Estate Planning

How to Ensure Your Wishes Are Honored After Your Death

Published on: July 30, 2024 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

It can be scary to think that after you are gone, you have no control over how your assets are distributed. When you spend your life working hard to provide for yourself and your loved ones, you want to make sure that legacy continues after you die. There are some fundamental ways you can make sure your wishes are honored after your death; today, our blog reviews a few of these methods. This is not an exhaustive list, but instead a guide for what steps you should be taking as you start to think through your estate plan.

Write a Detailed, Thorough Estate Plan

Your estate plan should leave nothing to chance. It should include an exhaustive list of your assets, and it should be as specific as possible. The estate plan should not only provide instructions for your money; it should tell loved ones how you want them to handle your valuable or sentimental items, physical property, and even your digital footprint. By working hard to ensure this list covers all of your property and assets, you can make sure your loved ones know exactly how you want to handle all parts of your estate when the time comes.

Hire a Trusted Estate Planning Attorney

It can be tempting to use “DIY will” tools online or create estate plans without the help of an attorney. Ultimately, though, if you want to make sure your wishes are honored after you are gone, you should speak with an experienced Houston estate planning attorney that can help you create an individualized plan that takes your priorities into account. Estate planning attorneys will have insider knowledge about probate court, the validity of different estate planning tools, and basic procedural requirements for your documents. Hiring the right attorney could end up making a huge difference for how your estate plan plays out when you die.

Preparing for a Consultation with a Houston Estate Planning Attorney

Published on: July 23, 2024 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

If you have decided to take the first step and meet with a Houston estate planning attorney, congratulations; you’ve made a great decision that will positively affect your and your families’ long-term futures. Estate planning consultations can be helpful for individuals looking to draft an estate plan, modify an estate plan, or just ask questions about whether they need an estate plan at all. Today, we cover some basics that can help you feel prepared for a consultation with your Houston estate planning attorney. Taking these steps can ensure that your meeting is as efficient and beneficial as possible.

Step 1: Gather Your Documents

Before you attend your consultation, start to gather documents that you might need on your estate planning journey. These could include tax returns, bank account statements, property deeds, divorce decrees or child support orders, and any anything else that speaks to your financial state. It is wise to go ahead and bring these documents to your initial consultation in case your attorney has questions about how and where you keep your assets.

Step 2: Talk to Your Loved Ones

Your estate plan should ideally not be a surprise to your closest family members. If you plan to involve others in the execution of your state plan, as an estate executor or trustee, perhaps, it is better to ask these individuals on the front end if they are willing to serve in this capacity. Communicating early and often about your estate plan is always a good idea.

When a Will May Not Be Enough for Your Estate Plan

Published on: July 17, 2024 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

Many times, prospective clients come to us for an initial consultation asking for help writing a will. While the will can be a valuable tool in estate planning, there are times when writing a will may not be enough. Today, we cover some reasons that your estate plan might need more than a will. As always, to talk more about the specifics of your estate and the planning process ahead, contacted a trusted Houston estate planning attorney that can walk you through your next steps.

Reason 1: Avoiding Probate

The first and most obvious reason to explore an estate planning tool outside of the will is that you want your loved ones to avoid probate after you are gone. A will is generally subject to probate, meaning a probate court reviews the will and decides if it is valid. Only after deciding the will is valid does the court approve the will so that beneficiaries can receive their assets. Probate takes time and resources that many people don’t have or don’t want to expend.

By using a trust instead of a will, you can oftentimes avoid probate altogether. The trust allows property and assets to go straight to beneficiaries instead of through the intermediary of the probate court. This allows for more efficiency, both in terms of cost and time.

Business Owner Estate Planning Strategies in Texas

Published on: July 13, 2024 | By David W. Miller

woman retirement risks and estate planning

When it comes to estate planning, business owners have a special set of needs to consider. Today, we cover some factors you might need to think through if you are a business owner drafting your estate plan. Of course, the specifics depend on the kind, size, and nature of your business, and if you have questions about how these factors apply to you, contact a Houston estate planning attorney you can trust.

What happens without an estate plan?

Unfortunately, without an estate plan in place, business owners can leave things in shambles when they pass. In some cases, the probate court can could freeze a decedent’s business account if there is no valid estate plan. An attorney will then have to petition the court for an emergency order to get permission to both handle the business’s affairs and decide how to deal with the business’s assets. The attorney, along with the decedent’s heirs, will be left to figure out how to figure everything out in a pinch. This can be stressful for beneficiaries and detrimental to the business at hand.

What factors should a business owner consider when drafting an estate plan?

Some questions related to your estate plan that you might want to consider if you are a business owner include:

What happens if you are sued?
How can you protect your business from liquidation or seizure?
What is your business worth now? What might it be worth in 10 years?
How will your heirs have liquidity to pay estate taxes on an estate if most of the value of the estate is tied up in a family business?
What should you do if you are selling the business and anticipating a large tax bill?

When It’s Time to Consider Adding a Trust to Your Texas Estate Plan

Published on: July 5, 2024 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

As many of our clients know, the trust can be a valuable estate planning tool for those who choose to use it. If you are wondering whether adding a trust to your estate plan might be the right next step for you, consider the following reasons that many individuals choose to utilize the trust in their estate planning processes.

You Want to Avoid Probate

The most common reason to add a trust to an estate plan is to avoid having to go through the probate process. When a person dies with a will, the will’s executor must present the will to the probate court. The court reviews the will, decides it is valid, then approves the distribution of the decedent’s assets. This process takes time and resources, and it can be frustrating for families to have to wait for the court proceedings to play out over a series of months.

A trust, on the other hand, is exempt from probate. By putting your assets in a trust, these assets can go directly to your intended beneficiaries instead of passing through probate court. Avoiding probate has the added benefit of ensuring privacy for the decedent and their family, since no documents become part of the public record when they are part of a trust.

How to Determine Which Type of Trust You Need

Published on: June 30, 2024 | By David W. Miller

How to Determine Which Type of Trust You Need

We speak with our clients time and time again about the value of adding a trust to an estate plan. If you have wondered whether a trust might be the right tool for you, the next step would be to decide which type of trust is right based on your circumstances. Below are several tips for deciding the kind of trust your estate plan needs. As always, with questions about how these options might apply to your estate plan, give us a call at McCulloch & Miller today.

1. Decide who you want to benefit from the trust.

Deciding the trust’s beneficiaries is a great first step. If your intended beneficiary is a nonprofit or cause you care about, a charitable trust could be right for you. If you have a spouse or loved one with special needs, creating a special needs trust would allow that person to receive important medical benefits while maintaining access to funds they need. If you want to pass money down to your children and grandchildren, you could set up a lifetime trust, which would allow your heirs to benefit from liability protection and consistent funds for their entire lives.

2. Think through your financial situation.

A trust can be revocable or irrevocable. If it is revocable, you can change it as time goes on; if it is irrevocable, you cannot change it without the consent of all beneficiaries. While an irrevocable trust is more complex and expensive to set up, it also has the benefit of protecting your assets from creditors, litigation, and estate taxes. If you are subject to any kind of money judgment, the irrevocable trust might be your best option.

Tips for Choosing a Houston Estate Planning Attorney

Published on: June 30, 2024 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

Whether you are in the beginning, middle, or end phase of your estate planning process, it is never too late to consult an estate planning attorney that can help you make sure your documents are in line with Texas’s requirements. While it can be difficult to sort through the various estate planning firms in Houston, there are some key requirements you should look for when making your decision.

Experience and Reputation

You should first and foremost choose a Houston estate planning attorney that has experience in the field and a clear reputation for excellence. Look at a firm’s reviews, find out how long the attorneys at the firm have been practicing, and ask around to see if anyone you know has retained the firm for one of their own matters. By finding an attorney that is both experienced and well regarded, you can set yourself up for success in your own estate planning journey.

Are Online Wills a Good Idea in Texas?

Published on: June 22, 2024 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

In the year 2024, it can be tempting to bypass traditional legal services in favor of getting things done online. Many clients ask us about online wills: are they a good idea? What are the advantages and disadvantages? At McCulloch & Miller, we have an adage: online wills work until they don’t work. Today’s blog will explore this topic a bit more in depth.

Advantages of Online Wills

By using an online tool to create your will, you can avoid many of the costs associated with estate planning. You can generally draft a will pretty quickly online, which leads many individuals to resort to an online will when they are in a pinch and feel as if they might not have much time left.

Disadvantages of Online Wills

The disadvantages of online wills are, in essence, everything else. The online will is a generalized tool that struggles to account for each person’s individualized circumstances. Take an example: say you leave your assets to your son, Bill. What happens if Bill is no longer alive by the time your will takes effect? Do the assets go to Bill’s wife? Do they go to his children? Do they go to someone else altogether? It is important to keep these contingencies in mind, and each person’s set of circumstances is different, requiring different language in his or her will.

Five Frequently Overlooked Estate Planning Items in Texas

Published on: June 22, 2024 | By David W. Miller

When most people think of estate planning documents, they think of naming their monetary assets in a will and distributing those assets to their loved ones. In reality, an estate plan can (and often should) include more than a list of your property and beneficiaries. Today, we discuss five frequently overlooked estate planning items we see as attorneys in Texas.

1. Funeral Arrangements

It is always a good idea to leave behind details for your funeral. For example, what kind of service do you want? Who do you want to participate? Have you made arrangements for a casket or cremation? It can be difficult for loved ones to make these decisions after their family member is gone, and including a list of instructions makes things much easier for heirs to organize and arrange a funeral during what is already a trying time.

2. Valuable or Sentimental Art and Jewelry

Many clients tend to forget about including tangible items such as art or jewelry in their will. In our experience, it helps to be as specific as possible when handling these items. Children and grandchildren can end up in conflict over who gets which pieces, and naming specific beneficiaries for each piece can go a long way.

Who is Going to Take Over Your Business When You’re Gone?

Published on: June 20, 2024 | By Thomas W. McCulloch

If you are a business owner, there is no doubt you have thought about what might happen to your business once you are gone. At McCulloch & Miller, we specialize in planning for the future, and business succession is no different.

Today’s blog covers some basics that could help you think through your business’s long-term ownership, but at the end of the day, the most important takeaway is to plan early and plan often. By ensuring you have put your company’s plan in writing, you can take care of the business that you have worked so hard to build. As always, we recommend contacting a Houston estate planning attorney to talk through the specifics of your plan and make sure it covers all of the necessary and relevant details.

Option One: Internal Sale

One popular option among those who own family business or have children and grandchildren is to hand over the business to a relative. This hand off could be in the form of a sale or a gift. In this scenario, it’s important to talk to an expert about how to minimize the possible tax consequences that you and your loved one could suffer. It’s also important to have open and frequent conversations with the family member you plan on naming as the recipient of the business. If that family member is not open to the transfer, the long-term success of your business will be threatened.