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Dallas
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Dallas

Dallas Estate Planning

Dallas Estate Planning Attorney

Wills, trusts, and powers of attorney drafted in plain language — so a clear, properly executed plan protects the people you love and keeps your wishes out of a Dallas courtroom.
Schedule a Consultation
Call (469) 972-8473
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Overview

Estate Planning Attorney Serving Dallas, Texas

Estate planning in Texas is the process of putting legally valid documents in place that control who receives your property when you die, who makes decisions for you if you cannot, and how much of that has to go through a courtroom. For most Dallas County families it splits into three tracks. Core documents — a will, a durable power of attorney, and medical directives — establish your instructions and name the people who carry them out. Probate-avoidance transfers — beneficiary designations, survivorship agreements, transfer on death deeds, and revocable trusts — move specific assets outside the probate process entirely. Tax and legacy planning addresses federal transfer tax, special-needs beneficiaries, and business succession for families whose estates or circumstances call for it.

Under Texas Estates Code §251.051, a valid attested will must be in writing, signed by the testator — or by another person at the testator’s direction and in the testator’s presence — and attested by two or more credible witnesses at least 14 years old who subscribe their names in the testator’s presence, unless it qualifies as a holographic will.
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Texas is a friendlier state than most for people who die with a well-drafted will. A will can direct independent administration under Estates Code §401.001, which lets the executor administer the estate without ongoing court supervision — no court approval for each sale, each distribution, each payment. That single provision is why many Texas families reach the same practical result with a will that residents of other states need a living trust to achieve. It is also why the honest answer to “do I need a trust?” is often no, and why anyone who answers yes before looking at your assets is selling a document rather than a plan.

The other half of estate planning has nothing to do with death. A durable power of attorney under Estates Code Chapter 751 and a medical power of attorney under Health and Safety Code §166.164 decide who handles your finances and your healthcare if an accident or an illness takes you out of the decision-making seat. Without them, the people who love you have to ask a Dallas County probate court for authority they could have simply been given — a process that costs money, takes weeks, and becomes a matter of public record.

Estate matters in Dallas County are heard in the county’s statutory probate courts, and the difference between a plan that moves through them quickly and one that stalls usually comes down to execution details rather than drafting brilliance: whether the will was properly attested and self-proved, whether beneficiary designations match the will, whether a trust was actually funded, and whether anyone can find the original document. Those are the things we spend the most time on.

Key Facts

Texas Estate Planning: Key Facts

  • Texas recognizes both traditional attested wills and handwritten (holographic) wills that are entirely in the testator's own handwriting and signed. A holographic will needs no witnesses at all.
  • A durable power of attorney under Texas Estates Code Chapter 751 lets a chosen agent manage your finances if you become incapacitated, without a court-appointed guardianship. Texas publishes a statutory form for it.
  • Your medical power of attorney is not in the Estates Code. It lives in the Health and Safety Code, with its own form and its own signing requirements — which is why a financial power of attorney alone does not let anyone make your healthcare decisions.
  • Without a valid will, Texas intestacy law — not your personal wishes — determines how your Dallas County estate is divided among heirs, and the split differs depending on whether property is community or separate.
  • A will directing independent administration lets your executor settle the estate without ongoing court supervision. This is the reason many Texas families do not need a living trust to keep administration simple.
  • A transfer on death deed must be recorded before the owner's death in the county where the property sits — and a will cannot revoke it. Only a recorded revocation or a later recorded transfer on death deed undoes one.
  • Texas has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax — and since November 2025 the state constitution prohibits the legislature from creating one. Texas voters approved Proposition 8, adding Article VIII, Section 26.
  • For 2026 the federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15 million per person, or $30 million for a married couple using portability. The 40% rate applies only above that. Most Dallas County estates owe no federal estate tax at all.

How It Works

How Our Estate Planning Process Works

Discovery Meeting

We review your assets, family situation, and goals to identify the right combination of documents — including how title is held, what already passes by beneficiary designation, and who you actually want making decisions.

Plan Design

Before anything is drafted, we lay out the will-versus-trust decision in plain terms and tell you which one your situation calls for. If independent administration under a well-drafted will gets you there, we will say so rather than sell a trust you do not need.

Drafting

We prepare your will, trust, medical power of attorney, and financial power of attorney in plain language — along with a directive to physicians, HIPAA authorization, and any deed or guardian designation your plan calls for.

Execution

We properly execute the documents with required witnesses and notarization, including the self-proving affidavit that lets your will be admitted to probate without dragging your witnesses into a Dallas County courtroom years later.

Funding & Beneficiary Alignment

This is the step most plans skip and the reason most plans fail. A trust that was never funded controls nothing, and a retirement account still naming an ex-spouse pays the ex-spouse regardless of what your will says. We reconcile every account, deed, and designation against the plan.

Safekeeping & Review Schedule

We recommend a review schedule as life changes, and make sure your executor knows where the original signed documents are. A will nobody can locate is treated much like a will that was never written.

What We Handle

Estate Planning Matters We Handle in Dallas

Wills

Attested and holographic wills, self-proving affidavits, and language directing independent administration so your executor is not asking a judge for permission at every step.

Revocable Living Trusts

Where a trust genuinely earns its cost — out-of-state real property, privacy concerns, blended families, or a beneficiary who should not receive a lump sum — we draft and, critically, fund it.

Durable Power of Attorney

Financial authority for a person you choose, effective either immediately or on incapacity, drafted on the Texas statutory form with the specific powers your situation needs granted or withheld.

Medical Directives & HIPAA

Medical power of attorney, directive to physicians, HIPAA authorization, and appointment of an agent for disposition of remains — the documents a hospital actually asks for.

Transfer on Death Deeds

A recorded deed that moves Texas real property to a named beneficiary at death without probate. Powerful, cheap, and easy to get wrong — a will cannot override one, and an unrecorded one does nothing.

Guardian Designations for Minor Children

Naming who raises your children if you cannot — by will, and by a standalone written designation so the choice is on record even before a will is probated.

Special Needs Trusts

Providing for a disabled family member without disqualifying them from means-tested benefits like Medicaid and SSI — an inheritance left directly can do exactly that.

Business Succession

Coordinating your estate plan with company agreements so a closely held Texas business does not end up jointly owned by heirs who never wanted to be partners.

Digital Asset Access

Authorizing your executor or agent to reach email, cloud storage, photos, and online accounts. Without express authority, providers routinely refuse — and Texas law spells out how to grant it.

Handled on another page

Administering an estate after someone has died

See Probate

Court-appointed guardianship of an incapacitated adult

See Guardianship

Dividing property and changing beneficiaries in a divorce

See Family Law

How adoption affects inheritance rights

See Adoption

Appealing a probate or family court ruling

See Family Law Appeal

Your Legal Team

Attorneys Who Handle Estate Planning in Dallas

Headshot of Attorney Megone Trewick

Megone Trewick

Director of Estate Planning, Probate & Guardianship
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Megone Trewick serves as Director of Estate Planning, Probate & Guardianship at the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, founded by Bryan Fagan. Her background in finance, property and title matters, estate planning, probate, and guardianship supports the firm's structured approach to helping families plan ahead and address legal issues when circumstances change.
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Megone Trewick

The Dallas office has 7 attorneys, backed by 170+ legal professionals firmwide across Texas — including the criminal defense and personal injury attorneys who handle the charge and claim sides of animal cases. Meet the Dallas team or meet the full legal team.

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Answers, Directly

Estate Planning FAQ

No. A transfer on death deed moves one piece of real property to a named beneficiary at death. It does nothing for the rest of your estate, and it must be recorded before you die.
It also interacts with a will in a way that catches people out: under Texas Estates Code §114.057, a will cannot revoke or supersede a transfer on death deed. Revoking one requires a recorded revocation or a later recorded deed — changing your will is not enough. Other limits worth knowing: the beneficiary must survive you by 120 hours, and takes the property subject to every lien, mortgage, and creditor claim attached to it at your death.
A medical power of attorney names a person to make healthcare decisions for you. A directive to physicians states your own wishes about life-sustaining treatment. You want both.
They answer different questions. The medical power of attorney answers “who decides?” — it appoints an agent with authority across the whole range of treatment decisions. The directive, sometimes called a living will, answers “what do you want?” in the narrower situation of a terminal or irreversible condition. Both live in the Texas Health and Safety Code, not the Estates Code, and both are separate from your financial power of attorney. A HIPAA authorization belongs alongside them, since an agent who cannot access medical records cannot make an informed decision.
No to both, and as of November 2025 the Texas Constitution prohibits the legislature from creating one. Voters approved Proposition 8, adding Article VIII, Section 26.
Federal estate tax is a separate question and still applies. For 2026 the federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15 million per person, or $30 million for a married couple using portability, with a 40% rate on amounts above that. The vast majority of estates owe nothing. Estates approaching those thresholds have planning options — lifetime gifting within the $19,000 per-recipient annual exclusion, credit shelter planning, and portability elections that have to be made on a timely filed return. Those are worth a dedicated conversation.
Usually not. Texas independent administration makes probate comparatively fast and inexpensive, so most Dallas County families reach the same result with a will and correct beneficiary designations.
Trusts are genuinely useful for out-of-state real property, privacy, blended families, incapacity planning without a court, and controlling the timing of distributions. Those are real reasons and we draft trusts for them regularly. What we will not do is sell a trust as a default. An unfunded trust is worse than no trust — it costs money, creates a false sense that the planning is done, and the assets still go through probate.
Yes, if it is written wholly in the testator’s own handwriting and signed. A holographic will needs no witnesses under Texas Estates Code §251.052.
Valid is not the same as advisable. Holographic wills get contested at far higher rates, because handwriting has to be proven, ambiguous phrasing has to be interpreted, and there is usually no self-proving affidavit — which means someone has to testify. If a handwritten will is the only document a family has, it is worth taking to a probate attorney rather than assuming it fails. If you are writing one now, an attested will costs little more and avoids all of it.
No. A will is the instrument that goes through probate. What a well-drafted Texas will does is make probate dramatically simpler by directing independent administration.
Under independent administration the executor can pay debts, sell property, and distribute assets without returning to court for approval at each step. That is the difference between a straightforward administration and a supervised one. What actually avoids probate for a given asset is how that asset is titled or designated: payable-on-death accounts, survivorship agreements between spouses, retirement plan beneficiaries, life insurance, a recorded transfer on death deed, or property held in a funded trust.
Texas intestacy law under Estates Code Chapter 201 decides who inherits, and the shares depend on whether property is community or separate and whether your children are also your spouse’s children.
The result surprises people. A surviving spouse does not automatically inherit everything. Where a decedent leaves children from a prior relationship, the community property share and the separate property share are divided differently, and a spouse can end up co-owning a home with stepchildren. Administration is also harder. Without a will there is no named executor and no direction for independent administration, so the court has to determine heirship first — an extra proceeding, with its own cost and delay.
Review your plan every 3–5 years or immediately after a major life event — marriage, divorce, birth of a child, a move, or a significant change in assets.
Texas law does not require automatic updates, but outdated beneficiary designations or an outdated executor choice are among the most common estate planning problems we see in Dallas County probate matters.
A will takes effect only after death and typically must go through probate, while a revocable living trust can hold assets during your lifetime and generally avoids probate for those assets.
Many Dallas clients use both: a trust to manage and transfer major assets privately, and a will as a backstop to address anything not placed in the trust.
Yes. A will controls who receives your personal property, bank accounts, and guardianship nominations for minor children, regardless of whether you own real estate.
Without a will, Texas intestacy rules decide who inherits — which may not match your wishes, especially for blended families, unmarried partners, or friends you’d want to include.

Client Reviews

What Dallas-Area Clients Say

"I needed to update my will and establish a trust after a major life transition. They translated complex legal terms into plain English, laid out all my options transparently, and completed everything ahead of schedule."

— Elena R., Fort Worth, TX

Read more client reviews →

Talk to a Dallas Estate Planning Attorney

The plan you don't have is the one your family litigates

Most Dallas County estate plans take two meetings and a signing. The cost of not having one is paid by someone else, later.

Schedule a Consultation
Call (469) 972-8473
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