Guides
Living Trusts in Texas: Questions and Answers
About these guides
A living trust is the core tool in most Texas estate plans, and most questions about it are practical: who serves as trustee, what has to be retitled, and what happens to the house. Each page below answers one question.
What Is a Revocable Living Trust in Texas?
A revocable living trust holds your assets during life and passes them to your beneficiaries without probate. How it works in Texas and what it does not do.
Who Should Be the Trustee of Your Living Trust?
Choosing a trustee and successor trustee for a Texas living trust: individuals vs corporate trustees, co-trustees, conflicts, and what the job involves.
How to Fund a Living Trust: What to Retitle
A living trust only controls assets titled in it. What to retitle in Texas (house, bank accounts, brokerage) and what to handle with beneficiary designations.
Does a Living Trust Affect the Texas Homestead Exemption?
Moving your Texas home into a revocable living trust generally keeps the homestead tax exemption and constitutional protection. What to confirm first.
Living Trust for Married Couples in Texas: Community Property
How a joint or separate living trust works for married Texans, what happens to community property at the first death, and the step-up in basis.
What a Successor Trustee Does After a Death
The steps a successor trustee takes after the person who made a Texas living trust dies: notices, inventory, debts, taxes, and distributions.
Living Trust vs Transfer on Death Deed in Texas
Compare a revocable living trust with a Texas transfer on death deed for avoiding probate on a house: control, creditors, flexibility and the gaps in each.
Can You Put a Mortgaged House in a Living Trust?
Yes, in most cases. How federal law treats the due-on-sale clause for a revocable trust, what to tell your lender, and the title insurance check.
What Is a Pour-Over Will?
A pour-over will works with a living trust: it sweeps assets you forgot to retitle into the trust at death. How it works in Texas and its limits.
Revocable vs Irrevocable Trust in Texas
The difference between revocable and irrevocable trusts in Texas: control, creditor protection, taxes and when each makes sense.
Living Trust for Blended Families in Texas
How a living trust protects children from a prior marriage while providing for a current spouse in Texas: shared home, sub-trusts and trustee choice.
Supplemental Needs Trust for a Special Needs Child
How a supplemental needs trust holds money for a child with a disability without losing SSI or Medicaid: who funds it, who manages it, and what it can pay for.
Does a Living Trust Reduce Estate Tax?
A revocable living trust does not reduce federal estate tax. Texas has no estate tax. What the federal exemption means and when advanced planning matters.
Trust for Minor Children: Why Not Name Them Directly?
Naming minor children as beneficiaries triggers court control or an age-21 payout in Texas. How a trust holds money until they are ready.
Rental Property and LLC Interests in a Living Trust
How to hold rental real estate and LLC interests in a revocable living trust in Texas: liability limits, transfer restrictions, lenders and insurance.
When to Amend or Restate a Living Trust
Life events that mean your Texas living trust needs an update: marriage, divorce, children, moves, new assets and law changes, plus amendment vs restatement.
Certificate of Trust in Texas: What Banks Ask For
A certificate of trust proves a trust exists and who the trustee is without showing the full document. What it contains and how to use it in Texas.
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This page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Anchor Legacy Planning is not a law firm; legal work is performed by independent, licensed attorneys.