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Estate Planning Strategies to Protect Your Spouse
August 13th, 2025
You found the love of your life, and as you have built your life together, you have likely weathered your fair share of storms and grown stronger because of them. Now that you are married, you are uniquely situated to provide meaningful support for y…
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Does Treating Your Children Fairly Mean Unequal Inheritances?
July 23rd, 2025
When thinking through their estate plan and how they want their assets (money and property) managed after they pass away, most parents wish to treat their children equally, often out of a sense of fairness. However, sometimes being fair or doing what…
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Do Not Let Your Money and Property Go to the State: Why You Need an Estate Plan so any Unclaimed Property Does Not Escheat
June 11th, 2025
Americans tend to bristle when any level of the government meddles in their private lives, especially with their money. Look no further than the famous “death and taxes” quote for a sense of how Americans feel about bureaucratic creep and governm…
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Three Asset Protection Tips You Can Use Now
June 4th, 2025
A common misconception is that only wealthy individuals and people in high-risk professions, such as doctors or lawyers, need an asset protection plan. However, anyone can be sued. A car accident, foreclosure, unpaid medical bills, or an injured tena…
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Buying a Home with Someone Other than a Spouse? Be Mindful.
April 2nd, 2025
Rising housing costs, the desire for companionship, and the need to share resources are increasingly leading buyers to consider co-owning a home with someone other than a spouse, such as a friend, relative, or significant other. Although this arrange…
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Why Joint Ownership (JTWROS) Should Not Necessarily Be the Go-To Plan for Newlyweds
February 12th, 2025
If you recently married or have been married for a while and have acquired additional money or property (or plan to), you have options regarding how your assets can be owned. Although joint ownership seems easy and convenient, particularly when that…
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Pros and Cons of Naming Many Residuary Beneficiaries in a Will or Trust
January 15th, 2025
You have meticulously created your estate plan to ensure that it includes and addresses all of your most important assets (accounts and property). You have reviewed your asset list repeatedly, and everything seems to be accounted for. But what if you…
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How to Choose the Initial Trustee of Your Trust
December 31st, 2024
When you establish a trust, you nominate someone to be the initial trustee. If you are creating a revocable living trust, you will likely be the initial trustee. You will also want to name successors or backup trustees to step in and manage the trust…
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Caution: Using a DIY Deed to Create Joint Owners and Avoid Probate Can Lead to Unintended Consequences
December 11th, 2024
One common way to avoid the probate requirement for real estate after the owner dies is to add children or other individuals to the property title as joint owners with rights of survivorship. When joint owners have survivorship rights and one joint o…
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Shannen Doherty Understood That With Divorce, Timing Is Everything in Estate Planning
December 4th, 2024
According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey, there were more than 670,000 divorces[1] and more than 2 million marriages in 2022. Divorce is a common life event that many Americans face during their lifetime. But the effect of div…
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Attorney Jana McCreary
Houston Estate Planning Attorney Jana R. McCreary has been an attorney for over twenty years, a career move she made after working for over a decade with adults and children with intellectual disabilities and mental illness. Graduating summa cum laud… Read More