Estate planning is the process of planning or deciding how your estate—your real and personal property and assets—will be passed down to your heirs and beneficiaries.
We need estate planning in Texas because of what will happen in the absence of an estate plan. In Texas, if you don’t have a will or any other estate planning documents, “Intestacy Laws” take over. Intestacy Laws are a pre-determined set of laws that dictate who will receive what, in what percentage, and in what order.
Essentially, if you don’t want the state to make decisions for you, you need to plan ahead and make those decisions for yourself.
An estate is property, such as money, a house, or other things of value that a person leaves to family members or others (heirs) when he or she dies. Generally, the house is the primary asset in the Medicaid recipient’s estate because other assets are considered countable assets and are essentially limited to $2,000 or less. Upon opening a probate by the family to change title to a family homestead, the State may step in to ensure that it is paid back for the cost of medical services provided.
The basic healthcare documents we include in an estate plan are the medical power of attorney, the advanced directive, and the HIPAA release, which is the privacy provision. We also recommend guardianship appointments.
In many cases, especially if a person is unmarried or has conflict within the family, we will also suggest a document that would appoint an agent to be responsible for your remains. They would be in charge of your body, should you die, as well as how you’re buried and how your remains are handled.
Basically, probate occurs when there is a need for administration.
If someone passes away and they have an estate that needs to be handled, there are many things that have to be done to handle that estate. Decisions have to be made, assets need to be gathered, final creditors and bills need to be paid, and then everything remaining needs to be distributed.
When there’s a need for administration of the estate (or, a need for someone to do all of those things), then the will is admitted to probate and an administration is opened. The executor of the estate is in charge of the administration of the estate. They are in charge of going through the motions and ensuring that the will is followed correctly and legally.
