Wills. Trusts. Lady Bird Deeds. Which one does your family actually need?
A Texas estate planning attorney who has sat across the table from hundreds of families walks you through the one problem, the four options, and the plan most families need. By the last chapter, you’ll know which plan fits yours, and why.
- The assumption about your deed that most Texas couples get wrong
- Why a will, on its own, still sends your family to the courthouse
- The plan Cole puts in place for families who want someone in charge after they’re gone
The book is on its way to the printer. Leave your name and email, and we’ll let you know the day it’s available.
You went looking for answers and came back with more questions.
Revocable trusts. Irrevocable trusts. Transfer-on-death deeds. Enhanced life estates. Pour-over wills. Every article contradicted the last one. Your neighbor told you one thing, your financial advisor told you another, and a commercial on TV told you a third.
And somewhere in all of that, a very reasonable thought showed up:
“I’m going to get this wrong. I’d rather do nothing than do the wrong thing.”
That thought is how good families end up in probate court. This book was written to replace it with a clear answer.
The morning after, somebody at the kitchen table asks, “What do we do now?”
Nobody knows. Where’s the deed? Is this the newest will? The phone call to a lawyer becomes a court date, and the court date becomes months.
Nobody has to ask. Somebody pulls out a binder and says, “Dad took care of this.” The family gets to grieve instead of going to court.
Same family. Same love. Two very different mornings.
The difference comes down to a handful of decisions most families never make. The book shows you which morning your family is headed for, and what it takes to change it.
Do you know the answers?
Most Texas homeowners are sure they do. Most of them are surprised.
There are only four ways to pass down your home in Texas
Not dozens of trusts. Not an endless menu of legal products. Four. The book explains each one with a kitchen-table picture you’ll be able to explain to your kids.
Do nothing
Texas already wrote a plan for you. It doesn’t know your family.
A will
Every family needs one. Very few families should stop there.
A trust
Powerful when it’s set up right. When it sits empty, it protects nothing.
A Lady Bird Deed
The Texas tool most families have never heard of.
The plan I recommend puts them together into one: the Lady Bird Trust. The book shows you how it works, and why.
The plan I call the Lady Bird Trust
Most Texans have never heard of it. It keeps the home out of probate, puts someone you trust in charge after you’re gone, and you never sign your house over to anyone while you’re living.
The last part of the book builds it layer by layer and shows you what each layer fixes, so you can see why one complete plan is worth more than a stack of separate documents.
- You’ve been married before, or your spouse has
- Children or grandchildren who aren’t grown yet
- A child you worry about with money
- Kids who don’t always agree
- Family land or mineral interests
- You want your instructions to outlast you
If any of these sound like yours, the last part of this book was written for you.
One plan that takes care of everything
Most families come to me with pieces: a will from twenty years ago, a deed that says nothing about what happens at death, a power of attorney nobody can find. Each piece answers one question, and the gaps between them are where families end up in court.
The Lady Bird Trust answers all of those questions at once: the house, the accounts, the backups, the children, and who is in charge when you’re gone. One plan, drafted to work together, so your family has one place to look and nothing left to sort out.
“Attorney Watson and his wonderful staff together has made my estate planning secure. No longer will I be concerned about Medicaid or Probate because it will not happen to my family and my home will be secure in their hands and no one else.”
— Debbie B., Google review
Some of what you’ll find
Twelve chapters in five parts, built from real Texas families, with a checklist and the questions to ask any attorney at the end.
- What a Texas probate really costs, and what your family can’t touch while they wait (Ch. 4)
- The four-year deadline that catches widows whose husbands did everything right (Ch. 5)
- Why Texas wrote a plan for your family, and what it doesn’t know about you (Ch. 5)
- The name that never came off the deed, and how it surfaces fifteen years later (Ch. 6)
- A green crystal frog, a broken shotgun, and the fights nobody sees coming (Ch. 6)
- Ten-dollar royalty checks, and what they do to your grandchildren’s title (Ch. 6)
- What a Texas appeals court decided about one phrase missing from a couple’s deed (Ch. 8)
- Where a Lady Bird Deed falls short, and what fills the gap (Ch. 8 and 9)
- A thick binder from a downtown Dallas firm, and the three probates it didn’t prevent (Ch. 10)
- The Karamazov problem: when an inheritance becomes the next family wound (Ch. 10)
- Why an empty trust protects nothing (Ch. 10)
- The Lady Bird Trust, and the families it fits (Ch. 11)
- The questions a good attorney will be glad you asked (Next Steps)
You can read it in two evenings.
Written for the Texas homeowner who knows they need to do something and doesn’t want to pay somebody by the hour to find out what. Read it with your spouse and a pen in your hand.
Each chapter ends with a few questions At the Kitchen Table, meant to be talked over at supper or used by a Sunday school class:
- When you picture the morning after you’re gone, which version do you see right now?
- Does anyone in your family know where your important papers are?
- What’s kept you from getting this done until now?
- You own a home in Texas and want it to pass without probate
- You’ve wondered whether you need a trust
- You’ve put this off because it seemed complicated or expensive
- You have a will and assumed that was enough
- You want to walk into an attorney’s office knowing what to ask for
- You want fill-in-the-blank forms. This book covers the what and the why. The documents come after.
- You want advice for your specific family. The book is legal information, not legal advice. It tells you what to ask a licensed Texas attorney.
“Probate happens to the people who planned on getting it done later.”
Later always feels close. The book takes two evenings, and it ends with a checklist and the exact questions to bring to an attorney. Start there.
About the book
When can I get it?
Soon. Leave your name and email below, and we’ll tell you the day it’s available.
Do I have to hire you after I read it?
No. The book shows you what to ask any licensed Texas estate planning attorney. If you’d like Cole to design your plan, you don’t have to wait for the book: book your Estate Planning Design Meeting.
Is it a Christian book?
Cole is a Christian, and Scripture shows up where it speaks to death, inheritance and what we leave behind. The legal content is the same for every reader.
Can we read it with a Sunday school class or small group?
Yes. The At the Kitchen Table questions at the end of each chapter are written to be your discussion questions.
Is this legal advice?
No. The book is general information about Texas law. Reading it doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship. Talk with a licensed Texas attorney about your family before you sign anything.
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Ready to plan now? Book your Estate Planning Design Meeting with Cole.
P.S. If you’re married, read Chapter 5 together. It covers the deed assumption I hear more than any other, and it takes a few minutes.
This page and the book provide general information about Texas law, not legal advice, and do not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney responsible for this content: Cole F. Watson, J.D., Watson Law Firm. Primary practice location: Iowa Park, Texas. © 2026 Cole F. Watson.