Estate Planning Lawyers in Waco

What does an estate plan in Texas usually include?

For most families, the core is four documents. A will names who receives your property and who administers your estate. A durable power of attorney names the person who can handle money and property if you cannot. A medical power of attorney names the person who can make health care decisions for you. A directive to physicians records what you want done if you are near the end of life and cannot speak.

From there the plan is fitted to the facts. A family with minor children needs guardian designations. A family with a child who receives public benefits needs special needs planning, so an inheritance does not disqualify them. A family with a business, a ranch, or property in more than one county usually needs a trust. We tell you which of these apply to you and which do not, and we quote the work before we start drafting.

Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?

A will is enough for many Central Texas families. A trust earns its keep when you want to control the timing of an inheritance, when a beneficiary cannot manage money or receives benefits, when you want to keep the arrangement private, or when you want to reduce what your family has to take through court after your death.

What we will not do is sell you a trust you do not need. The right question is not which document is fancier; it is what has to happen to your property and your people, and which instrument does that with the least friction. Bring your account statements and deeds to the consultation and the answer usually becomes clear in the first hour. Trust work is also where planning meets Medicaid and long-term care, which is a large part of this firm's practice.

How often should a plan be reviewed?

Bring your plan back when something structural changes: a marriage or divorce, a birth, a death, a move to or out of Texas, the sale of a business or a farm, a diagnosis, or a beneficiary who becomes disabled. Tax and benefit rules move too, and a document drafted for one set of rules can behave strangely under another.

A plan that has not been read in fifteen years is often the reason a family ends up in probate court or a guardianship proceeding they could have avoided. Reviewing an existing plan is a short appointment; rebuilding one after the fact is not.