Asset Protection, Estate Planning and Management, Probate From the use of family trusts and partnership to protect your assets, to the creation of cost saving wills and trusts to make probate free of court control, Carl David Adams' years of fiduciary duty and trust law experience allow him to show you the ropes of owning and protecting your assets and your estate.

---

"If you don't kill these snakes, they will only get bigger."

Almost every person who owns a home in Texas could benefit from probate planning. Even a simple will with sound elements can greatly reduce the cost and the pitfalls that are often seen in families who fail to have a probate plan.

Example: Many assume that even without a will, the surviving spouse will inherit the home and have control over the title to and proceeds of any sale of the home at the time of the death of the "first-to-go."

Not true.

Under Texas law, only 1/2 of the title to a community property house will go to a spouse without a will stating otherwise. The children and/or blood kin of the deceased spouse will become full owners of the other 1/2 of the title and right to any proceeds of sale. This can create sad and costly problems even in the best of family relations.

A will, however, can avoid this problem (and several other unseen "snakes" in Texas probate law) at very reasonable costs and can totally avoid large fees for court controlled administration of estates in probate.