Estate Planning Lawyer in Colleyville for Wills, Trusts, and Probate
What You'll Learn
- Peabody Law Firm and our estate planning lawyers work with Colleyville families and business owners on wills, trusts, probate, and asset protection under Texas law.
- Our practice is limited to estate and business planning, so your plan is handled by attorneys who work in this area daily.
- A three-step process moves you from a free consultation to signed documents without guesswork.
- Our office sits minutes away in Southlake at 1205 S. White Chapel Blvd., Suite 100. Call 817-775-9190 to schedule a free consultation.
Why Colleyville Families Put Off Estate Planning
What Estates Usually Look Like
Planning here tends to involve more than a bank account and a car. A typical estate includes a home with significant equity, retirement accounts, sometimes a rental or second property, and often an interest in a closely held business. Those assets do not all transfer the same way, and a document that ignores the difference can leave your family with a plan that reads well but functions poorly.
Blended families add another layer. When children from a prior marriage and a current spouse are both involved, silence in a will is what creates conflict later. Clear language about who receives what, and when, does more to keep a family intact than any single tax strategy.
What Does Our Colleyville Estate Planning Include?
Our Colleyville estate planning, will, and trust attorneys can help with:
- Wills that name beneficiaries, guardians for minor children, and final instructions
- Revocable living trusts designed to reduce probate involvement and control when beneficiaries receive assets
- Powers of attorney and medical directives that give someone authority if you cannot act
- Probate, trust administration, and trust review when a plan is already in place
- Specialty trusts, including special needs trusts, and business planning for owners
What Happens Without a Plan?
Texas intestacy law decides who inherits when there is no will, and the result may not match what you would have chosen. Beyond the distribution itself, your family may wait on a Tarrant County court before anyone holds legal authority to access accounts, sell property, or make decisions. That waiting period arrives at the worst possible time, and the cost of resolving it often exceeds what the plan would have cost to build.
For business owners, the gap is sharper. Without a succession or continuity plan, partners, employees, and family members are left making urgent decisions with no legal clarity about who now controls the company.
A Plan That Only Works If It Is Funded
A trust that exists on paper but never receives your assets does very little. Funding means retitling accounts and property into the trust and updating beneficiary designations so they agree with the rest of your plan. This step is where do-it-yourself documents most often fail, and it is part of the work we handle rather than hand back to you.
Plans also age. A review every three to five years, or after a marriage, divorce, birth, death, business change, or move to another state, keeps your documents aligned with both your intentions and current law.
A Process Built to Get Finished
Plans often stall in the middle, so ours runs in three steps:
- Consultation. A no-obligation meeting about your family and your assets, followed by online tools to prepare.
- Follow-Up Meeting. A closer look at your questionnaire and the specifics of your wills and trusts.
- Final Signing. A plain-language review of every document before you sign.
Peabody Law Firm’s estate planning attorneys can meet Colleyville clients at our Southlake office, by phone or video, or at your home, business, or a care facility. You can reach us at 817-775-9190 to schedule your free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on what you own and what you want to happen. A will directs who receives your property but generally still passes through probate. A living trust can help your family reduce probate involvement, keep matters more private, and control how and when beneficiaries receive assets. Many families use both together, and our Colleyville trust attorneys will walk you through the tradeoffs before you decide.
Texas intestacy law would determine who inherits your property, which may not match what you would have chosen. Your family may also face court involvement, delays, and added expense before anyone has legal authority to access accounts or transfer property. Naming a guardian for minor children is another decision that passes to the court without a plan.
Most will not. The federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15 million per person and $30 million per married couple as of January 1, 2026, and amounts above it are taxed at a top rate of 40 percent. For the majority of families, the reasons to plan are probate avoidance, incapacity authority, and protecting children rather than federal tax. Estates approaching that threshold do warrant a closer look.
Timelines vary with the complexity of your assets and how quickly the questionnaire comes back to us. A straightforward will-based plan often moves faster than a trust-based plan involving real estate or business interests. Our estate planning lawyers in Colleyville will give you a realistic timeline during your consultation rather than an estimate before we know your situation.
Yes. The first meeting carries no cost and no obligation. Our goal is that you leave understanding your options well enough to decide whether to move forward, whether or not you hire us.
Start Your Colleyville Estate Plan
An estate plan is one of the more considerate things you can do for the people who depend on you, and the first step costs nothing. Peabody Law Firm, PLLC serves Colleyville, Southlake, Keller, Grapevine, Trophy Club, Westlake, and North Richland Hills.
Call 817-775-9190 or reach out online to schedule your free consultation with the leading estate planning lawyers serving Colleyville.