By Cotton Phillips Names and images have been changed to respect the privacy of the family. The Ramirez family in Midland was close in blood but far apart in trust. Mom and Dad had four sons: Hector , the oldest, steady but stubborn; Luis , the middle, who’d long emotionally checked out and focused on his own family; Diego , the youngest, struggling with addictions most of his adult life but currently sober; and Marco , the second youngest, who tried to mediate but couldn’t s

By Cotton Phillips Names and images have been changed to respect the privacy of the family. Randy grew up third-generation Amarillo, the kind of man who could point to any cross street and tell you a story about who used to live there. His dad played football over in Littlefield, and Randy followed the same West Texas rhythm most men in his family did: school, work, raise your kids, don’t complain too much. He hired on at the Bell plant straight out of high school and stayed

By Cotton Phillips Names and images have been changed to respect the privacy of the family. Miss Louise was born and raised in Lubbock, in the old Victorian her mother once ran as a bed and breakfast. She and her late husband spent their entire lives paying that house off, brick by brick, Sunday by Sunday. And every Sunday morning, like clockwork, that kitchen filled with the smell of eggs, bacon, sausage, and gravy—her favorite way to tell her family she loved them. The hous

Understanding MERP and How to Protect What You’ve Built By Cotton Phillips Let’s start with a truth nobody likes to say out loud: Medicaid long-term care is for people who are broke — and the rules are designed to make you exactly that. Not illegally. Not maliciously. Just… structurally. If Medicaid is going to step in and pay for your nursing home or assisted living care, the State of Texas (and every other state) is required by federal law to try to recover those costs from

By Cotton Phillips When most Texans hear the phrase “Lady Bird Deed,” they picture the beloved First Lady smiling in a sea of bluebonnets. The truth is a little less romantic: Lady Bird Johnson didn’t create the deed, didn’t endorse it, and probably never sat down to sign one. The name was coined by practitioners who needed a friendly, memorable way to describe an unusual estate-planning tool—and at the time, Lady Bird  was the most charming shorthand in the state. Behind the