Estate design.
The foundational plan. Wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, advance directives. Drafted to Texas law and to the family’s actual tempo.
- Revocable living trusts (single and joint)
- Wills and pour-over instruments
- Durable powers of attorney (financial and medical)
- Directives to physicians (Texas advance directives)
- HIPAA authorizations and nomination of guardian
- Coordinated beneficiary designations
The foundational plan is the part most families assume is simple. It is not. A Texas revocable trust drafted without attention to community property rules can fail on the first death; a pour-over will drafted without attention to Texas’ independent-administration preference can cost the family months in probate court. The difficulty is not the forms. The difficulty is the interaction between the forms and the specifics of the family’s assets, marriage, and state of residence.
Our foundational engagement begins with a full inventory of existing documents and a review of every beneficiary designation on every retirement account, life policy, and transfer-on-death account. A revocable trust is only as good as what has been re-titled into it. Most revocable trusts we review — drafted well, signed well — have never had anything funded into them. That is the single most common failure mode in the practice.
We draft durable powers of attorney in both financial and medical form, a Texas Directive to Physicians, and the HIPAA authorizations that make those documents usable when they are actually needed. Every instrument is drafted to specific Texas statutory form requirements; none is taken from a template.
A thirty-minute call is the first move.
We establish the general shape of the engagement, confirm that Hartwell & Reese is the right fit, and — if so — schedule the ninety-minute initial consultation.