Powers of attorney
Powers of attorney in plain words
What your agent can sign, what they can’t, and when the document starts to work.
Annelise Rademacher6 min read
Wills, trusts and Medicaid planning
Planning, written so the whole family can read it
Cavazos & Longoria is a three-office firm in McAllen, Harlingen and Brownsville. We help families with wills, trusts, powers of attorney, Medicaid and probate. Elodia Cavazos and Rolando Longoria work in Spanish and in English.
Plain
Documents you can read aloud at the kitchen tableEarly
Choices made calmly, long before anyone has to rush themTogether
Parents and children at one table, in either language
Elodia Cavazos
Founding attorney, McAllen
Planning, I learned early, is mostly listening.
My grandmother raised six children in Mission and owned her house outright. When she died there was no will, and it took her family four years and a stack of signatures to settle what she would have said in one sentence. I have kept that sentence in mind in every plan since.
Most families who come to us aren’t in trouble. They are a daughter who has noticed her father repeating himself, a couple with a house and two grown children who don’t see eye to eye, a widow who wants to know what a nursing home would do to what she has. We sit down, draw the family on a sheet of paper, and write a plan that fits it.
I write each document so the people it names can read it. A plan that only works with a lawyer on the phone isn’t finished.
Works on
- Wills and trusts
- Powers of attorney
- Medicaid planning
- Probate
Speaks English and Spanish
State Bar of Texas
A short talk
What a power of attorney does, and what it can’t
Annelise Rademacher explains the first document most families sign, and the one they most often misread.
Prefer to read it? The same ideas are written out in our guide.
Powers of attorney in plain words, with Annelise Rademacher
Guides
Read it before you need it
Short guides from the three offices, written by the lawyers who answer the phone.
FamiliesTalking with your parents about their plans
A few ways to begin, and what not to open with.
Elodia Cavazos5 min read
Getting startedWhat happens at a first conversation
Who sits at the table, what to bring, and what you leave with.
Rolando Longoria4 min read
Worked examples
Three families, worked through
Invented sample matters, shown to make the work concrete. Every family’s facts are different, and nothing here predicts what will be right for yours.
- Deed and will
A house in Harlingen, and a mother who wants to stay in it
She is 78 and owns her home outright. Her son lives nearby. We prepared a deed that keeps the house hers for life and passes it to him afterward, and a will for everything else.
House value: $142,000
The house passes without probate
Signed in one visit
- Trust
Two marriages, four children, one home
Each spouse had children from before. A trust lets the surviving spouse stay in the house for life, and names the four children to receive it afterward.
One trust for each spouse
The home stays with the survivor
Each child named in writing
- Medicaid
A nursing home bill of $6,200 a month
A son brought us his father’s papers. We listed what the family owned, what Medicaid counts, and what could be spent on allowed things before applying.
Savings at the start: $38,000
Cost of care: $6,200 a month
Application filed with a full paper trail
Bring the folder, or just the questions
A first conversation is a chance to draw your family on a sheet of paper. Call any of the three offices, or send a note and we will call you back.
Please don’t send confidential details through the form.