Estate Planning

The most basic estate planning document is a will – a document that expresses your wishes as to who would inherit your property and assets if you were to die. A will can also designate a guardian for any minor children. If you die without a will in place, state formulas decide how your assets are divided up. This process, called probate, can be lengthy and expensive for your family, leaving them with administrative headaches during a time of grief and stress. A simple will can take care of these problems and leave them in a better situation.

As a Texas Legal member, you can also choose to put your assets in a trust, a legal entity set up to control your assets. To create a trust, you first set it up, and then take all of your assets – your house, your car, your property, your accounts – and re-title them in the name of the trust. While a will only takes effect once you die, a trust is set up while you’re alive. You maintain control of the trust and all of its assets until you pass away. In addition to creating the trust, you name trustees – people who are in charge of the assets in the trust – and beneficiaries – people who will receive the trust’s assets.

A power of attorney is an important document that lays out your wishes about what should happen if you are unable to make your own choices. Through this document, you are appointing a representative (referred to as your attorney) to act as your proxy in order to carry out your wishes. Your durable power of attorney states who may act on your behalf for financial and legal affairs if you die or become incapacitated and can’t make decisions for yourself. Medical power of attorney documents state who has the power to make medical decisions for you in case you are unable to make decisions for yourself. It should include a privacy consent form that allows that person to access your medical records so they can make informed decisions.

A living will allows you to make decisions about what care you receive if you are diagnosed with a terminal or irreversible condition and can’t advocate for yourself. It allows you to determine what life saving measures or treatments you do or do not want. This essential document can save your family a lot of grief and stress when deciding how to proceed with medical treatments in the event that you were unable to decide for yourself.

It’s also wise to include a HIPPA release in your estate planning. HIPAA, which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is a 1996 law that governs what health information can be released about a patient. A HIPAA release form allows you to choose what family members or important people would have access to your confidential medical information. A Disposition of Remains document specifies what you would like done with your body if you were to die. This can be helpful to people who have specific religious customs that are important to them, or if you’d like to specify that your body be donated for a specific purpose, such as scientific advancement. An attorney can also help you look over your documents with financial institutions and make sure that you have the correct beneficiaries listed so that assets would pass to your beneficiaries without any additional legal hassle for them.

Your Texas Legal membership allows you to meet with an attorney once a year to review your estate planning documents and make any changes that need to be made. An update to will is made with a legal document called a codicil. Attorneys generally recommend you check in about your estate planning documents every five years, or sooner if you’ve made any big changes in your life, like moving to a new house, getting married or divorced, or having a child. With Texas Legal, you can always be sure that these important documents keep protecting you and your family.

Should a family member pass away, you can get an attorney’s help through the process of probate. If your family member had a will, an attorney can assist you with the probate process and the administration of assets. Our plans also provide coverage if family member did not have a will, and you need an heirship determination to decide how the assets will be distributed.

Charitable planning involves everything from making a cash donation to your community library or animal shelter to setting up your own family foundation for charitable works.

Charitable Lead Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Private Foundations, Donor Advised Funds, Gift Annuities, and the like are all charitable planning tools.

Incapacity planning is a plan that provides for provisions to keep you in control of things if you are no longer able to manage routine daily affairs or financial issues as a result of becoming either disabled or incapacitated by injury, illness or both.

Incapacity planning revolves Revocable Living Trusts, Financial Powers of Attorney, Medical Powers of Attorney, HIPAA Releases, Living Wills, and Organ Donation Authorizations are all used to best ensure that your wishes are carried out when you don’t have the capacity to do so yourself.

Incapacity planning also includes nursing home planning, helping the elderly qualify for Medicaid to pay for nursing home costs.

Inheritance planning allows for your spouse, children, and grandchildren inherit assets from when you pass. You have the ability to create various types of trusts and a few provide incentives that require your beneficiaries to meet certain criteria before receiving any funds from the trust. Examples would be no payments until a certain age is reached, graduating from college, etc. A major part of inheritance planning is asset protection from a variety of threats.

Legacy planning involves leaving a legacy for your loved ones. Legacy planning allows the distribution of your assets via charitable giving in our outside of your family. Legacy planning may be a part of a Revocable Living Trust. This allows for you to continue family traditions such as funding annual vacations or ensuring the grandkids have the financial means to continue to proud family tradition of attending a prestigious learning institution. Alternatively, you could elect to help fund a charity or church by a generous annual gift.

There are many other categories of estate planning that are very personal and should be given consideration. Some of the more common are special needs planning, pet planning and tax planning.