A Texas Trust for Your Home

No, as long as the trust qualifies under Texas Property Code § 41.0021. A qualifying trust is one where you, the grantor, are also the current beneficiary and retain the right to use and occupy the home during your lifetime. When those conditions are met, the appraisal district recognizes the homestead exemption and the school-tax ceiling continues unchanged. The deed into the trust must be worded correctly to satisfy this standard.

No. A revocable living trust does not protect the home from Medicaid estate recovery in Texas. Because you retain full control during your lifetime, the state can still count the home as an available asset and pursue recovery after death. Irrevocable Medicaid planning trusts are a separate tool with different rules. Do not rely on a standard revocable trust for long-term care protection without additional advice specific to your situation.

Yes. A revocable living trust keeps you in full control. You serve as your own trustee and can sell the property, refinance it, or pull it out of the trust at any time. Texas lenders and title companies regularly close transactions on trust-held property. You will sign as trustee on the closing documents rather than in your individual name, and a short certificate of trust is typically all the lender needs.

Your successor trustee, the person you named in the trust document, takes over and transfers the property to your named beneficiaries according to the trust terms. No probate is required. In most cases, the successor trustee records a new deed with the county appraisal district and the county clerk, provides a death certificate, and the transfer is complete. The process typically takes weeks rather than the months a probate proceeding would require.

All three can avoid probate on a single property, but a living trust does more. A Lady Bird deed and a Transfer on Death deed (authorized under Texas Estates Code Ch. 114) only cover the specific property listed on the deed. A living trust covers every asset you fund into it, lets you control how and when heirs receive property, and is easier to update when circumstances change. For blended families or complex situations, a trust gives you control that a deed alone cannot match.

You must sign and record a deed. Creating the trust document alone does not transfer the home. The deed is what legally moves title from you as an individual into you as trustee of your trust. This step is called funding the trust, and it is one of the most common places do-it-yourself trusts fail. At Robbins Estate Law, we prepare both the trust document and the deed together so the transfer is complete and recorded with the correct Texas county clerk.

Yes. Federal law (the Garn-St. Germain Act) protects transfers of a primary residence into a revocable living trust from triggering a due-on-sale clause. Most Texas lenders are familiar with this and will not call the loan due. You should notify your lender and update your homeowners insurance to reflect the trust as an additional insured. Your mortgage payments continue exactly as before; only the title changes.

From the initial consultation to a signed and recorded deed, most straightforward cases at Robbins Estate Law are completed within two to three weeks. The trust document is drafted, you review and sign it, then we prepare the deed for your signature and record it with the county clerk in the county where the property sits. More complex situations, such as properties with title defects or multiple owners, can take longer but we flag those issues up front.