First and foremost, congratulations! If someone named you as a trustee or successor trustee, that person must have thought that you are smart, trustworthy, and organized. Being chosen as a trustee is a pretty big compliment. But, just like Uncle Ben told Spiderman: “With great power...
Death avoidance permeates our culture. More than 50% of our neighbors don’t have an estate plan in place detailing distribution of assets let alone any written funeral and/or burial instructions. We, as a culture, hate to admit that we are getting older and do NOT...
Who is on first? What’s on second? Who all needs to be involved in writing an estate plan? Partnering with a highly qualified attorney is paramount when crafting a plan that disposes of your assets, plans for your medical care and strategizes for the care...
Life has very few guarantees. Paying taxes and dying are two guarantees that impact every single person no matter gender, socio-economic status, religion or ethnicity. We pay taxes every year and talk about how much we like or dislike taxes with just about anyone who...
Some people say that probate is easy. The definition of easy is often based on perspective and experience. For example, a DMV employee might think it is easy to obtain or renew a driver’s license. However, over the past two years there have been numerous...
My great grandma inherited the farm where she worked when the owner died. The owner’s children had all passed away before him, and he said, in his will, that she was the hardest worker and he left her what she had worked so hard on...
The internet has changed almost every aspect of our lives, some for the better, and some for worse. I read an article about a family in Arkansas that built a “3,500-square-foot, five-bedroom abode with a three-car garage and a two-story treehouse” using only online tutorials she...
One’s 18th birthday is a momentous occasion. No longer a child, but not quite a full-fledged adult, right? At 18, you can vote, drive without most restrictions, buy or sell real estate, enter into contracts and more all while starting college or a chosen profession....
There are strict rules governing lawyers’ professional responsibility to be ethical. The very first rule is that a lawyer has the duty to be competent in his representation of a client and to maintain competence by keeping up-to-date with any changes in the practice of...
We often get asked about joint bank accounts, and how an account owner’s death impacts the ownership of said account. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding what the right of survivorship designation can and cannot accomplish. In the January 2019 Texas Bar Journal, Gerry...