Estate Planning Attorneys in The Woodlands, Texas

Plan for Your Future Today

We are prepared to help you with estate planning in Texas.

We are trusted advisors and educate our clients as to their estate planning choices, including simple and tax-planned wills with testamentary trusts and guardianship provisions for minor children, revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and generation-skipping transfer trusts, Crummey powers, estate tax planning, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning, powers of attorney, living wills, advanced directives, asset protection, high net worth planning, charitable gift-giving, family limited partnerships, and marital property agreements.

What are the basics for an estate plan? 

Basic/Level 1

At a minimum, you should consider having a will and a durable power of attorney. Our simple plan typically includes a Will, Statutory Durable Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, Advance Medical Directives, and HIPPA Authorizations.  A will may also include estate tax planning (if desired or applicable), descendants’ trusts, contingent trusts and the naming of guardians for children under the age of majority, and specific bequests.  You will name executors and trustees in your will. Statutory Durable Powers of Attorney can be used by an agent that you appoint to manage your assets upon your incapacity, or can be drafted to be used immediately without regard to incapacity.  Sometimes, a Revocable Transfer on Death Deed is an appropriate way to transfer real property owned in Texas.  Additionally, it is important for you to regularly review your beneficiary designations on your retirement accounts and life insurance policies to ensure they fit with your estate plan.

Advanced/Level 2

We’ll look at whether a Revocable Living Trust will be appropriate for your situation and needs.  Revocable Living Trusts are used to manage your assets during life (typically with the owners acting as their own trustees while they have capacity), and to avoid probate and for the transfer of assets after death.  Revocable Living Trusts can be set up to be fully revocable or amendable during the owners’ lifetime, which provides flexibility as circumstances change.  Revocable Living Trusts may include estate tax planning, where recommended and are often used when: (1) the owners have out of state real property to avoid the necessity of a probate procedure in two or more states; (2) the owners are concerned about potential incapacity; or (3) the owners wish to avoid probate and maximize confidentiality of their estate plan.  

Advanced/Level 3

For complex family situations and high net worth estates, we’ll look at additional vehicles to provide for asset protection, legacy and charitable planning, and estate and gift tax planning for multiple generations.  Typical vehicles used together or alone may include gifting plans using the annual gift tax exclusion, analysis of the best way to utilize the available unified estate tax credit(s), marital property partition and exchange agreements, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Descendants’ Trusts, Grantor Trusts, GRATs, GST planning, family limited partnerships and family limited liability companies.

Any estate planning should include working with an experienced, trusted estate planning attorney, who will take the time to listen to your personal estate planning needs, analyze your assets and your personal situation, then provide estate planning options, and educate you on what they will mean to your family. At Turney & Espino PLLC we believe every client should understand their estate plan and should review and update their estate plan as their circumstances change.

In addition to estate planning, we provide probate services in Montgomery county, Texas and Harris county, Texas including the probate of wills and obtaining letters testamentary, heirship determinations, independent administrations, muniments of title, small estate affidavits, and administration of trusts. We’ll take the time to understand your situation, and will explain the probate process in Texas to you so that you, as an heir, executor or trustee, can manage the probate process as efficiently and effectively as possible.

We welcome the opportunity to be a part of our clients’ success. Our offices are conveniently located in The Woodlands, in the Texas Town Center business district, convenient to I-45, SH-99 Grand Parkway and Woodlands Parkway. We serve the Houston metro area, including Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe, Tomball, Magnolia, and Harris and Montgomery counties.