Edna, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

Yes. You can set up multiple living trusts. However, what I have done in the past is to set up one living trust, and then have multiple irrevocable sub trusts. Each sub trust provides that upon a sale of the asset (i.e. real property) that the trust owns, unless a 1031 exchange occurs, the Irrevocable sub trust is terminated. The sole beneficiary of the irrevocable sub trust is the primary revocable living trust. If you (i.e. the trustee) want to buy one or more other properties, you just create a new irrevocable sub trust. I first began using this method with a client who owned multiple preschools, and the real property upon which they were located. Even with insurance, there is substantial risk of liability based upon the acts of employees, or just rumors about the school. In the 1980's commercial trustees lobbied for changes in the liability of trustees of California trust estates following changes in the law that required remediation of contaminated real property in California. Commercial trustees found themselves with unlimited liability when they merely held title to a parcel of real property that had been leased to a company that caused the contamination, or upon which contamination had migrated. There were others who were responsible for the contamination, but in many cases the companies not longer existed or did not have the resources to perform the remediation and filed bankruptcy.

It sounds as though you need to take the Will to a local probate attorney and present it for probate.  A Small Estate Affidavit can only be used if there is no Will and if the person left no more than a home, personal possessions worth no more than $60,000 and other assets (such as bank accounts) worth no more than $75,000.  Some courts require that the heirs be the surviving spouse or minor children.

For a will to have effect on real property ownership in Texas, the will must be presented to a Texas probate court and probated in some fashion. No one is required to probate a will. If you have an original will to probate, you can offer it within 4 years of the death of your grandfather. After 4 years it might be admitted as a muniment of title, but formal administration is not an option. If your mother was your grandfather's only heir (heirs are determined by law , beneficiaries are designated in a will) and no will was presented for probate, full title of the property would pass to your mother. Your mother's interest in the property could have transfered in full to your father at her death. If you and your siblings want to sell the property, I'd make sure you have some ownership in it first.