A Will Is About More Than Who Gets What.
A will lets you decide what happens to your property after your death, who carries out your wishes, and, for parents of minor children, who you want to serve as guardian.
But a will does not exist in isolation.
Your family structure, marriage, property ownership, beneficiary designations, trusts, and business interests can affect how you document your wishes.
At Sullivan Evans Goenawein, we help clients create wills as part of a larger estate planning strategy—one that reflects not only what you own, but the people and responsibilities connected to it.
What Does a Will Do in Texas?
A properly prepared will can help you:
- Identify who should receive property from your estate
- Name an executor to administer your estate
- Name guardians for minor children
- Address certain personal property and family considerations
- Establish testamentary trusts when appropriate
- Provide direction that can help make the probate process more orderly
- Coordinate your wishes with the rest of your estate plan
A will is often a foundational estate planning document, but it may not control every asset you own. Property ownership, beneficiary designations, trusts, and other arrangements can affect how assets pass after death.
That is one reason we review your whole estate plan, rather than treating a will as a stand-alone document.
Questions About Wills
Do I Really Need a Will in Texas?
Texas law determines what happens to property subject to intestacy when someone dies without a valid will. Those rules may not produce the result you would have chosen yourself—particularly when families, marriages, property ownership, or business interests are more complicated.
A will allows you to make many of those decisions yourself rather than leaving them to default rules under Texas law.
What Happens If I Die Without a Will?
If you die without a valid will, Texas intestacy laws determine who inherits property in your estate. The outcome depends on factors such as whether you are married, whether you have children, and whether those children are also your surviving spouse’s children.
This can become particularly important in blended families and second marriages.
Does a Will Avoid Probate?
Not necessarily. A will generally provides instructions for how property passing through your estate should be handled during probate. Other estate planning strategies may be available when avoiding or simplifying probate is an important goal.
Does My Will Control Everything I Own?
Not always.
Some assets may pass according to beneficiary designations, account arrangements, property ownership, trusts, or other legal mechanisms rather than under the terms of your will.
Your will should therefore be considered alongside the rest of your estate plan.
Where Life and Law Intersect
Business, family, and estate decisions rarely happen in isolation. We help you understand how one decision can affect everything else.
You write a will. Then life changes.
You get married. You have children. You remarry. You acquire property. You start a business. Your children become adults. Relationships change.
A will that made sense ten years ago may no longer reflect your life today.
That is why creating a will is important—but knowing when it needs another look can be just as important.
A Will Is One Part of the Plan
For some people, creating a will may be relatively straightforward.
For others, the real questions begin when the will intersects with something else:
A second marriage.
Children from a previous relationship.
A family business.
Separate and community property.
Real estate.
A trust.
A complicated family dynamic.
Those intersections are important because changing one part of your life can affect another part of your legal plan.
At Sullivan Evans Goenawein, our attorneys work across estate planning, probate, family law, business matters, and property issues. That broader perspective can help identify issues that may be easy to overlook when you view a will as just another document to complete.
When the Legal Problem Doesn’t Fit Neatly Into One Box, Call Us.
A will may begin as an estate planning document, but the decisions behind it can involve your marriage, children, property, business, and future plans.
Sullivan Evans Goenawein helps clients understand those connections and create a strategic plan that reflects the bigger picture.
Where Life and Law Intersect.
Schedule a Complimentary Estate Planning Consultation
* Note: If you need to see a Family Law attorney, there is an initial fee. Please call for details.