Guardianship if often an expensive legal process which should be avoided if possible. Thus, planning should be considered as an alternative to guardianship. Guardianship is often needed for an incapacitated person. Texas law defines an “incapacitated person” as: a minoran adult, who because of a physical or mental condition,...
Although Kobe Bryant’s revocable living trust was carefully drafted for estate and tax planning, the co-trustees (his surviving spouse, Vanessa and Robert Pelinka, Jr.) have filed a Petition to Modify the Trust to add as a beneficiary his youngest child, Capri, who is just nine...
A married couple owns a homestead located out-of-state held in a trust. They move to Texas to be closer to their children since the wife needs long-term care. They have no long-term care insurance, and their liquid assets and income are insufficient to pay for...
Former Attorney General Janet Reno (appointed by President Clinton) created and funded a revocable living trust prior to her death in 2016. She was not married and had no descendants. Her trust had a specific bequest of her mostly underdeveloped four acre ranch home in...
Public benefits can range from payment of expensive drugs (no matter what age) to long-term care costs such as skilled nursing care. There are 40-50 Medicaid programs in Texas in addition to strictly federal public benefits programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security...
A trust protector is a person or entity appointed by the one who establishes the trust (the “trustor”) to protect the trust assets and beneficiaries in the event the law changes or circumstances change and the trustor is unable to make such changes. Here are...
Joint bank accounts can be helpful in several ways, but such accounts can also be a trap for the unwary. A couple of the major benefits are as follows: Trusted joint account owner can pay your bills. Probably the most common reason for opening such accounts,...
Client had created a revocable living trust several years ago prepared by another attorney. The most common reasons for such a trust is to avoid probate (the laws that govern the probate process which is the process to determine if the Will is valid and...
An Italian court has ruled that the late Liana Beacci was the illegitimate daughter of the late British art collector Sir Arthur Acton and his late mistress Ersilla Beacci as a result of a DNA test. This could result in Ersilla’s granddaughter, Italian princess Dialta...
Client, a 78 year old widow in the early stages of experiencing dementia, creates an irrevocable trust which gives her the right to occupy her homestead which was deeded into the trust. Her goal was to save her homestead (or the proceeds therefrom if sold...
