Austin Trust Consultation at No Fee

A trust can be an effective planning tool for managing assets during your lifetime and providing a clear plan for what happens if you become incapacitated or pass away. When structured and funded properly, a trust may help provide continuity, privacy, and efficiency for your family.

Goodcatt & Associates works with individuals, families, and business owners in Austin and the surrounding areas to design trusts tailored to their specific goals and circumstances.

Clients in Austin consider trust planning for many reasons. Some are focused on avoiding or minimizing probate. Others want a smoother plan in place in the event of incapacity, or a more efficient way to manage assets for children, beneficiaries, or business interests.

Our role is to help you understand whether a trust makes sense for your situation and, if so, to structure it in a way that works in practice—not just on paper.

One of the most common reasons clients consider a trust is probate avoidance. In Texas, assets that are properly titled in the name of a trust generally pass outside of probate.

That said, a trust must be structured correctly and funded properly to achieve this result. Assets that are not transferred into the trust may still require probate. As part of our planning process, we help clients understand how their trust interacts with other estate planning documents and what steps are necessary to reduce unnecessary probate where possible.

For Austin clients, we design trusts with local practice in mind and with an understanding of how estate administration is handled in Travis County, as applicable.

A trust can also play an important role in incapacity planning. If you become unable to manage your affairs, a properly drafted trust can allow a successor trustee to step in and manage trust assets without the need for court involvement.

This continuity can help protect your assets and reduce disruption for your family during an already difficult time.

Effective trust planning often involves more than drafting the trust itself. Depending on your circumstances, it may include coordinating deeds, beneficiary designations, a pour-over will, business interests, and other planning tools so everything works together as intended.

We take a comprehensive, practical approach so your trust functions as part of a cohesive plan—not in isolation.

Trust planning should feel clear and manageable. We take the time to understand your goals, explain your options in plain language, and guide you through each step of the process.

We explain the process, scope of work, and fees upfront, so clients know what to expect and can move forward with confidence—without surprises along the way.

We assist clients with trust planning throughout Austin, including West Lake Hills, Barton Creek, Bee Cave, and surrounding communities across Central Texas and the Hill Country.

Meetings are by appointment at our Austin office, located in downtown Austin near Lady Bird Lake (fka Town Lake).