If you own a home in McKinney, have kids, or have spent years building up savings, a trust is probably the most important legal document you're not thinking about. Without one, a court—not you—may end up deciding what happens to everything you've worked for.
Here's what you need to know.
A Trust Keeps Your Family Out of Court
When you die without a trust, your estate goes through probate—a court-supervised process that's public, slow, and expensive. In Collin County, even a straightforward estate can take six months to a year to close. Complicated ones, involving blended families or real estate in multiple counties, can drag on for years. During that time, your family may not have access to the funds they need to cover basic expenses.
A trust bypasses probate entirely. Your assets pass directly to your beneficiaries according to your written instructions—no court, no waiting, no public record. That's the single biggest reason most McKinney families should have one.
The Two Types of Trusts—and Why the Difference Matters
Not all trusts work the same way. The one that's right for you depends on what you're trying to protect and what you're willing to trade off to protect it. Most families will work with one or both of these.
Revocable Living Trust: Flexibility and Control
A revocable living trust is the foundation of most estate plans. You create it, fund it with your assets, and serve as your own trustee while you're alive and capable. Day-to-day, nothing changes. You manage your money exactly the same way you always have.
The word "revocable" is the key. It means you can change it, update it, or cancel it entirely at any point while you're alive and mentally capable. Got divorced? Update it. Moved to a new home? Update it. Had another child? Update it. Your trust is a living document that's meant to grow with your life.
When you pass away or become incapacitated, your named successor trustee steps in and follows your written instructions—no court involved, no probate judge, no drawn-out process. Your family gets what you intended them to get, on the timeline you set, privately.
The trade-off? Because you retain full control, a revocable trust does not protect your assets from creditors or Medicaid spend-down requirements during your lifetime. The government still counts those assets as yours—because legally, they are. That's where the second type of trust comes in.
Irrevocable Trust: Protection Over Flexibility
An irrevocable trust works differently. Once you transfer assets into it, you give up direct control over those assets. You can't take them back, you can't change the terms freely, and the trust operates independently from you. That sounds like a significant sacrifice—and it is. But what you get in return can be far more valuable for certain families.
Because you no longer legally own the assets inside an irrevocable trust, they are generally shielded from creditors and, more importantly for many McKinney families, from Medicaid's asset counting rules. In Texas, nursing home care can run between $6,000 and $10,000 a month. Medicaid can cover those costs, but only once your countable assets fall below strict limits. Assets moved into an irrevocable trust at least five years before you apply for Medicaid are no longer counted against you. Your life savings stay in the family instead of being spent down on care costs.
There are other situations where an irrevocable trust is the right call. If you have a child with special needs, a special needs trust—a specific type of irrevocable trust—lets you leave them money without disqualifying them from SSI or Medicaid benefits. If you own a business, an irrevocable trust can be part of a succession plan that transitions ownership without chaos or unexpected tax consequences.
The bottom line: a revocable trust is about control and convenience. An irrevocable trust is about protection. Many families end up with elements of both, depending on their goals.
Your Home Is Probably Your Biggest Asset—Protect It
With median home prices in McKinney hovering above $400,000, your house is likely the most valuable thing you own. Neighborhoods like Stonebridge Ranch, Painted Tree, and Tucker Hill have seen significant appreciation over the past decade. A home sitting outside a trust when you die goes through probate. A home inside a trust transfers to your family the way you intended—cleanly, privately, and without a courtroom.
Real estate is exactly the kind of asset a trust is built for.
The Most Common Mistake: Not Funding the Trust
Creating a trust document is only half the job. The trust has to be funded—meaning your assets need to be legally transferred into the trust's name. Your home, your accounts, your property.
A trust with nothing in it accomplishes nothing. If your house is still titled in your personal name when you die, it goes through probate regardless of what your trust document says. This is one of the most preventable mistakes in estate planning, and it happens more often than it should. At Texas Legacy Planning, we walk every client through the funding process so that what you built actually works when your family needs it most.
What to Do Next
If you've been putting off this conversation—or if you have a will but no trust—now is the time to act. A trust done right protects your home, your savings, your kids, and your family's time. A trust done wrong, or never funded, can create more problems than it solves.