Megone Trewick

Why Estate Planning Became Personal to Me

My grandfather built a home on fifteen and a half acres in Florida with his own hands. He intended it to be his home and my grandmother’s home for the rest of their lives.

He did not have a will. The planning that followed did not protect what he intended. After he died, his children were left out, and my grandmother eventually lost the home he had built for her.

That is why I do estate planning. When it happened, I told myself I would never let it happen to someone who came to me, or to anyone in my family. I came away from that experience believing that proper planning could have changed what happened to my family.

What Started With Anger Became Something Else

Anger is what first pushed me toward this work — anger and frustration at how my grandmother was treated. But anger can only take you so far. It cannot make you get up every day and go to work.

My three children are what make me get up every day. Love is the motivation that keeps you going.

And the work itself is something I do not take lightly. When a family comes to us, they are trusting us with what they have built and asking us to help them put a plan around it — for their own needs while they are living, and for the people who come after them. That is a privilege.

I Studied Finance Before I Studied Law

Both degrees are from the University of Florida — the finance degree first, at the Warrington School of Business, then the J.D. at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

I studied finance before I studied law, and that background shapes how I look at an estate. I look at whether the accounts, titles, beneficiary designations and obligations work together — not only at the documents being signed.

Because of that background, I look for potential issues with gifts and consider different ways a client’s goals might be accomplished.

Estate planning deals in assets, but the reason those assets matter is everything around them — family, health, values, and a lifetime of experience. I look holistically at the person, and make the plan for that person.

Earlier in My Career, My Work Was Broader

Earlier in my career I handled a wider range of litigation involving real property, probate, family law and business disputes, mostly in Harris County and the counties around it. Much of that work came down to questions about title and ownership — and what happens when the paperwork no longer reflects what a family believes it owns.

Those cases taught me that ownership is not always as simple as whose name someone believes should be on a deed. A title problem can reach backward through years of conveyances, probate records, liens and family history.

Consider what can happen when someone dies owning a house and the estate is never probated. The family knows who was meant to have it. Nothing is filed. Years pass. An affidavit of heirship may have been recorded, or nothing may have been filed at all. Either way, what the family believed was settled can become a real problem when someone needs clear title.

So one of the questions I keep coming back to when I build a plan is a plain one: how will the title pass to the next generation?

Listen First. Plan Second.

I ask questions that are not strictly legal questions, because the answers can affect how I structure the plan. Who in the family may have difficulty with this? What expectations have already been created? What has someone already promised?

I take a holistic view when I look at an estate plan. I consider the person, their family, their values and what is important to them. An estate plan has to have room for a person’s hopes for the people who come after them.

I want clients to leave with more than a folder of documents. I want them to leave feeling heard, knowing that their plan was built around their circumstances — understanding what the plan does, why it is structured that way, and what their family should be able to rely on when the plan is needed.

Planning Before—and Administration After

Because I have worked in estate planning as well as probate and guardianship, I think about what will happen when the plan eventually has to be used — not just what the documents say today.

What considerations do I need to make for an incapacitated child, or for a settlor who can no longer act? What are the potential pitfalls to these plans actually becoming reality? Those are the kinds of questions I want answered before the plan is ever needed.

What People Get Wrong About Planning

A common worry is that estate planning is cumbersome and that you will lose control over your assets, so some people put it off. It works the other way around. Estate planning can give you more control over the decisions that matter, because you have the opportunity to make choices yourself rather than leaving every question to the default rules that would otherwise apply. You can identify your beneficiaries, choose the people who may act for you, and put your wishes into legally recognized documents. The point is to make those choices while they are still yours to make.

Why I Teach Estate Planning

One misconception I hear is that estate planning is only for wealthy families, or that property will automatically go where someone expects after death. I have seen enough situations to know that is not always how it works.

So I educate families so that they do not become a statistic. I educate them so that their legacies pass on to their children and do not get lost in the morass of the legal system.

Walking Alongside You

I love my God, my family and my work. I want to walk alongside my clients as they make important decisions for themselves and their families.

Professional Background & Credentials