It’s never too early to begin estate planning with a trust. A comprehensive trust-based estate plan protects your wealth, your preferred end-of-life interests, and your loved ones without the involvement of the Texas Probate Court or other third parties after you’re gone.

Creating a trust-based estate plan that covers all your needs shouldn’t be an overwhelming process. At Campbell Law Firm in Tyler and Mineola, TX, we will walk you through the trust process and carefully craft every document you’ll need. We will make the process simple and give you peace of mind and take that estate planning burden off your shoulders.  With an experienced estate planning attorney like Bradley S. Campbell, you can rely on knowledgeable, well-seasoned legal advice, one-on-one planning, and compassionate support every step of the way. 

The firm also offers seasoned representation for estate, trust, and probate litigation matters.  Whether you suspect that an aspect of your deceased loved one’s estate has not been handled properly or you found yourself facing accusations of mishandling part of the estate, our probate litigator can assist you. Book a consultation with us today!

A will typically cannot cover all of your estate planning needs, and it only becomes active after you die and it REQUIRES your family members to probate. 

We know you want to save your family members the cost, time and stress of the probate process, so Campbell Law Firm can craft an estate plan with documents, such as trusts, powers of attorney, advance directives, limited liability companies, and other techniques to avoid Texas probate, reduce the costs of transferring your assets to your loved ones, and minimize the stress and time involved in those processes, especially when your loved ones are in the middle of grieving your loss. 

Numerous types of trusts exist, though they all place your assets in the name of the trust so as to avoid probate after you pass. The primary benefit of this transfer of assets to a trust, rather than transferring assets by using a will to your beneficiaries, is allowing your loved ones to avoid the public probate process, and the cost and hassle of a probate. 

There are many advantages of setting up a revocable trust. One such advantage is the ability to have complete control over your assets and how you would like them to be distributed, without court involvement or a very public court proceeding. A revocable trust allows your loved ones to bypass the costly and time-consuming probate process entirely. This trust can also protect your assets from creditors, spouses of your beneficiaries and other liabilities while also allowing you to gift your estate in a way that will protect your beneficiaries.

A trust also helps prevent estate disputes. Even with meticulous planning, disputes over a will can arise from beneficiaries or those who believe they should be included as beneficiaries. In such cases, Texas law mandates that any litigation regarding the will's validity be settled prior to finalizing the estate and distributing its assets. If this arises for you, our probate litigator provides representation for all types of estate and will disputes.

Your trust lawyer from Campbell Law Firm can walk you through all the different options based on your needs so you can pick the right option for your family. Our trust attorney, Bradley S. Campbell, has extensive knowledge in all forms of trusts, so he can help you create the right document based on your goals and objectives.

• Assets held by the Revocable Living Trust will bypass the Probate process and can be held by the Trust for defined periods of time or distributed outright immediately to beneficiaries.
• Bypassing Probate results in a large cost saving by avoiding the probate process (attorney’s fees, court costs and filing fees). A Trust makes it more efficient to manage and transfer assets upon death.
• Revocable Living Trusts are private documents between you and your attorney, and thus protect private information. Probate is a public process, which includes filing an Inventory of all your assets (and the value of each). This Inventory is available to the public and internet.
• Revocable Living Trusts give complete control to you and do not rely on third parties such as a Judge or the Probate process.
• With a Will, it is much easier for someone to contest your estate. With a Trust, the Trust is a private document that is not filed with the Court, and thus does not provide a venue for parties to file a contest in.
• Upon incapacity, the Trust can manage and control your assets privately without a public court proceeding. With a Will based plan, if a Guardian is needed, the Court will appoint a Guardian who controls the assets and expenses, and a public hearing will be held, and a financial report must be annually filed with the Court.
• If you have a Will instead of a Trust, and you own real estate in other states, you will have to Probate your Will in every state in which you own real estate. You will not have to do this with a Trust.
• Assets held by the Trust can be protected from creditors, spouses of your beneficiaries, and other liabilities for the benefit of your beneficiaries. Assets distributed to a beneficiary under a Will have no protection.

The distribution of assets to beneficiaries can be defined with limitations on amounts, times of distribution and reasons for distributions.

Powers of attorney grant other individuals the legal right to do certain things, like make health decisions or complete financial transactions on your behalf. Creating a power of attorney is a critical aspect of your estate plan as it covers your wishes if you become incapacitated.

Numerous types of powers of attorney exist for all different use cases, ranging from temporary directives granting someone power while you’re on vacation to permanent actions to ensure that your health care follows your wishes if you become incapacitated.

Advance directives and other health care documents also outline your wishes if you become incapacitated and cannot speak for yourself. 

Advance directives differ from powers of attorney because these documents do not just appoint an individual to make your decision. Instead, they state your exact preferences regarding different specific scenarios. Typically, your advance directives cover who you wish to access your healthcare records, your overall care preferences, and if anyone can make decisions for you.

Book a call with Campbell Law Firm in Tyler, TX, today to begin the estate planning process.