At McCulloch & Miller, we specialize in estate planning for clients of all walks of life – those with families, those without; those with complicated assets, those without; those who are older and approaching the end of their lives, those who are not. More commonly, we are meeting with millennials…
At McCulloch & Miller, we often get questions from our clients about when it might be the right time to work on creating a living will. To answer this question, it is important to first understand what a living will entails and what effect it might have on you and…
When clients and prospective clients come to us for their estate planning needs, their first priority is often asking us to help them write their wills. What many clients don’t know, however, is that wills are only one option clients have at their disposal. Trusts are another tool that can…
In the past, we have written in-depth on our blog about how to spot financial abuse among elderly people you love. The second question many clients ask, which is perhaps an even more important question, is what to do in the face of possible financial elder abuse. There is no…
Elder financial abuse, by definition, is when an individual takes money or other assets away from an older person without permission. Unfortunately, when older people begin to exhibit signs of memory loss or decreased mental functioning, this kind of abuse is more likely to occur. Thus, as your loved ones…
In the final days of 2022, the U.S. Congress passed a federal law known as the SECURE Act 2.0. This law addresses retirement accounts and distributions throughout the country and was signed by the president in late December. While this law primarily affects how Americans manage their personal retirement accounts,…
There are many terms in the field of estate planning that have become ubiquitous in the field, however, their meaning is often misunderstood. Trustee, beneficiary, executor, and fiduciary are some of these terms. The personal term “fiduciary” comes from the type of duty that a fiduciary owes to a beneficiary…
We have long expressed the importance of estate planning for everyone, regardless of status or income. One substantial step in estate planning is having a clear will that avoids dispute or probate issues. For most people, a will turns out to be a relatively straightforward document with little contention. For…
Many people familiar with Texas estate planning have heard of the “executor” of an estate. It is colloquially understood that an executor is a person assigned by a trustee to manage their final wishes and financial matters after the death of the trustee. Being chosen as the executor of an…
While establishing a trust for your loved ones is often a wise choice, a number of pitfalls can make the experience more stressful than it has to be. Financial matters—and, in the case of a trust that goes into effect after the death of the grantor, grief—can make an already…