Tulia, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

You both should do your own living trust, if you each gave assets to put into the trust, as you are not married. If you were married, you could do a marital trust. Trust are more flexible than wills as to the future changes that occur in your life.

Trusts are WAY better than Wills. One of the reasons is that trusts allow you to avoid probate. The ultimate distribution might be identical, but going through probate would cost several thousand dollars, to get to that point. Trusts have other benefits, as well, including the fact that it is a private arrangement. There is no court involvement and the documents (and administration and distributions) are not part of the public record. The ONLY drawbacks to a trust are: 1) It costs more; 2) It is more complex; 3) You need to properly "fund" the trust, or it will not provide you with the maximum benefit. You should have the trust set up by an estate planning attorney. You should expect that the cost will be somewhere between $1,000-2,000. In spite of the cost, this is the only way to ensure that your objectives will be met. It also minimizes the risks of any future problems. I am working with a family right now who bought an online trust. It was not set up properly so now, probate is necessary and because of the documents that were used, a more expensive form of probate is required. The family saved $1,000 on setting up the trust, but it will now cost them more than $5,000 to probate the estate.

Because your uncle has a daughter, she is legally entitled to take his property when he passes away under Texas law (assuming he is unmarried with no other children). Your uncle will need to execute a simple will that states you are to inherit from him rather than his daughter. This can be done for a small fee with a reputable estate planning attorney.