Many think the purpose of drafting a will is to avoid probate. When most people hear the word probate, they think "dispute". Probate doesn't mean disputed; it means the legal process of having the court recognize a person's will as their "last will" and that it's legally valid. And then, also appointing the person named in the will [...]
Just what do we mean when we say you need to do your estate planning? To some that means making sure that they have decreased taxes, decreased legal expenses, or attempted to avoid conflict. Those are all part of the process and things to consider, so estate planning means different things to different [...]
Pyke & Associates is a firm of elder law attorneys. But what does that mean? Unfortunately, the term elder law means different things to different people, so let me explain what we mean by that term at Pyke & Associates. Boiling this down to its simplest, Pyke & Associates does planning to transition [...]
We live in a scan and email world where documents are executed electronically. Even million-dollar real estate deals are electronically signed, which is perfectly legal. It is common to store business records on computers. Is that good enough? I'm not a tech guy, but please BACK UP! Other than that pithy advice, you should have [...]
Gifting someone a specific property in your will is known as a specific bequest, and the wording of these can be a problem. We see some horrible will provisions, even in attorney-drafted wills, that do not fulfill the decedent’s specific bequest. The problem occurs because a specific gift in a will, of a specific property, [...]
If you did your estate planning with Pyke & Associates, we provided you with a binder to hold all your estate planning documents. You might just have your documents in a folder in a safe place at your home. Either way, along with your documents, whether in a folder or in a binder, other information [...]
Are you new to Texas? Well then, "Howdy!" Over 150,000 have joined us in our corner of the Lone Star State in the last year. Hopefully, before you moved to Texas, you had good, up-to-date estate planning. But, since estate planning laws are different from state to state, if Texas is now your residence, you [...]
Our firm mission is to take the fear and unpredictability out of probate, and the other services we provide. Despite our best efforts, the word "probate" works as a bogeyman that causes some to shake with irrational fear. The concern is that probate will significantly deplete an estate, usually by increased legal fees. First, here [...]
The trauma of a major medical crisis is compounded by a lack of advanced legal and financial planning. We can wag our heads all day about someone's failure to properly plan, but we must realistically deal with the hand that is dealt to the family of someone who has failed to plan. The key decision-making [...]
In last week’s article, we introduced the concept of utilizing Medicaid to help pay for long-term care. Medicaid is a federally-funded program to provide assistance with long-term care costs to those in need. In Texas, Medicaid is administered by the Health and Human Services Commission (“HHSC”). In this article, we will focus on the most [...]