Estate Planning

Talk To Your Houston Heirs About Their Inheritance

Published on: January 1, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

For many people, estate planning is both a private matter and morbid topic – not something that parents want to discuss with their adult children. While having such conversations takes a lot of courage, families that speak freely about these delicate issues can avoid problems down the line.

Thinking about your estate, setting up your estate plan, and carrying out your wishes is not the entire process of estate planning. You really must take this process one step further.

You need to take the still more difficult and under-practiced step: discussing your estate and your estate plan with your heirs and loved ones.

Houston Families: Pass The Assets, But Don’t Drop The Ball

Published on: December 20, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

A comprehensive estate plan ensures that wills, trusts, ownership forms and beneficiary designations are in sync with your wishes. Is your plan up-to-date?

As the old adage puts it, most folks do not “plan to fail, they just fail to plan.” In this sense, leaving an inheritance behind can get a bit tricky and can take some expert guidance to do it well.

This business of leaving an inheritance was taken up by Forbes recently in an article titled “How To Inherit Wealth Without Screwing Up.” (Incidentally, it is hard to inherit wealth without screwing it up, but this piece has far more to do with the ways you can leave it behind and screw it up, in spite of the title).

Planning For Your Own “Brady Bunch” in Houston

Published on: December 6, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

When Carol and Mike Brady got together on the classic TV show "The Brady Bunch," there wasn't a lot of discussion about how the couple would handle things like updating their life insurance policies to reflect their new, blended family, or covering the cost of things like braces and college tuition for their six kids.

Blended families, however loving, oftentimes have more than a few things to address when it comes to financial and estate planning. The modern day "Brady Bunch" brings about many planning obstacles.

Indeed, the challenges faced by the blended family are frequently discussed in professional financial and legal circles. In part, this is because blended families are the new normal. If your family is “blended,” then it is only prudent to consider any tips regarding common challenges you may face.

Your Houston Business Exit: By Design Or By Default?

Published on: November 18, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

What will be the most likely exit scenario from your business when the time comes?

If you own a small business, what will your last day at work be like? What is your exit strategy? The answer hinges on whether your exit will be by design or by default.

To exit your business by design requires coordinating your personal estate with the estate of the business. Oftentimes the two are intertwined. Ask yourself the question recently posed in the title of a recent Forbes article: “How Will You Leave Your Small Business The Last Time?”

Houston Parents Should Share Financial And Estate Plans With Family Members

Published on: November 15, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Give a copy of your wills, trusts and powers of attorney (financial and health care) to anyone named or authorized to act on your behalf, and store the originals at home; otherwise, your children could have trouble getting them at the critical time.

The best laid plans of mice and men alike may fall apart in the face of chance. On the other hand, many plans fail because key participants to the plan are unaware that there is a plan. Call it a “failure to communicate.”

If you have put your financial and estate house in order, then it will all be for naught if your heirs are caught unaware.

Houston Parents: Talking To Your Adult Children About Your Finances

Published on: November 5, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Talking

to your adult kids about your finances and how you plan to divvy up your money

after your death may be one of the most important conversations you'll ever

Estate Planning Challenges for Houston Blended Families

Published on: November 4, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Americans

are increasingly cobbling together new families out of earlier broken marriages

… Effective estate planning for these modern families, made up of past and

Debts And Death – What You Should Know about Death in Houston

Published on: November 1, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Coping with the death of a loved one is difficult enough without the added pressure of creditors calling you to collect on the deceased person’s credit card debt. But can a bank collect a credit card debt owed by your deceased parent or spouse?

By and large, we talk about probate as an unfortunate process. True, probate can put some undo stress on an already stressful family situation, even when there is no disagreement regarding how assets of the decedent are to be distributed. That said, probate can be utterly necessary and even useful when there are debts in the estate picture.

So, how do you handle debts after death? It is a practical question, after all. Few of us leave this life without something lingering in our accounts payable. Unfortunately, too many families do not know which debts live on after their loved ones are gone.

Using Trust Funds To Purchase Home in Houston

Published on: October 31, 2013 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

As interest rates rise, more children of high-net-worth families are likely to tap into their trust funds to buy a home.

Buying a home means chaining yourself to a mortgage and the financial institution holding it. This arrangement is oftentimes considered a necessary evil of adulthood. But then again, when there are trust funds available to help, buying a home might not be such a necessary evil at all.

Under the right circumstances, trusts may be tapped to assist you and your loved ones, even when it comes to bypassing the bankers and buying a home. This is more and more useful as interest rates rise.