If someone dies without a Will, does that guarantee years of probate expense? There is no doubt that if someone dies without a Will, the cost to transfer their property will be higher than if they had a Will. In most cases, an heirship proceeding is necessary which is about double the cost of probating [...]
Probate sounds like a nasty thing that your family is trapped into when someone dies. Probate can be difficult and expensive, even when there is no dispute, in some countries and some states. Luckily, Texas has very modern, streamlined probate rules. But why do we have those rules at all? Probate is the process of [...]
In the past, a fundamental part of estate tax planning was to imbed “bypass” trusts into wills. The purpose was to allow the surviving spouse to have the benefit of their spouse’s assets but not to have those assets merge into the survivor’s estate. So, when the estate tax exemption was only $1.5 million, incorrectly [...]
Remarriage for a surviving spouse is highly probably. Have your planned for this? What difference does it make?