Do you have a Will or a Trust?
Powers of attorney or advanced directives?
Are the documents you have more than five years old?
Has a lot changed since you last reviewed your plan documents?

If you don’t have documents that properly reflect your current needs and your desires for your loved ones, I can help. In fact, I would be honored to help!

I’ve spent the last 35 years preparing for us to meet.

There is nothing mysterious or difficult about estate planning. If you will share your story and the vision you have for your future, I will lay out your options in simple terms, ways we can ensure that everything you consider important will happen. I want to help you take control of your future, no matter what it may hold.

Protect yourself first! Then, with sound planning for the future, you will choose to give what you want, to whom you want, the way you want. With the people you trust following the rules you set. For only one reason. All while minimizing taxes and attorney fees.

Don’t accept the state’s plan for your family and property! You can and should toss the state’s plan and make your own rules. No government permission needed, or wanted.

The Texas way. Your way.

It’s your nest egg. It should be managed and distributed according to your rules. I will help you reduce those rules to the proper legal documents. You will benefit from nearly four decades of experience and training I will bring to the conversation.

Want more information? Click the Learn More button below. Click on any Get Started button to schedule time to meet with me. Or just call (817) 500-0155 or email info@breshearslaw.com.

Do you have a plan in the event you or your spouse need long-term care in a residential facility? You should!

For those of us who are sixty-five years or older, the statistics are jarring. If you lined ten of us side by side in a room, seven of us will need long-term care. Seventy (70%) percent. For that super-majority, an extra $5,000 to $15,000 is going to be added to our monthly expenses. Enough to bankrupt most of us.

If your bill was $6,000 per month - $72,000 a year - how much would you need to have saved and invested, to pay that amount out of income, and not be forced to dip into your savings? The answer is $2 million invested, earning 3.6% annually.

If you’re like me, you don’t have an extra $2 million saved, generating that kind of income. Long-term care insurance would absolutely help. But what if you don’t have and can’t get long-term care insurance?

There is hope for you and me. Advanced planning with the help of an elder law attorney like me can enable you, your spouse, or your parents qualify for Medicaid benefits that will pay for residential care. Using a carefully drafted irrevocable trust, we can shelter the assets that would otherwise keep you from qualifying.

For those assets that would not disqualify you (your home, its contents, a car, among others), we can place those in a simple revocable trust, to keep them from going through probate court. In probate court the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program would seek reimbursement for the benefits paid.

Read more to learn how Elder Law planning can keep you or your loved ones from being impoverished.

Have you recently lost a loved one? Did they leave a Will to provide some guidance. If so, what do you do with the Will?

The probate system can be overwhelming. There are multiple possible processes, each one of which can be difficult to understand or follow.

What is probate anyway? Probate is the legal system designed to determine who is entitled to inherit a deceased person’s property, in which the decedent’s debts are settled, and property distributed. If the deceased left a Will, the probate court hears evidence to determine if the Will was properly executed, whether or not the decedent had the mental capacity required to make a Will, and whether the decedent later revoked the Will, among other facts.

If there is a valid Will, the document determines who will inherit, and nominates someone to be in charge of winding up the estate, called the executor. In the absence of a Will, state law decides who will inherit and in what amount.

Issues surrounding a probate proceeding can trigger discord or conflict between family members. It provides a courtroom in which disgruntled family members can argue over whether the Will is valid, over who should be in charge, and who will inherit which assets in their share of the estate, among a host of other potential points of conflict.

At Breshears Law our planning practice helps keep families out of probate. But for those families with no choice, we are honored to help take as much of the burden of the process from the family. We assist our clients in:

- selecting the most efficient probate procedure
- determining where the case should be filed
- preparing and filing all of the legal documents required
- giving notice to creditors
- negotiating settlements with creditors
- developing a plan for the distribution of assets

If you are faced with the prospect of settling a loved one’s estate in probate, it would be an honor to guide you each step of the way.