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The Journal

Navigating the complexities of probate, estate planning, and inheritance.

A brown dog with a gray muzzle resting in a sunlit kitchen doorway
September 27, 20264 min readPlanning Ahead

Who Will Care for Your Pet After You Die?

How to choose a caregiver for your pet, cover the first few days, and pay for long-term care. Includes what a Texas will can do and how a pet trust works.

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Planning Ahead7 min read

Wills vs. Living Trusts in Texas

When a living trust earns its $2,000 to $5,000 cost in Texas, and when a simple will plus independent administration does the same job for far less.

July 3, 2026

A spiral notebook and pen beside a small stack of unopened envelopes on a kitchen table in morning light
Grief & Loss7 min read

Administrative Grief: Why Estate Paperwork Feels So Hard

A death produces forms and deadlines at the moment grief takes your attention and memory. Why the folder feels impossible, and the six things that are genuinely enough for the first two weeks.

July 3, 2026

Three house keys on a worn brass ring resting on a wooden kitchen table in soft window light
Money8 min read

Selling an Inherited House With Siblings

How siblings can handle an inherited house: the step-up in basis, selling together, a buyout, or co-ownership, and what a partition action costs everyone.

July 3, 2026

A Texas craftsman bungalow at golden hour with a single rocking chair on the front porch
Probate & Courts8 min read

My Spouse Died in Texas. Who Gets the House?

How a surviving spouse can sort the Texas house question after a death: deed, will, community property, survivorship paperwork, homestead, mortgage, and probate path.

June 29, 2026

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Family8 min read

Beneficiary Disagreements During Texas Probate

How Texas executors can handle beneficiary disagreements about records, personal property, debts, timing, and distributions without losing the estate paper trail.

June 22, 2026

An antique brass bank vault door with a single ornate key resting in the lock
Money8 min read

How to Open an Estate Operating Account in Texas

What Texas executors need before opening a separate estate account: Letters Testamentary, an estate EIN, the documents banks ask for, what to deposit, what to pay, and how to keep the records clean.

June 22, 2026