An estate plan is essential if you want your hard-earned assets protected for your loved ones after you pass. Our estate planning attorney in Houston also helps Texans of all walks of life protect what they own from lawsuits or creditors. A Texas estate plan uses wills and trusts, among other legal tools, to allow you to pass your valuables to your loved ones with minimal legal issues.
Protect Your Assets with Texas Estate Planning
Your Houston, Texas, estate plan is a collection of legal documents that tell others what you want to happen to you and your assets when you are no longer able to care for yourself or manage your assets.
Texas estate planning helps protect your home and all other assets that are valuable to you, such as your vehicles, personal belongings, insurance plans, and family heirlooms. At the same time, your estate plan addresses how your assets will be distributed to your loved ones while simultaneously reducing your tax liability.
Without an established plan, your assets are not protected, and the state’s laws control your assets’ future. It’s unlikely that the state will distribute your assets the way you want them distributed. Your estate plan is legal instruction that will protect you and provide you, your loved ones, your family, assets, goals, and legacy the best outcome in the eyes of the law.
Edwin Lee is an experienced asset protection lawyer in Houston, TX, who can guide you and your loved ones down a path of asset protection.
The Importance of Estate Planning in Houston, TX
Proper asset protection planning in Houston allows you to leave a legacy for your family and community, diverting much of what would otherwise go to the government, potential creditors, or lawsuits, like divorce, bankruptcy, business failure, malpractice, and many other types of cases. We can even avoid probate court by using transfer-on-death deeds and lady bird deeds.
Many legal options are available to protect your assets, and the methods used will depend upon your unique situation, goals, asset values, and family makeup.
Asset protection planning is a crucial step in the estate planning process.
Understanding Estate Planning in Texas
The estate planning process begins with understanding your long-term goals. We will discuss which assets you wish to protect in your later years and which you wish to pass down to loved ones. Every estate plan is strategically designed to meet your individual planning needs. Edwin Lee, your Texas estate planning attorney, can help you prepare the best legal documents to achieve your personal estate planning goals.
What Documents Do I Need for My Estate Plan?
This is a very common question for many Texans creating an estate plan. The answer is that it depends. An experienced Houston estate planning attorney can advise you or a loved one on which documents are necessary to legally protect your Texas assets.
Your estate plan may include a mix of different legal documents, such as:
- A trust or will
- A living will
- A durable financial power of attorney
- A health care power of attorney (medical power of attorney)
- Lady bird deed
- Transfer-on-death deed
- A letter of intent
- A guardianship designation
It is a common misconception that an estate plan only needs a will or a trust, depending on the assets you wish to protect. However, you can include many other documents in your estate plan to safeguard your assets and seamlessly transfer them to your loved ones once you’ve passed.
A successful Texas estate plan should also include instructions for family members on how to access or control your assets should you become unable to do so on your own. Combining a living will with a medical power of attorney, and sometimes a DNR order, creates an advance directive for care and treatment in medical emergencies.
Your specific estate plan and the documents included depends on many factors, including the size and structure of your Texas estate and your unique wishes for your assets. Working with an experienced estate planning attorney in Houston, like Edwin Lee, can help you select and prepare the necessary documents for your Texas estate plan.
Your Houston Estate Planning Attorney
Your estate planning attorney in Texas should help you safeguard your estate for every shift in life. As your children grow up, you marry or divorce, or sell or purchase new property, your asset protection needs will change. Our Houston law firm can help you update your estate plan to secure your assets and correctly pass on your legacy to your loved ones.
Our Houston law firm is built on strong client relationships, and we work hard to meet your estate planning and asset protection goals. Your legal needs matter to the Law Office of Edwin E. Lee.
The Law Office of Edwin E. Lee is here to help you and your loved ones understand Medicaid planning, crisis planning, asset protection, estate planning, and family law. Our law firm welcomes the opportunity to consult with new clients in Houston and the surrounding Texas areas to learn more about how we can help meet your asset protection needs.
Our estate planning attorney in Texas is uniquely qualified to provide legal advice and representation in all legal matters relating to Medicaid eligibility and estate planning.
At the Law Office of Edwin E. Lee, our Houston law firm practices estate planning and elder law, including Medicaid planning, asset protection, probate and trust administration, guardianship, family law, and related issues.
If you live in the Houston communities of The Heights, The Woodlands, Bel Air, or West University Heights, or the surrounding cities of Baytown, Humble, Cloverleaf, Pearland, Stafford, Deer Park, and more, contact us for a consultation today.