Blog
Articles and updates from our family of firms on tax, probate, business, and related topics.
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When Life Gets in the Way: Ignorance of the Law, Personal Crisis, and the Four-Year Probate Deadline in Texas
When someone dies unexpectedly, especially in a traumatic accident, a filing deadline buried in the Texas Estates Code is the last thing on the family’s mind. People are grieving. Caregiving duties shift overnight. The paperwork of settling an estate slides to the bottom of the list. And in families where property has passed informally and…
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When the Court Steps In: How a Spouse’s Pattern of Lies Justified a Sua Sponte Receivership Over Trust Assets in Texas
There is a scenario that estate attorneys and probate professionals see more often than they would like: an elderly or grieving testator, weakened by illness and loss, enters a new relationship late in life, and that relationship reshapes the disposition of an estate built over decades. When the new spouse then controls the finances, moves…
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The Attorney Took Their Cut. Why Do You Owe Tax on It?
Imagine you sue a company over a mistake on your credit report. You win a settlement. Your lawyer takes their cut off the top, and you walk away with a small check for what feels like a big fight. Then a Form 1099 shows up, and it reports the entire settlement as your income—including the……
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When a Premarital Agreement Shields a Separate-Property Empire: The Limits of “Just and Right” in a Texas Divorce
Imagine spending nearly thirty years as a homemaker while your spouse builds a multimillion-dollar business and then discovering, at the moment of divorce, that the community estate is worth less than $85,000. No retirement account. No real property. Half of a joint checking account that totals around $14,000 after credit card debt. Meanwhile, your spouse’s…
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A Customer Paid to Expand Your Factory. Is That Income?
Your business has a big customer. The customer wants more product than your business can make. So the customer offers to pay for a building expansion on your property to allow you to make their product. Your business does not take a dime of that building money. The cash goes straight to the contractor from……
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When a Will Speaks for Itself: The Presumption of Non-Revocation in a Texas Will Contest
Blended families carry complicated histories into probate. When a parent leaves a will that treats children differently, or leaves one child out entirely, the stage is set for a fight. The child who received nothing has every reason to challenge the will. The real question is whether that challenge has legal teeth or just reflects…
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Owe the IRS but Can’t Tap Home Equity to Pay?
A taxpayer falls behind on his taxes. Life happens. A spouse gets sick, a house goes into foreclosure, and the bills pile up. When the IRS sends a notice threatening to seize assets, the taxpayer says what feels obvious. I cannot pay this. That sounds like it should be the end of the matter. If……
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When the Neighbor Who Saved Your Home Dies: Executor Duties, Mortgage Notices, and the Limits of Fiduciary Loyalty in Texas Probate
Most people never think about what happens to a mortgage when the borrower dies. The house sits there. The payments stop. And someone—usually a grieving family member who has just been named executor—has to figure out what comes next. For anyone with an informal arrangement tied to that mortgage, the uncertainty can feel like a…
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IRS Levy for a Debt It Already Agreed to Payment Over Time?
Most people think a tax debt is a tax debt. You owe the money, the IRS collects it, and that is the end of the story. But there is often more than one legal mechanism the government can use to collect the same dollars. Sometimes those mechanisms overlap. That overlap can create problems. Suppose the……
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Motion to Dissolve Injunction Texas: Why Courts Won’t Let You Relitigate the Original Order
Imagine you are a commercial landlord in Harris County. Your tenant has an option to purchase the property at the end of the lease, and the relationship has soured. You want the tenant out. A district court grants a temporary injunction blocking you from pursuing eviction, and you decide to wait, assuming the trial is…