Houston Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Blog

ABLE Accounts or a Special Needs Trust for a Texas Family

Published on: July 30, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Last updated July 30, 2026 · Reviewed by Thomas W. McCulloch

Families in Dallas County raising a child with a disability face a planning problem with two common answers that are not interchangeable. An ABLE account and a special needs trust both hold money for a person with a disability without costing that person Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid. They operate under different bodies of law, carry different ceilings, and end very differently when the beneficiary dies.

The federal Medicaid statute is what makes a special needs trust work. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(A), a trust holding the assets of an individual under age 65 who is disabled is treated differently from an ordinary trust, provided it was established for that individual’s benefit by a permitted person and the State is repaid at the beneficiary’s death, up to what Medicaid spent, from whatever remains. An ABLE account comes from the tax code instead, at 26 U.S.C. § 529A, and its constraints are dollar constraints rather than structural ones.

Charitable Remainder Trusts in Texas for Gifts of Appreciated Stock

Published on: July 27, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Charitable Remainder Trusts in Texas for Gifts of Appreciated Stock

Last updated July 27, 2026 · Reviewed by Thomas W. McCulloch

A block of stock purchased decades ago and never sold carries a cost basis that bears no relation to what the shares are worth today. Retirees across Dallas County hold positions like this in a former employer’s shares or in an energy company bought when the certificate still arrived by mail. Selling to diversify or to generate retirement income realizes the entire appreciation at once, and Texas having no state income tax leaves the federal exposure untouched.

A charitable remainder trust is an irrevocable split-interest trust that pays an income stream to one or more non-charitable beneficiaries for a set period and then distributes what remains to charity. Because the trust is generally tax-exempt, appreciated stock contributed to it may be sold inside the trust without the donor recognizing gain at the moment of sale.

When Your Child With a Disability Turns 18 in Texas

Published on: July 23, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Last updated July 23, 2026 · Reviewed by Thomas W. McCulloch

The Texas Estates Code defines an adult as an individual 18 years of age or older, and it draws no exception for disability. On that birthday, a parent in Austin or anywhere else in Texas stops being the automatic legal decision maker for a son or daughter. Medical providers, banks, benefits offices, and colleges may begin dealing with the new adult directly, and a parent who calls to ask a routine question can be turned away.

Guardianship is not the default answer under Texas law. A court must weigh the guardianship alternatives for a Texas adult child before it may appoint anyone at all. Under Texas Estates Code § 1101.101(a)(1)(D) and (E), a court must find by clear and convincing evidence that alternatives to guardianship, and the supports and services available to the proposed ward, were considered and determined not to be feasible before it appoints a guardian. The alternative most families are never told about is the supported decision-making agreement, created by Chapter 1357 of the Texas Estates Code.

Recognizing Financial Exploitation of an Older Adult in Texas

Published on: July 23, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Recognizing Financial Exploitation of an Older Adult in Texas

Last updated July 23, 2026 · Reviewed by Thomas W. McCulloch

Chapter 48 of the Texas Human Resources Code governs the financial exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities. It supplies a statutory definition, imposes a reporting duty that reaches every person in the state, and makes a knowing failure to report a criminal offense. For families in Houston and across Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria counties, that chapter is where a suspicion about a parent’s bank account meets a defined legal process, and it is a recurring issue in Texas elder law.

Texas Human Resources Code § 48.002(3) defines exploitation to include the improper use of an elderly person’s resources by a caretaker, family member, or other individual who has an ongoing relationship with that person, without informed consent. Section 48.051(a) then requires a person who has cause to believe that an elderly person is in a state of exploitation to report it immediately. That duty falls on any person, not only on licensed professionals.

How a Qualified Income Trust Opens Texas Medicaid Eligibility

Published on: July 16, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Last updated July 16, 2026 · Reviewed by Thomas W. McCulloch

Texas applies a hard income cap to Medicaid long-term care benefits, which separates it from most states. An applicant whose gross monthly income sits above the state’s special income limit is denied, even when that income covers a fraction of a Houston nursing home bill and nothing is left over. Families across Harris County usually learn this after a parent has already moved into a facility, and the denial notice rarely explains what comes next.

Federal law supplies the answer. Income routed each month into a trust that satisfies 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(B) is disregarded when Texas measures an applicant against the income limit, so the same person denied last month can qualify with the trust in place. The trust does not shelter savings or reduce what the facility is owed. It removes one specific barrier, the one that stops most applicants. Texas Medicaid crisis planning often begins and ends with getting this document right.

Protecting the Healthy Spouse When One Spouse Enters a Texas Nursing Home

Published on: July 11, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Last updated July 11, 2026 · Reviewed by Thomas W. McCulloch

Federal Medicaid law treats a married couple differently from a single applicant the moment one spouse enters a nursing facility. The governing provisions are the spousal impoverishment rules at 42 U.S.C. § 1396r-5, and they decide how much of a Houston couple’s savings and monthly income the spouse who stays at home may keep while the other qualifies for long-term care coverage. What is at stake is the financial survival of the spouse who remains at home.

Congress wrote those rules so that no family would have to be reduced to nothing to get a husband or wife into care. Section 1396r-5 splits the couple into an institutionalized spouse and a community spouse, protects a share of the couple’s countable resources for the community spouse, and allows part of the institutionalized spouse’s monthly income to be diverted to the community spouse when that spouse’s own income falls below a federal floor. Texas administers the calculation through its own eligibility rules, but the architecture is federal, which is why Medicaid crisis planning in Texas begins with those same two definitions.

What a Texas Trust Beneficiary Can Demand From a Trustee

Published on: July 6, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Last updated July 6, 2026 · Reviewed by David W. Miller

Texas trust law gives beneficiaries an enforceable right to see how a trust is being run, and that right does not depend on the trustee’s willingness to cooperate. It sits in Chapter 113 of the Texas Property Code and reaches trusts administered in Austin and Travis County the same way it reaches any other Texas trust. While a trustee stays silent, distributions, sales, fees, and investments keep moving through the trust without any beneficiary able to see where the money went.

A beneficiary may make a written demand that the trustee deliver a written statement of accounts covering all transactions since the last accounting, or since the trust was created, whichever is later. If the trustee fails or refuses to deliver that statement on or before the 90th day after receiving the demand, any beneficiary of the trust may file suit to compel the trustee to deliver it to all beneficiaries. That rule is set out in Texas Property Code § 113.151(a), in Subchapter E of Chapter 113.

VA Aid and Attendance for Texas Veterans Facing Long-Term Care Costs

Published on: July 3, 2026 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Last updated July 3, 2026 · Reviewed by David W. Miller

Long-term care costs in the Houston area routinely outrun what a monthly Social Security check covers, and families across Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties end up closing that gap out of savings meant to last another decade. Veterans who served during a wartime period have access to a federal VA benefit that can absorb part of the monthly cost, and a surviving spouse may qualify as well. Very few Texas families ever claim it.

Aid and Attendance is an increased monthly payment added to the VA’s needs-based wartime pension for a claimant who requires the regular help of another person with everyday activities, or who is housebound, blind, or residing in a nursing home. The benefit is authorized under the improved pension statute at 38 U.S.C. § 1521, and it is not tied to a service-connected injury. That last point explains most of the underclaiming.

Surviving Spouse Rights in Texas Probate

Published on: June 29, 2026 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

When a married person dies in Texas, the surviving spouse has a set of legal protections that exist no matter what the will says or who inherits the property. These rights let a widow or widower stay in the family home, keep essential personal property, and draw an allowance from the estate for support during the first hard year. They are some of the strongest protections in Texas probate law, and they often surprise the people they protect.

McCulloch & Miller, PLLC helps surviving spouses and families assert these rights during the Texas probate process, in Dallas and across the state. The firm handles estate administrations on a flat fee basis for many matters and has guided Texas families through them for over 35 years.

What rights does a surviving spouse have in Texas?

Small Estate Affidavit in Texas: A Simpler Alternative to Full Probate

Published on: June 29, 2026 | By David W. Miller

A small estate affidavit is a court-approved document that lets the heirs of someone who died without a will collect estate assets without opening a full probate administration. In Texas, it is available only when the estate is modest, the assets outweigh the debts, and no real estate other than a homestead is involved. For families who qualify, it can settle an estate in weeks instead of months, at a fraction of the cost.

McCulloch & Miller, PLLC handles small estate affidavits and other Texas probate matters for families in Houston, Harris County, and across the greater Houston metro area. The firm offers flat fee pricing on many probate filings and has worked in the Harris County Probate Courts for over 35 years, so it can tell early whether a small estate affidavit will do the job or whether a different procedure fits the estate better.

What is a small estate affidavit in Texas?