddenly With No Beneficiaries On Anything

Hi all, my brother in Texas died very suddenly last month. He is divorced with 4 kids all under the age of 18. He had a pension and a life insurance policy, neither of which had a beneficiary listed. He also had custody of his 4 kids while his ex-wife had visitation only. Now that he is deceased, his ex-wife has sole custody of their kids.

I understand that his kids will be granted inheritance of the pension and life insurance policy through the courts, which is absolutely the correct action (they should get everything left of his estate as far as I'm concerned). My concern is that if the ex-wife gets control of the inherited money she would squander it leaving the kids with next to nothing when they reach 18. The ex-wife was thousands of dollars behind in child support at the time of my brother's passing, owes tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes, and has a track record of being completely irresponsible with money.

Will the court appoint some sort of custodian of this money until the kids come of age that isn't the ex-wife or will she get control of it because she is now their guardian? If there is a custodian appointed, how will the court decide who that will be? Is it petitioned as part of the court proceedings? Could it be a family member (like me for example) or would it be someone completely outside of the situation?

Being his sibling, I don't think I have any legal standing to fight on his kid's behalf, but if there is anything I can do to ensure they are taken care of from his estate when they come of age I will do whatever it takes.

Thanks for reading!