Posted on November 08, 2023 in Estate Planning and Administration

Texas has unique laws regarding trusts and estates that allow residents to maximize inheritances for their families. Proper estate planning is essential to take advantage of these laws and avoid unnecessary taxes or legal disputes. A Texas lawyer can help you with key strategies you can use to preserve more assets for your loved ones.

Use Trusts to Avoid Probate

Texas allows the use of revocable living trusts to avoid the probate process on assets placed in the trust. Upon death, assets in a revocable living trust can be distributed immediately to beneficiaries without court intervention. This saves time, legal fees, and the potential for legal challenges. You should consider creating revocable living trusts and re-titling assets, including real estate, bank accounts, and investments into the trust. This ensures a smooth transition of assets upon death.

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 Posted on October 24, 2023 in Real Estate Law

Sometimes situations happen and you need to somehow get out of a lease. Whether your reason is because of moving, downsizing, or something else, ending a contract before its term can seem impossible. With the right approach, you may have options. A Texas lawyer can help walk you through your specific situation to determine if lease termination is truly the best route or if better solutions exist. 

Review Your Lease Contract Termination Clauses

First, you will need to examine the termination provisions in your existing lease. Many contracts include negotiated clauses detailing acceptable reasons, proper notices, fees, and processes for early termination. However, termination rights are not guaranteed. Carefully review all terms related to early termination, even if they seem standard at first glance. Specific wording could provide an opening or loophole to get you out of the lease.

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 Posted on October 09, 2023 in Estate Planning and Administration

Serving as executor of an estate in Texas comes with significant legal and financial obligations. Settling an estate through the probate process involves intricate steps and rigid deadlines that can easily overwhelm unprepared executors, which is why working with a Texas lawyer is ideal. Even the most competent executor can make simple but costly errors that lead to family disputes, tax penalties, lawsuits, and improper distributions.

Executor mistakes not only jeopardize the deceased’s final wishes, but also add stress at an already difficult time for loved ones. By understanding the most common pitfalls executors face, you can avoid these missteps and effectively carry out administrator duties.

Failing to Locate All Relevant Estate Planning Documents

Before any other step, the executor must collect and review the decedent’s core estate planning documents to identify beneficiaries, assets, debts, and distribution instructions. These important papers include the last will and testament, revocable living trusts, life insurance policies with specified beneficiaries, 401(k) plans and IRAs with named recipients, and any other materials impacting asset distribution. Missing or outdated documents can derail the entire probate administration process.

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 Posted on September 20, 2023 in Business and Commercial Law

Forming a new business involves navigating a complex legal landscape, and seeking the assistance of a general counsel during the formation process can be invaluable. If you are looking to start a business, contact a lawyer to ensure that all proper protocol is followed during the formation process. There are some people out there who may be inclined to start their business on their own instead of hiring a legal professional as a way of saving money. This logic is misguided, as forming a business without the legal assistance of an attorney can prove catastrophic in ensuring that everything about your business is in accordance with the law. 

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 Posted on September 08, 2023 in Business and Commercial Law

Contracts play a vital role in business and commercial law, outlining the rights and responsibilities of the parties involved. However, when it comes to contracts, not all breaches are the same. In simple terms, a material breach of contract occurs when someone does not do what they promised they would do in the contract, significantly harming the other party’s rights or benefits. It is essential to understand the concept of a material breach of contract in straightforward terms, helping individuals understand its importance, implications, and how a Texas business lawyer can help if you are dealing with an individual or entity who has engaged in a material breach of contract. 

Unpacking the Seriousness of a Material Breach of Contract

To determine if a breach is material, we must consider a few key factors:

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 Posted on August 23, 2023 in Real Estate Law

The founders of the United States anticipated that the government may, from time to time, want to take over private property in order to complete a project on behalf of the broader public. They ultimately decided to restrict this governmental right somewhat in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which insists that “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Therefore, the process of eminent domain in the United States involves the government taking private property for public use and compensating the original owner of the property for that taking. Those who are facing condemnation actions as a result of eminent domain concerns generally benefit from working with an attorney experienced in these matters because seeking just compensation is not always an easy task. 

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 Posted on August 04, 2023 in Estate Planning and Administration

Regardless of whether you have an estate plan in place yet or not, if you are an adult in the U.S. and you have not yet engaged in digital estate planning, it is time to make some effort in service of this particular legally-enforceable endeavor. No matter what your circumstances may be, digital estate planning will help to ensure that your wishes concerning your digital footprint are ultimately honored in the event of your medical incapacitation or death. Making this effort will also help to ensure that you do not leave behind a digital mess that your loved ones will be compelled to clean up.

Protecting Your Interests

Take a moment to estimate how many password-protected accounts you access online every month or two. If you are like most adults, you bank, share digital media, upload evidence of memories, network, and otherwise engage with the electronic world via dozens of accounts on a fairly regular basis. Creating a digital estate plan will allow you to articulate what you want to bef done with those accounts – and by whom – in the event of your death or incapacitation so that those wishes can become legally enforceable.

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 Posted on July 24, 2023 in Business and Commercial Law

For years, trucking companies in Texas and throughout the U.S. have protested the ease with which plaintiffs who have been injured in trucking accidents can tie businesses up in litigation. Most trucking accidents that involve more than one party occur because one or more vehicle operators have made an error when driving. It is, therefore, often appropriate to question whether a truck operator has made a mistake that contributed to the cause(s) of a crash. However, it is rarely appropriate to assume that a truck operator’s human error is rooted in the business practices of their employer.

Texas lawmakers have taken notice of the frequency with which injury victims name trucking companies as defendants in litigated disputes and they have recently taken significant action to address this situation. In implementing a new bifurcated truck litigation scheme, Texas legislators have made it less likely that trucking companies will be tied up in litigation when their business and employment practices have nothing to do with the cause of a crash.

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 Posted on July 12, 2023 in Business and Commercial Law

If you are thinking about structuring a new business venture as a corporation, you may understandably have concerns about partially surrendering control of your vision to other stakeholders. While it is true that corporations are generally owned by more than one shareholder and are managed by boards of directors, you can approach your business in a number of ways that will help to preserve your vision. Structuring your company as a corporation does not mean that your venture will no longer be “yours.”

How Does a Board of Directors Operate? 

Although there are some exceptions to this structure, most corporations in the U.S. are governed by a board of directors and run by a management team. Although managers can sit on a corporation’s board, those who govern a corporation and those who manage its day-to-day operations need not overlap. Generally speaking, board members are voted into their positions by shareholders, whereas managers are hired by the board.

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 Posted on June 27, 2023 in Estate Planning and Administration

It is not often that the American public is exposed to informed discussions about the subject of estate planning. Most often, individuals are prompted to think about their own potential need for an estate plan when the news features a story about a dispute concerning a deceased celebrity’s estate. Due to the ways in which popular culture and the media treat this subject, it can be easy for someone who is neither retired nor fabulously wealthy to assume that they do not yet need to concern themselves with the task of estate planning. However, every legally independent adult can – and should – benefit from the advantages that estate planning affords.

Why Every Adult Should Have an Estate Plan

If you own any valuable or sentimental property, you will want a will or trust in place to ensure that these assets will pass to the beneficiaries of your choosing in the event of your death. However, estate planning is about more than just asset distribution. Parents can use estate plans to name potential guardians for their minor children in the event that they unexpectedly pass away before their children reach adulthood. Those who spend significant time online can use estate planning tools to better ensure that their digital footprint is managed according to their wishes after they are gone. Business owners can utilize estate planning to better ensure that the enterprise that they have worked so hard to build does not suffer in the wake of the unexpected loss of its owner.

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