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…
Some conversations are easier than others to have with your parents—as a child, a teenager, and even as an adult. And as parents age, there are certain aspects of life their children may be concerned about—especially when planning ahead can potentially avoid disasters in the future. One of these topics…
Parents take care of their children as they grow up and age. However, when these parents are getting older, children may get concerned about their parent’s health and well-being. In these cases, they may seek a guardian for their loved one, to take care of their personal and financial affairs.…
There are many reasons people may want to avoid creating or revising their Houston estate plan as they age. Some may say they do not have the time or money to sit down with an attorney. Others may think that it is unnecessary. However, often, it boils down to a…
For many Houstonians, the fear of the unknown health, social, economic, and financial challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic are prompting intense concern and anxiety. If you are self-isolating or quarantining at home, you probably are already creating your new “normal” schedules, researching online resources, and creating ways to find…
“Call it an astute estate planning move, but I didn’t want to leave eight notebooks of baseball cards encased in plastic sleeves for my children to sort through down the road.” It may be time to sell your baseball card collection. Arizona Daily Star’s recent article entitled “The valuable lessons…
A fear that children will not be motivated to have careers because of their family’s wealth is a concern. However, in the long run, it can hamper how wealth is handled by the next generation. In a perfect world, discussing a family’s legacy should be a process that begins when…
“By the time Groucho was an old man, however, he experienced significant problems in his daily activities, medical decision-making and the management of his estate. He suffered from elements of dementia, a heart attack and congestive heart failure, falls resulting in a broken hip, and after that hip was repaired,…
When Gloria Vanderbilt died at age 95, it was truly the end of an era. Her life included the high society world of old New York and the disco scene at Studio 54. However, her son Anderson Cooper reports that he won’t inherit any money from his mother. Gloria Vanderbilt’s…
This bizarre story of an estate battle concerns a man who wanted to be driven to local pubs, a taxi driver and the passenger’s significant other. A legal bill for an unusual estate battle must be now paid by a cabbie who had inherited a regular fare’s entire estate. The…