A lasagna recipe includes a few different components: the ingredients needed to make the dish, how much of each ingredient you need, and the steps you have to take to transform the ingredients into a dish. Without the steps, the ingredients are just ingredients—they don’t create anything. Estate planning is similar. Your estate plan is the recipe, and the documents are the ingredients. A will or trust may be the pasta or the sauce, but they aren’t the lasagna. Sure, they’re necessary components of the lasagna, but without the other ingredients and steps, they’re just pasta and sauce. Same with estate planning. If you just create a will or trust, you have documents that are just documents. They don’t do anything by themselves.
If you haven’t created a comprehensive plan of your own, or your current plan fails for any reason, know that there’s a plan already made for you. It’s a plan laid out in Texas law, and it may be very different from what you want.
Texas’s Recipe for Lasagna May Be Gross
To illustrate the difference between Texas’s plan for you and one you can create for yourself, let’s get back to our lasagna example.
Let’s say Texas’s recipe for lasagna includes spicy sausage, but you can’t tolerate spicy foods. Texas’s plan may contain meat, but you’re a vegetarian. Or it could be that Texas’s recipe includes mushrooms, but your child is allergic to mushrooms. Some ingredients may be missing altogether, and the recipe will probably tell you that you can’t even cook the lasagna for months, or even years. Whatever the situation, it’s possible that Texas’s plan includes some component that you don’t like, or even one that could be disastrous to your family.
Texas’s plan says how your assets will be distributed, who will get them, and in what amounts. It requires a court process, which can be lengthy and expensive, and sometimes assets are frozen until the court process is over. It’s also set up for conflict, as your family members – even if you’re estranged – are required to get notice of the court proceeding, what assets you have, and are invited to make a claim for your assets. You may not like any of this.
If not, here’s the good news. The law also says you can create your own plan and decide on your own who you want to inherit your assets and how. If you create your own plan, you get to decide to give money to charitable causes that matter to you, which Texas’s plan doesn’t allow for. If you create your own plan, you can also decide whether you want your loved ones to go through the court process.
What Recipe Do You Want to Use?
By creating your estate plan, you get to choose your lasagna recipe. You get to choose whether you want meat or veggie, mild or spicy sausage. You get to exclude ingredients your family members may be allergic to. You even get to decide if you want to share your lasagna with someone else. You get to decide when to cook the lasagna, whether you want it to be eaten tonight or assembled, frozen and saved for another day.
It’s entirely possible that you don’t think Texas’s recipe is gross and you wouldn’t change a thing. But you won’t know that until you know the details of Texas’s plan and how those details pertain to you, your assets, and your family. Or it could be that you think Texas’s recipe is completely gross and you want to pick one that you and your family like. Either way, know what you want to create and be clear on how to do it, and do it correctly. We can help.
How We Help You Get it Right
We’ve seen too many families suffer negative, unnecessary consequences after a loved one dies. If you haven’t experienced it yourself, chances are you probably will. But with the proper education, beginning with correcting the misconception that estate planning and the documents involved are one and the same, we believe we can break the cycle of strife.
We call our process Life & Legacy Planning, and once you’ve created your Life & Legacy Plan, you can rest easy knowing your wishes will be honored, your loved ones cared for, and your property protected. Book a call with us today to learn more.
AB Law, PLLC is a full-service business law and estate planning firm that serves clients throughout Texas. All consultations are free and no question is too silly, ridiculous, or complex. https://calendly.com/ablawpllc www.ab-firm.com