Helping You With a Comprehensive Estate Plan
More than 70% of the people who died last year did not have wills, creating millions of difficult decisions and needless family quarrels, and billions of dollars in avoidable inheritance taxes and probate expenses.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay
Livens & Reed, PLLC offers a comprehensive approach to getting your affairs in order. When drafting the vital legal documents, we consider tax planning, Medicaid planning, veterans benefits, business planning and asset protection strategies. We welcome clients of any income level, including caregivers of the elderly, throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area and statewide Texas. We help individuals plan for all matters of the future through legal tools, including:
- IRA inheritance trust creation to create a legacy of wealth, provide creditor protection, and minimize taxes for your heirs, allowing them to stretch out the IRA over their lifetime
- Living trust planning to reduce the estate taxes, avoid delays and publicity of probate and provide creditor protection for heirs
- Asset protection tools through a family limited partnership or LLC
How We Can Help
Estate Planning Essentials
- A last will and testament directs the disposition of your estate when you die. Without a will, the state of Texas substitutes its own formula for distributing your assets — creating additional cost and uncertainty for survivors. We craft a will that specifies beneficiaries and who gets what, appoints guardians for minor children or adult disabled children, and names a trusted executor to settle your estate.
- Powers of attorney give control to an individual — or a successive order of individuals — to manage your personal and financial affairs if you are incapacitated by dementia, illness or injury. We include special provisions so that your appointee can handle all transactions in your name, including Medicaid planning actions such as gifting of assets to heirs. We typically recommend a durable power of attorney that is effective today rather than commencing upon disability — otherwise who decides and defines when you are “disabled?”
- A living will, or advance directive clarifies your desires regarding life support and end-of-life care. This guides physicians and spares your loved ones from agonizing decisions about “pulling the plug.” We take a more detailed approach than most law firms, including a provision to continue pain medications to the end. We identify four medical situations and 13 medical procedures. Most firms identify only one situation.
Contact An Experienced Special Needs Planning Attorney
It is never too early — or too late — to protect wealth and put your wishes in writing. For answers to your questions regarding the future of your estate, contact the firm online or call 817-545-3425 to schedule your free initial consultation with an experienced lawyer.
Our Wills, Trust and Estate Planning Services
Our Practice Areas
We’ve built a culture that empowers our attorneys to truly connect with clients bringing integrity, insight, and dedication to every case. From Medicaid planning and elder law to estate protection and long-term care advocacy, our collaborative culture drives not only our success but, more importantly, yours.
Hear From Our Past Clients
Don’t just take our word, see what the people we’ve helped have to say.