Medicaid planning in Fort Worth, TX involves strategic approaches to qualify for benefits while protecting assets and ensuring access to quality long-term care services.

Elder law in Grand Prairie, TX addresses legal needs of older adults including healthcare planning, asset protection, guardianship, and comprehensive elder care issues.

Guardianship in Irving, TX provides legal processes to appoint decision-makers for minors or incapacitated adults, ensuring their welfare and managing their affairs.

Estate administration in Dallas, TX manages the practical tasks of settling a deceased person's affairs including asset distribution, debt payment, and legal compliance.

For persons who have a Will that needs to be probated to establish ownership of an asset, sometimes filing the Will as Muniment of Title is a simpler and faster process. Muniment of Title is only available when the person who died had no debts that were not secured by real property, such as a mortgage, and has no need for authority through the court to collect assets. It is not uncommon for the family to find out that an asset they though would be easy to collect is difficult. This could happen because the insurance company or bank insists that the person collecting needs Letters Testamentary or they find out that they need to sue someone to collect damages due to the person who died. Previously, that mistake could not be corrected if they did not find out within thirty days of the judgment being entered. Effective on September 1, 2025 a new procedure is available to “fix” that problem. It is now possible to convert from a judgement granting muniment of title to a judgment that allows an interested person to obtain Letters of Administration. This allows the person appointed to collect assets, sue and be sued on behalf of the estate and to pay, compromise and defend against previously unknown debts. Normally an administration must be opened in Texas within four years of a person’s death. This is true in this instance also. If I can help explain what procedure is best or help probate a Will please contact my office at 817-795-8843 or by email .

Medicaid Estate Recovery Program is a complicated program most commonly collected from beneficiaries of persons who received medicaid benefits in a nursing home (SNF or skilled nurshing facility) when they patient did not have a lawyer help them with applying for benefits. MERP is best avoided by planning before the patient dies. Medicaid has many rules that permit assets to be transferred, converted into protected assets or carefully spent to qualify a nursing home patient for Medicaid. When limited or no planning is done or an assets is missed by the applicant and the State there will sometimes be an asset left in the “probate estate” after the patient dies. The State of Texas will have a company it hires send out required notice letters to the spouse, agent or children of the Medicaid patient demanding payment and giving notice of who might have a legal reason to not pay the claim for Medicaid funds spent. There is a strict administrative process the State wants the heirs or beneficiaries to follow. If agreement cannot be reached in the administrative process as to how much the State is due from the probate estate then a dependent administration can be filed in the proper court with probate authority in the county where the patient died or resided. Where to file is an issue of its own. The only two ways to limit the power of the State to collect the amount the State claims is due is by the administrative procedure or a Dependent Administration. When the property requirements are met a Probate Court has the authority to deny the State the right to collect for reimbursement of funds spent. I go into the claims process in a Dependent Administration in another article on this website. If I can help explain what procedure is best or help probate an estate please contact my office at 817-795-8843 or by email .

There are several different probate procedures that are available when someone dies based on whether a person has a Will, how much authority someone needs, and whether the people with the right to the property ( beneficiaries or heirs) can agree on what needs to be done. If the person who died had a valid Will with no disputes among the beneficiaries then the most likely procedure is to probate the Will for Letters Testamentary. This can be done as an independent administration or as a dependent administration. An independent administration allows the executor to act without court supervision, except for the requirement to file an Inventory, give notices to creditors including the posting of a published notice in a local newspaper, and filing an affidavit with the court stating all persons entitled to notice received the required notice. This will usually be the cheapest and fastest means to manage the collection of assets, payment of debts, and distribution of assets to the beneficiaries. The executor will also be responsible for filing any required tax returns. A dependent administration is one in which the person appointed only has the authority granted by statute, which is extremely limited. All other actions require that the Administrator must request in writing permission to perform a necessary act. Sometimes a hearing will be required. Required permissions will include sale of real property, sale of personal property, hiring professionals to perform services, such a personal injury attorneys, realtors, CPAs and other persons an administrator might need to hire and pay with estate funds. The Adminstrator is responsible to file an annual account for audit and a final account to be approved by the Court and served on the beneficiaries. Naturally, this is a slower and more expensive process. It has the advantage that it enables the administrator to use court authority to eliminate debts by use of probate procedure not available in an independent administration. It also provides protection to the administrator from being held responsible for harm caused by actions approved by the Court. As an example, some beneficiaries might object to a property being sold to pay debts. A beneficiary will be required to object to the application to sell the property before it is sold instead of suing after the property was sold. A major difference between independent and dependent administration is how creditor claims are processed. This will be treated more fully in a separate article. An independent administration is only available when it is permitted in a Will or when all the heirs or beneficiaries agree to an independent administration. Further, an administration is only available when administration is necessary, such as an asset needs to be collected by a person appointed by the Court, there are debts to pay or compromise, or litigation to be dealt with. The need for administration is usually an easy point to prove. If there is a valid Will and no administration is needed then a Muniment of Title is usually appropriate. If there is no Will, then a determination is needed as to whether administration through the Court is needed or useful. If no administration is needed then a decision whether to file an Affidavit of Heirship outside the Court is best or a full Determination of Heirship in Court is needed. This is often decided by how much proof the company holding the property will require. If I can help explain what procedure is best or help probate an estate please contact my office at 817-795-8843 or by email .

A “Ladybird Deed” is used to protect a house from a Medicaid claim after a patient on Medicaid dies. Law School professors call them contingent, defeasible deeds. This means that the homeowner transfers his house by deed to his children or whomever he wants to have the house after his death. However, the deed has some very big “but only ifs”. The homeowner keeps the right to sell the house, to take out a mortgage on the house, to lease the property or just do whatever he or she wants to do with the house. The person giving the house is called a “grantor”. The person(s) receiving the house is called a “grantee”. The grantee does not receive ownership of the house until the grantor dies. The grantee only gets ownership if the grantor does not sell the house or otherwise dispose of it. All in all it is very simple. There are some problems with Ladybird deeds. Because these deeds are used so rarely many title companies do not like them and throw up road blocks to granting title insurance on the sale of a house by the grantee. Elder law attorneys in the State Bar and in the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) are doing much to provide information to the Real Property section of the Bar to create greater understanding and acceptance of Ladybird deeds. Many Texas counties do not yet have front line staff that understands what a Ladybird deed is. It is often necessary to correct line staff denial of a homestead exemption by calling the supervisors to correct the misclassification of the deed.

It is not unusual that an estate that seems to have an overwhelming amount of debt turns out to have enough assets to pay the valid debts and distribute funds to the heirs or beneficiaries. The process for dealing with a creditor varies based on the type of administration and the type of debt. A Dependent Administration is an administration in which all actions by the administrator must be approved by the Court. An independent administration means that the Judge has little or no control over the actions of the administrator except for admitting the estate to probate, qualifying the personal representative of the estate (usually a person named in a will– who is called an executor) and approving the Inventory, Appraisement and List of Claims. Assuming the Administrator in a Dependent Estate gives proper notice to the creditor, the creditor only has four months to file its claim once it is given notice of the administration by certified mail. Failure to file its claim with the Court Clerk within four months of notice by certified mail is also a bar to later assertion of the claim for payment. In a Dependent Administration a creditor must file its claim with the Court Clerk and serve it on the attorney for the administrator. The Administrator has 30 days to allow it or deny it. If it is not allowed, it is automatically deemed denied. At that point the creditor has 90 days to file suit in the probate court or the claim is barred for failure to prosecute the claim in a timely manner. The claim must be verified (sworn) and based on personal knowledge with all credits, offsets, charges, payments set forth. Failure by the creditor to provide adequate information to determine the validity of the debt is a good reason to deny the claim. If the creditor does not have the required information it cannot prove its claim at trial. One point that secured creditors frequently forget is that the creditor is forced to choose between asserting its claim to the secured asset on which its lien is based or the right to payment of the claim and waiver of the lien on the asset. In other words, do not let the debt collector take the car before the administration is opened. If they take the car beforehand the creditor will come back for payment of the loss on the sale of the car. If the creditor takes the car during probate that is all it gets, it loses its right to be paid on any loss on sale of the vehicle. The process in an independent administration is not as formal. The claim does not have to be presented through the Court Clerk. There is disagreement as to whether the four month bar to the claim after notice applies. This is definitely one area of the law where it pays to consult your attorney and to follow the attorney’s advice. The amount and type of debt is an important factor in choosing which type of administration will be used. I will write about how “exempt” assets are treated in probate in a later article.