I'm 32, married with two children under 2 yrs old. What is the best option for will/estate planning for my family? Are the online forms decent or should I contact an attorney to help us out? How much would it cost to have an attorney put together a plan for us (understand there could be a range here, but looking for a ballpark)?

My primary concern is naming guardians for our children (should something happen to wife and I) and making sure our assets follow the children. If something happens to all of us, I probably want to split assets between our siblings.

Any Aggie attorneys in the Woodlands/Houston area that would be recommended?

Appreciate any advice or guidance based on people's experience in estate planning.

For your situation Legal Zoom is all you need. It's like $70 and handles everything you mentioned and more.

While legal zoom is the cheapest option...I had trouble because I wanted:

1: Will (one that could be amended as my kids grew older and as my asset classes grew and changed)
2: Durable Power of Attorney (Me-My wife, vice versa)
3: Living Will (End of life directive stuff)

So I hired a good attorney ($500) and went from there. I recommend you do the same.


[This message has been edited by bearmw (edited 2/20/2013 1:26p).]

[This message has been edited by bearmw (edited 2/20/2013 1:26p).]

[This message has been edited by bearmw (edited 2/20/2013 1:28p).]

Get an attorney.

Get an attorney

Get an attorney.

Disclosure....I'm not an attorney

Have done this. (And so should everyone else). Get an attorney. Am not an attorney but you do not want to die in Texas without a will and other appropriate documents. It can get messy.

I am an attorney, but this of course is not legal advice. I would say that you could/would pay $500-$1,000 for a pair of simple wills for you and your wife. That range is based more on the attorney than the work. Most guys will have a flat fee for mirror wills (essentially the same for both husband and wife).

Legal Zoom should be fine if you don't have a taxable estate.

Don't mean to hijack but, my grandfather passed away a few weeks ago, survived by my grandmother. He left a will with my grandmother named as executor. He had some brokerage accounts in both their names, but some in his name only as we'll as a tract of land in east Texas in his name only.

Do you think our family will need a lawyer to work through probate (estate worth under 100k, excluding house which is already jointlY owned), or does this sound like we can do it ourselves, and utilize something like muniment of title in place of full probate?

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1: Will (one that could be amended as my kids grew older and as my asset classes grew and changed)
2: Durable Power of Attorney (Me-My wife, vice versa)
3: Living Will (End of life directive stuff)

So I hired a good attorney ($500) and went from there. I recommend you do the same.

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You mean all of the things you can do through legal zoom? It's the lawyers that will try to convince you that simple estate planning is rocket surgery (all due respect to lawyers). It's 2013 so let's reduce the number of lawyers by not overpaying them for things we can do ourselves.






[This message has been edited by Sandman98 (edited 2/20/2013 11:01p).]

I would talk to an attorney and look into a trust. Estate taxes may not be a concern, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider putting together a living trust… especially since you have young children and know absolutely nothing about their habits and how they will react to money. I’ve tried to talk to my toddler about budgeting and paying for college over taking kickass vacations, but right now, he seems more interested in pulling the dog’s tail.

Unless you plan to be a pauper, and really this applies to anyone reading this with a family, go ahead and get a relationship going with an estate attorney. In The Woodlands, consider Jay Knighton. I've worked with him and he's Board Certified. Ole Miss undergrad, Masters from Florida and law school at Tulane. Good southern boy if not an Aggie. Cost varies by attorney, but specialists will be more pricey than generalists. His prices are reasonable.

Legal zoom is fine for a lot of folks. Unfortunately, you probably won't know that you need an attorney until it's too late. Is it worth the risk to save $4-500? That's your call. Of course, if money is that tight, why pay legal zoom a hundred bucks? Legally you can do it yourself and pay nothing. In the end, you get what you pay for. Then again, I'm an attorney, so according to some, I'm trying to drive up demand.

[This message has been edited by RoseRichAg01 (edited 2/21/2013 3:18p).]

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Legal zoom is fine for a lot of folks. Unfortunately, you probably won't know that you need an attorney until it's too late. Is it worth the risk to save $4-500? That's your call. Of course, if money is that tight, why pay legal zoom a hundred bucks? Legally you can do it yourself and pay nothing. In the end, you get what you pay for. Then again, I'm an attorney, so according to some, I'm trying to drive up demand.

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Did you just bill us for the time it took to type that up?!?!?!?



Put me in the group that says you get what you pay for.

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I would talk to an attorney and look into a trust.

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This. Get an attorney. Ask your friends who they used or ask some other trusted family adviser. Be prepared to update it as the kids get older, your situation changes, and the legal system changes.

Not an attorney.

quote:

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I would talk to an attorney and look into a trust. Estate taxes may not be a concern, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider putting together a living trust… especially since you have young children and know absolutely nothing about their habits and how they will react to money. I’ve tried to talk to my toddler about budgeting and paying for college over taking kickass vacations, but right now, he seems more interested in pulling the dog’s tail.

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1. You do realize a living trust isn't going to help you anymore than your will related to your kids. It's primary function is to pour over to your will to assist with probate.

2. You can generally draft a simple revocable trust through services like legal zoom

Recommendations for estate attorney in Houston inside or close to 610?

Leonard Roth

Gonna have to disagree with Barry. Privacy, avoiding/minimizing probate(s) and contestability issues are the primary reasons to consider an intervivos trust. And the will is designed to "pour" remaining assets into the trust, not the other way around.

Not to derail the thread but a question about estate planning for a single person.

When do you start estate planning and draw up a will as a single individual? Would reaching a certain age, net worth, or purchasing real estate trigger the need for a younger adult to setup an estate plan/will?

I know that under Texas law if you die without a will as a single person how your assets are divided can get complicated depending upon the surviving relatives.

Actually, I have a pot trust and require the children to meet a few requirements before the money is free of the trust, so... I can't handle this through a will alone. Notice how I pointed out that my situation is setup for young children. I know very little about what they'll require later in life (education, medical), and I know nothing about their habits and responsibility level. All that said, I probably should avoid a blanket statement, but I will go ahead and make one... the future of my family, especially a scenario where my wife and I are not here to raise our children, is easily worth a couple thousand $ of planning expense. I suppose I could create a similar document on Nolo for $100, but I have my doubts...



[This message has been edited by cjs4715 (edited 2/25/2013 8:56a).]

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Gonna have to disagree with Barry. Privacy, avoiding/minimizing probate(s) and contestability issues are the primary reasons to consider an intervivos trust. And the will is designed to "pour" remaining assets into the trust, not the other way around

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I should have added incapacity as another primary motive for a Living Trust. By appointing successor trustees you can keep the courts out of the family affairs at least to the degree that the trust owns the assets.

And CJS, you can do the same thing through your will. The difference from a planning perspective is whether or not you want/need to fund the trust now (intervivos) or upon death (testamentary). I have no idea what a "pot" trust is BTW.

Gotcha. I'm sure I am wrong on a lot of facets of my estate plan, and my attorney friend would probably laugh at me trying to explain anything. Pot trust, I believe, is probably bumpkin for a "Family Trust".

[This message has been edited by cjs4715 (edited 2/25/2013 9:23a).]

Anybody got a rec for an attorney in Houston?

I already posted two on this thread.

Jay Knighton is in The Woodlands.

Leonard Roth is in the Galleria/River Oaks.

Both are Board Certified in Trust and Estate with extensive tax backgrounds and come at a much more reasonable price than the big downtown firms. Nothing wrong with big firms, just more pricey.

Anyone have a recommendation for the DFW area?

Ben Carter is in Dallas. Winstead law firm is a little more pricey. That's all I got for Dallas.

if you have a financial advisor, you might ask him /her for a recommendation. There are some items that may warrant that the two work together.

Call Me the Realist,

My firm is in Fort Worth and was founded as an estate planning firm. Shoot me an email if you need estate planning help in DFW. JRP1078 at aol dot com (I will give you my work contact info when you email).

I'm wanting to set up a will where if my wife & I were to suddenly pass (e.g., car accident), my brother would take custody of my daughter (and any future kids) and our assets would goto him to help raise them.

I assume I should have a lawyer draw this up?
I recently met a family lawyer and they quoted me $1200 to draw up the will. That seems high, but I want to get your thoughts.

Not sure where you are, but I've seen much higher and much lower than $1,200.


And if it were me, I'd make sure my brother has "access" to the money, but that my brother doesn't "have" the money. Make sense?

Go to https://tamugift.giftlegacy.com/?pageID=99&destPageID=wills and use the TAMU Foundation online wills planner. You can search for attorneys on there as well. It's free. Complete the forms and then save the PDF, take it to an attorney or email it to them. I work for a University in Illinois and we use the same system. People really like it. *Disclosure: the A&M Foundation will not see anything that you fill out on their system.