Estate Planning: Wills and Trusts
The disposition of your estate through a well thought out estate plan consists of my drafting a Client’s Last Will and Testament and/or a Revocable Living Trust so that his or her estate is distributed your death in the manner and to the individual or personal representative who is chosen.
Besides a Will and/or Trust, many Clients also require that I prepare certain other legal documents, such as a Durable Power of Attorney so the estate is handled by an agent during a period of disability; a Directive to Physicians and Family or Surrogates so that a Client can make his or her wishes known to family and health care providers if that Client is suffering from a terminal or irreversible illness; and a HIPAA Authorization waiving Federal privacy laws governing a Client’s health care records in favor of duly appointed health care agents.
The foregoing legal documents are “less restrictive alternatives” which often avoid the guardianship of a loved one’s person or estate.
Probate
After your death, your Will may need to be “probated.” That is, a Texas Probate Court must admit a Client’s Will to probate, and appoint an Executor so that he or she may manage an estate using Letters Testamentary.
With few exceptions, a Will that needs to be probated must be probated within four (4) years of your death. Texas offers a very simplified and expeditious probate system for most estates that need to be probated.
Just like estate planning services, I consult Clients in determining whether a loved one’s Will must go through the probate process. A key factor is if the decedent had “probate property” as death, such as a home, motor vehicle, personal property, and certain accounts.
After being licensed in 1976 to practice law in the State of Texas, I have assisted many Texans decide whether to probate a Will and, if probate is necessary, appear in Probate Court for that purpose. Once a Will is successfully probated, an Executor has broad authority in most Wills to review probate assets, pay Estate bills, then distribute probate assets to beneficiaries who are identified in a Will.
