Trusts in Houston Texas, are legal arrangements between two parties, a trustee and a beneficiary. The Trustee is designated to support legal title to the property of the beneficiary, until the terms of the trust are met or the trust matures.

Trusts are either living or testamentary (on your death), a living trust is a legally binding contract that is created when you are alive, as opposed to the testamentary which is created as part or the terms and conditions of a final will.

Both these types of Trusts in Texas can either be revocable or irrevocable, meaning that they cannot be modified or revoked once they have been signed. Both these types of trusts are designed for different purposes, revocable are becoming increasingly popular as life is uncertain and a circumstance can change, irrevocable trusts are useful tools that are set up to meet specific goals, such as paying tax bills in the event of your death, the negative side of a living irrevocable trust is that they mean you lose both control and ownership of property.

The main reason people take out trusts in Texas is that it can spare their families a lot of time, expense and effort dealing with probate court proceedings. If your estate is going to be over $75,000, it means probate will be slightly more complicated and we advise placing everything in a trust.

Despite having placed your property in trust you still need to write a legal will. This provides a backup plan for anything that might be left out of the trust. Many of your clients have acquired property later in life and on occasion these have not been covered by the terms of their trust document.

If you die without a will, under Texas Law any property that is not transferred in a living trust or by any other legal method will automatically go to closest relatives. If you don’t produce a will, any property that isn’t transferred by your living trust or other method (such as joint tenancy) will go to your closest relatives as determined by Texas state law.

Unlike other states, Texas does not have any specific estate tax; federal taxes are only levied on estates that value over $12 million. If your estate is going to exceed that value you need to talk to us about opening a much more complicated AB Trust, this can help reduce the impact of federal estate taxes.

Steps to creating a trust in Houston Texas:

• Decide whether you need a shared or individual trust.
• List the property that should be included.
• Name your successor trustee.
• List the beneficiaries of your trust.
• Meet with your attorney to complete the documents to create the trust.
• The document needs to be signed in the presence of a notary public.
• The title of any property that is now being held in trust needs to be changed.

If you have any questions or queries about the benefits of signing property into a trust in Texas, please do not hesitate to contact us.