Estate Planning

Estate Planning is a practical area of law in the sense that life is precious, and everyone’s days are numbered. It is up to each of us to be a good steward of what we have earned and what we have been given. Whitney Ellis is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has established her experience by working closely with clients in the Midland – Odessa community for the last decade. Through her expertise, she leads the Estate Planning Practice of Whitney Ellis Law, PLLC in serving clients with estate planning needs.

When we serve a client new to estate planning or whose plan is due for an update, we discuss an overview of what basic estate planning documents are recommended and customize an Estate Plan. We take a holistic approach in developing a client’s Estate Plan by taking time to understand the client’s values, family dynamic, and nature of their wealth.
 

Estate Planning encompasses a broad variety of services such as creating Wills, Trusts, Medical Power of Attorney documents, Declaration of Guardianship in the Event of Incapacity, and implementing lifetime gifting. Younger clients tend to first seek estate planning help when they become parents and want to ensure their children are provided for in the event of an unlikely tragedy. 

 For clients with considerable wealth, we are well-equipped to guide them in being good stewards in creating and maintaining federal estate tax and gift tax planning. Estate Planning for a high- net-worth client can include anything from lifetime gifting of a percentage of a family business to marital and bypass trust planning provisions in Wills. We frequently handle substantial gifts to Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs) and designing Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs).