Estate Planning
A plan is only as good as what it does on the worst day of your family’s life. Ours are built for that day.
Most people come to estate planning with one of two thoughts: that they do not have enough to need it, or that they will get to it later. Both are usually wrong, and the second one is expensive.
An estate plan is not primarily about taxes. Texas has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, and the federal exemption is high enough that the great majority of families will never owe a dollar of estate tax. What a plan actually does is decide who receives what, who is in charge, who makes decisions if you cannot, and how much of your estate is consumed by the process of getting there.
What we prepare
- Wills — who receives what, who serves as executor, and who is named guardian for minor children.
- Revocable living trusts — for families who want assets to pass without probate, privately and without a court timetable.
- Irrevocable trusts — where asset protection or long-term care planning calls for them.
- Durable powers of attorney — so someone can manage your financial affairs if you become unable to.
- Medical powers of attorney and directives to physicians — so your care decisions rest with a person you chose.
- Transfer-on-death deeds — a Texas instrument that moves real property to a named beneficiary at death without probate.
- Beneficiary designation review — retirement accounts and life insurance pass by designation, not by will, and a stale designation quietly overrides everything else you signed.
The part most plans get wrong
A trust only governs the assets that were actually transferred into it. Deeds have to be signed and recorded. Accounts have to be retitled. Beneficiary forms have to be updated. This is called funding, and it is where a great many estate plans quietly fail — the documents were drafted correctly, handed over in a binder, and the assets were left sitting exactly where they were.
Funding is part of the engagement, not a homework assignment. We identify what needs to move, prepare the deeds, and tell you plainly which items you must complete with your own bank or plan administrator — and we confirm they were done.
Staying out of probate
Texas gives families genuinely useful tools for this, and they are underused:
- Transfer-on-death deed
- Passes real property to a named beneficiary at death; revocable during your lifetime.
- Payable-on-death accounts
- Bank accounts pass directly to the named person, outside probate.
- Survivorship community property
- Married couples may agree that community property passes to the surviving spouse automatically.
- Funded revocable trust
- Assets titled in the trust are distributed by the trustee, without court involvement.
None of these is right for everyone, and stacking them carelessly creates conflicts — a beneficiary designation that contradicts a will, or a deed that defeats the trust it was meant to feed. The value is in choosing the right combination for your circumstances, and in making the pieces agree with one another.
Who this is for
Families with a home. Parents of minor children who need a guardian named. Blended families, where the default rules of intestacy rarely produce what anyone intended. Business owners with a succession problem. Anyone who has moved to Texas from another state and is carrying documents drafted under different law. And anyone who has simply never done it.
Common questions
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
For many Texas families a well-drafted will plus transfer-on-death and payable-on-death designations accomplishes what a trust would, at lower cost. Trusts earn their keep where there is real property in more than one state, a beneficiary who should not receive money outright, a desire for privacy, or planning for incapacity rather than only for death. It is a question worth answering on the facts rather than by default.
What happens if I die without a will in Texas?
The Estate Code decides for you. The result depends on whether property is community or separate, and whether you have children from a prior relationship — and it frequently splits a home between a surviving spouse and children in a way that satisfies nobody. Your family will also need a court proceeding to establish who the heirs are, which costs more than a will would have.
How often should a plan be reviewed?
Every three to five years, and immediately after a marriage, divorce, death, birth, a significant change in assets, or a move to another state. Beneficiary designations deserve a look more often than that.
Do you handle plans for property in other states?
The firm is licensed in Texas, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon, and maintains referral relationships elsewhere. Real property is governed by the law of the state where it sits, so out-of-state property is worth raising early.