Want the Stier Group PLLC to draft your family’s estate plan? Three next steps. Scott Stier here, attorney and Founding Partner of The Stier Group PLLC, based in Fort Worth, Texas. So, let's get going. Required disclaimers: Of course, this is not legal advice and does not create an attorney client relationship or privilege. Okay, number one, what will your state plan include?

Revocable Living Trust. This is the foundational document of your plan. And everyone listening to this may have different knowledge and background on these documents, so I'll briefly walk through each one just to make sure that you understand the purpose of each document and you fully understand what you are buying.

So the joint revocable living trust has many important benefits. One of the most important ones is that if your assets are titled into the trust at your death, the assets will avoid having to go to probate court. Probate court often costs $5,000 to $10,000. Very expensive with attorney's fees. And just as importantly, it takes a lot of time. It's at least three to six months of time where your heirs, after your death, have to go back and forth to the courthouse and deal with all of that headache amidst a very important and emotional time of grieving. The joint revocable living trust helps avoid probate.

Plus, if you have minor children, the joint revocable living trust also helps avoid probate in the sense that assets given to minor children typically would have to have a guardianship proceeding. Or, perhaps if someone had a will with a testamentary trust built in, well, the testamentary trust still requires probate court. How do you avoid probate court with minor children? The joint revocable living trust solves probate issues if you have minor children. So it's a hugely important document to get if you have minor children.

Pour-over Will. Why do you need a will if you have a trust? It’s always best practice to include a pour-over will because if for any reason you or your spouse did forget for any reason to add an asset into the trust prior to your death, then that asset may involve probate. The pour-over will is simply shown to the probate judge…And wa-la! Those assets that missed the trust will now be “poured-over” into the trust. Extremely important if you do happen to miss an asset into the trust. Again, the best practice is to put all your assets into the trust so you literally never have a need for the pour-over will.

Certificate of Trust. That's a simple four or five page document with the highlights of your trust clauses. This certificate of trust is brought to the bank, financial institution, etc. to help title your bank accounts and other assets into the trust.

Declaration of Trust. Very straightforward. It literally is a one-page document declaring your intent to create your trust.

Assignment of Personal Property. This is a one-page document that assigns your motor vehicles and all of what you might think of as tangible personal property inside your home into the trust.

Long-term Guardian Appointments for Minor Children. Probably pretty self-explanatory, but if you don't have this document, then the court decides what happens to your minor children if something happened to you and your spouse. A very important document, as courts almost always honor your appointed nomination persons.

Short-term Guardian Appointment for Minor Children. It's slightly different. This is for if something that were to happen to you and your spouse and a guardian is needed right away, then the Texas statute authorizes a short term guardian appointment. And so we make sure that you have that as well, so you're fully prepared for your minor children. Then they don't have to go to CPS for 48 hours and potentially endure some very traumatic experiences in the short term.

Durable Powers of Attorney. Very important document. You'll hear all estate planning attorneys talk about this. In short, it grants another nominated person of your choosing the power to make legal and financial decisions on your behalf, if you were to become incapacitated. And if you've been listening closely, you might be thinking, well isn't that the purpose of the revocable living trust? And you're exactly right. The revocable living trust is unlike a will, as a will only kicks in at someone's death. A revocable living trust is beautiful because if you or your spouse ever become incapacitated, the trust’s terms dictate and help control and govern your assets, even upon incapacitation before death.

The durable power of attorney does a similar thing, but banks especially have become increasingly scrutinizing and suspect of durable powers of attorney. Bad actors exist, and banks do not always recognize durable powers of attorney, especially if the durable power of attorney is older. If it is 5-10 years older, it might be deemed “stale”. You don't want to be incapacitated relying on a “stale” durable power of attorney, where the bank does not recognize it and now you're incapacitated and your agent is in difficult shape.

So again, just yet another important reason to have a revocable living trust that takes care of that issue. Your revocable living trust -to close that loop - has a successor trustee who is authorized to make those legal and financial decisions for you if you're incapacitated. And no bank or financial institution that I've ever heard of does not recognize a valid revocable living trust.

Medical Powers of Attorney. Very straightforward. You're naming people in advance who will make healthcare decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated.

Advanced Directive. We think of that as end-of-life decision making. You're appointing people to make end-of-life decisions on your behalf.

HIPAA Authorizations. We've all been to the doctor and seen HIPAA waivers. This is a formal document that you get to appoint folks who will be entitled under HIPAA to receive your medical information if you become incapacitated or if you need medical care.

Memo to Distribute Personal Property. This is a very important document, as well. A lot of times, my grandmother, for instance, walked around her house and put sticky notes on all the items that she wanted her kids and grandchildren to have. This Memo to Distribute Personal Property document streamlines that process even more. The Memo is literally several pages that you and your spouse (if married) can write on and name which items that you want to go to each individual person with their name on it (whether it's the jewelry or the china cabinet, the family heirlooms, etc.). And it's legally binding and enforceable for your successor trustee to distribute upon your death.

Final Disposition Instructions. Straight forward. This explains how you want your funeral services to go, whether you want to be buried or cremated, etc. All of that is taken care of in advance so that it doesn't fall on your heirs and add stress to that time of life.

Transfer Documents and Residence Deed. Very important. And this includes transfer documents for businesses as well. So, if you have an LLC, perhaps you own a small business or a corporation, we will help take care of your transfer documents to transfer those business interests into the name of your trust. And also your residence deed. If you own a home, we will take care of that deed as well.

Asset Transfer Instructions. This helps ensure that you properly title each and every asset like we talked about earlier into your revocable living trust. To make sure we provide you the best service, we've spent literally hours and hours and have a beautiful PDF that walks through each asset class type with guided videos just like this one with step by step instructions. So, we figuratively hold your hand through the entire process to ensure that your assets are properly and efficiently transferred into your trust.

Texas Signing Requirements. I'll get into signing and notarization more in the next slide or two. Know that we provide expert signing requirement information.