Wills Attorney in Ennis, Texas Serving All of Texas

Estate Planning, Elder Law and Estate Administration

An estate plan should distribute wealth in accordance with a client's personal values and life experiences. I craft wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations that protect and promote the well-being of my clients and their loved ones. I explain, in simple language, difficult estate and trust concepts. I provide my clients with a complete understanding of how their assets will be distributed and to whom, as well as the potential liabilities for estate tax and administration expenses. The Texas Injury Firm moreover, can continue beyond death or incapacity through all aspects of asset protection, probate, trust administration, and estate tax proceedings.

Traditional Estate Planning

Traditional estate planning uses one or more of the following:

• Simple wills, pour-over wills, and wills containing testamentary trusts.

• Revocable living trusts creating trusts for spouses and or children and grandchildren.

• Generation-skipping trusts.

• Education trusts for children or grandchildren.

• Powers of attorney and medical directives.

• IRA, life insurance, and annuity beneficiary designations.

Estate Tax Reduction

State and Federal estate taxes continue to be of great concern to my clients. I am well versed in estate tax reduction planning techniques. Estate tax reduction tools include:

• Irrevocable trusts, such as life insurance trusts, spousal gifting trusts, multiple beneficiary gifting trusts, personal residence trusts, grantors retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts.

• Interfamily low-interest loans and sale techniques.

• Generation-skipping trusts and dynasty trusts.

• Family partnerships, family limited liability companies, and fractional interest plans to create valuation discounts.

• Gifting strategies involving annual exclusion gifts, tuition payments, charitable giving, and generational gifting.

• Binding cross-purchase or buy-sell agreements.

• Preferred stock recapitalizations and freeze partnership transactions.

Elder Law

I work with clients and their families to implement the most effective techniques to preserve and protect both my clients and their assets against future health care costs and long term care issues:

• Health care directives.

• Revocable or irrevocable trusts.

• Personal care and rental agreements.

• Family loan agreements.

• Residence transfers to children.

I help my clients obtain the maximum allowable assistance for institutional skilled nursing, assisted living, independent living, or home care assistance, all while preserving their estates for themselves and successive generations.

Special Needs Planning

Children or grandchildren with disabilities require sophisticated planning to ensure that assets set aside for their benefit will not reduce or eliminate assistance otherwise available. Two types of supplemental needs trusts are available: 1) a statutory trust for the disabled person's own assets, and 2) asset protection discretionary supplemental needs trusts, created by family members to manage gifts and inheritances. I have knowledge of entitlement programs and their administrative requirements.

Probate Administration

Our firm has assisted families with the complex probate administration process. The probate administration process requires:

• An application to admit a will to probate.

• The judicial appointment of an executor or administrator.

• The filing of an inventory and a list of claims.

• Preparation of an estate accounting and affidavit of closing, and attendance at required hearings.

If disputes arise, including will contests, assets appropriated prior to death, malfeasance of fiduciaries, or division of assets, I am fully capable of resolving these difficult matters.

Post-Mortem Estate Planning

The use of disclaimers and other sophisticated post-death planning techniques can substantially reduce estate taxes and protect assets for the benefit of the family. I use post mortem planning transactions to create flexibility and to fine-tune the estate plan.