Serving Denton County Since 1992 | 6021 Morriss Rd., Suite 101, Flower Mound, TX, 75028
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Recent Blog Posts
Can You Legally Pay a Family Member to Care for an Elderly Parent in Texas?
Texas families can pay relatives to care for an elderly parent. But payments must reflect real services and reasonable rates. If your parent pays a caregiver and cannot show what care they received in return, Texas Medicaid could treat the payments as gifts. That could delay coverage for certain long-term care benefits. A written caregiver agreement helps explain the payments, but it does not guarantee Medicaid will accept them. Our Flower Mound, TX lawyer for long-term care planning can help your family establish an appropriate agreement in 2026.
Why Can Paying a Family Caregiver Affect Texas Medicaid Eligibility?
Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p, Medicaid looks back five years for certain transfers of money or property. For nursing home care, the five years are measured from the date your parent has both entered the facility and applied for Medicaid. When someone gives away money or receives less than fair value in return, Medicaid can impose a penalty period. During that period, it will not pay for certain long-term care services. The penalty depends on the amount transferred without proper compensation.
What Happens if Two Different Wills Are Discovered During Texas Probate?
When two wills surface during a Texas probate, the general rule is that the most recent valid will controls. The court must decide whether the later will met legal requirements, whether the person understood what they were signing, and whether it revoked the earlier will. An invalid later will cannot revoke an earlier valid will. Both may apply when the later one changes only certain provisions. If you’re facing probate in 2026, our Denton County estate administration lawyer can explain what the court will examine.
How Can a New Will Revoke an Earlier Will in Texas?
Texas Estates Code § 253.002 governs how a will can be revoked. A later will revokes an earlier one when it says so expressly, or when its terms are so inconsistent with the earlier document that both cannot stand together.
The 5 Most Common Types of Trusts
Texas families can use different types of trusts for different estate planning goals. Some trusts can help avoid probate, manage property for beneficiaries, protect assets, or preserve eligibility for certain benefits. If you are considering a trust in 2026, a Flower Mound, TX estate planning lawyer can explain which options may fit your family and financial goals.
What Are the Most Common Types of Trusts in Texas?
Texas families tend to use five trusts, and each one solves a different problem.
1. Revocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust is the one most people mean when they say trust. You create it during your lifetime, transfer your assets into it, and serve as your own trustee. Revocable means you can modify it, add or remove assets, change beneficiaries, or cancel it entirely at any point while you are competent.
What Is a Lady Bird Deed, and How Can It Help Texas Seniors?
A Lady Bird deed is a type of Texas deed that lets you keep complete control of your home for as long as you live, then pass it automatically to someone you choose when you die, with no probate required. It is also called an enhanced life estate deed.
For older homeowners, the appeal of a Lady Bird deed goes beyond skipping probate, because a properly drafted Lady Bird deed can also shield the home from a Medicaid estate recovery claim. A Denton County elder law attorney can tell you whether it fits your situation in 2026.
How Does a Lady Bird Deed Work in Texas?
With a Lady Bird deed, you keep what the law calls an "enhanced life estate," meaning you hold the property for life and also keep the power to sell it, mortgage it, lease it, or cancel the deed entirely without asking anyone.
Can an Executor Be Removed During Texas Probate?
A Texas court can remove an executor during probate, but the court needs a specific legal reason to do it. Simply disagreeing with an executor's decisions is usually not enough on its own. If you are dealing with concerns about an executor's conduct in 2026, our Flower Mound, TX probate lawyer can help you understand whether removal is the right step for your family.
What Are Legal Grounds to Remove an Executor in Texas?
Texas law gives courts specific reasons to remove an executor. The rules depend in part on whether you are dealing with a dependent or independent administration.
Under Texas Estates Code Sections 361.051 and 361.052, a court may remove certain personal representatives for many reasons. These include failing to qualify properly, missing the deadline to file an inventory when required, misapplying estate property, disobeying a court order, or committing gross misconduct or gross mismanagement.
What Is a Special Needs Trust in Texas?
A special needs trust in Texas is a legal tool that lets you leave money or assets to a loved one with a disability. This can be done without hurting their eligibility for government benefits like Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
If you're considering this type of planning in 2026, our Denton County, TX estate planning lawyer can help you understand how a special needs trust might work for your family.
Why Do Special Needs Trusts Exist?
Programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income have financial eligibility rules. A properly structured special needs trust can allow a person with a disability to benefit from trust assets without having those assets automatically counted against eligibility.
Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396p, certain trusts funded with the beneficiary's own assets can qualify for special treatment under Medicaid rules. SSI has separate rules for deciding whether a trust counts as a resource. How the trust is written and how money is paid from it can affect SSI benefits.
What Can You Do if Someone Is Exploiting Your Elderly Parent Financially?
If someone is financially exploiting your elderly parent, you can take action in a few ways. You can report the abuse to Texas Adult Protective Services. You can also work with an attorney to pursue legal action against the person responsible. It's also important to take steps to secure your parent's finances going forward. If you suspect financial exploitation in 2026, talk to our Flower Mound, TX elder law attorney about your legal options today.
What Counts as Financial Exploitation of an Elderly Person in Texas?
Under Texas Human Resources Code Section 48.002, exploitation can involve the illegal or improper use of an elderly person's resources for monetary or personal benefit, profit, or gain without the person's informed consent. Other Texas laws addressing financial exploitation also cover conduct such as improperly taking or using someone's property or gaining control over it through deception, intimidation, fraud, or undue influence.
Will Your Texas Estate Need to Pass Through Probate?
Whether your Texas estate needs to pass through probate depends on a few things. It depends on how your assets are titled. It also depends on whether you've used tools like beneficiary designations, joint ownership, or a living trust to transfer property outside the court process. Don’t assume probate is unavoidable after a death. That's not always true in Texas. A Denton County, TX probate lawyer can look at your specific situation in 2026 and help you understand what your family will actually need to do.
What Is Probate and Why Does It Exist?
Probate is the court process used to validate a will, pay off remaining debts, and distribute a deceased person's property to the right people. Under Texas Estates Code Section 256.003, a will generally must be filed for probate within four years of the person's death. After that period, the will may still be admitted in limited circumstances as a muniment of title or through a late probate application if the applicant was not in default. This process exists to protect everyone involved. It gives creditors a chance to make claims. It also gives heirs a clear, court-supervised way to receive what they're entitled to.
What Happens if You Die Without Naming a Guardian for Your Minor Children?
If you die without naming a guardian for your minor children, a court will make that decision for you. A judge who has never met your family, does not know your values, and has no idea what you would have wanted will determine who raises your children. That is a reality no parent wants to face, and it is one of the most powerful reasons to have an estate plan in place. If you have minor children and want to make sure they are protected, a Flower Mound, TX estate planning lawyer can help you put the right documents in place before it is ever needed.
What Does a Guardian Do for Minor Children?
A guardian is a person appointed by a court to care for a minor child when the child's parents are no longer able to do so. Two types of guardianship may come into play.
A guardian of the person is responsible for the child's physical care and well-being. They make decisions about where the child lives, where they go to school, what medical care they receive, and how they are raised day to day.
How Are Debts Paid After Someone Dies?
When someone passes away, their unpaid debts do not simply go away. Creditors still have legal rights. Those rights have to be addressed before the beneficiaries of a will receive anything.
For families grieving the loss of a loved one who owed money to creditors, understanding how this process works is a very important part of the probate and estate settlement process. Our Flower Mound probate attorney can help.
Do Heirs Have to Pay a Deceased Person's Debts?
In Texas, heirs and family members are not personally responsible for a deceased person's debts just because they were related to that person. The debts belong to the estate, which is the total of everything the person who died owned at the time of their death. Creditors can make claims against the estate, but they typically cannot come after a surviving spouse's separate property or an adult child's personal finances to collect on a debt.
Whether you need legal assistance with estate planning, have questions about elder law, or are involved in a business litigation case you can trust Colbert Law Group PLLC to handle your case with the personal attention and commitment to a positive outcome that you deserve. From our office in Flower Mound, we serve clients throughout Denton County and Southern Oklahoma.
6021 Morriss Rd., Suite 101, Flower Mound, TX, 75028
972-724-3338
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