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Crisis Planning at its Finest.. There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned pandemic scare to bring up the specter of entire family units perishing at the same time.     If this idea is keeping you awake at night, then you need to take a moment and map out what would happen to your estate in the event of a catastrophe.  Review your will, trust, and the beneficiary designations on life insurance, financial accounts...

An Inheritance No One Wants Do you own a timeshare?  My condolences. You have the equivalent of a sticky bomb in your portfolio. A timeshare is typically a condominium located in a vacation area that is subject to an agreement between the owner and a management company.  Some timeshare arrangements allow a buyer to “own” the right to use a various condominiums in several areas at different times of the year.   Texas...

Choosing a Natural End Documents That Make Life and Death Easier You know that you can always refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. The tricky part comes when you are no longer able to understand your options or communicate your wishes to the health-care professionals. While Texas may not yet condone physician-assisted suicide or mercy killing, it is all-in for permitting the natural process of dying. You just have to know how to...

The Year of MMXX. Make Your Plans Now Is 2020 going to be a great year or what?   We can look forward to the census, a presidential election and a Congress incentivized to pass crowd-pleasing legislation.  Thank goodness it is a leap year so we get an extra day to figure it all out. Let us turn for a moment from the national scene and welcome in MMXX by taking stock...

For many, many years  –  from the stone age through 2011, to be exact  –  attorneys in Texas regularly recommended trusts to their clients as a way to minimize or avoid estate taxes. A lot of clients heeded the siren song, and hundreds, nay, thousands, of trusts were formed. The trust documents were sent home with the clients, who, naturally, put them away in very safe and secret places. So...