From Hard Work to Hard Lessons in Amarillo

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 there thirty years without ever really thinking about retirement past the basic IRA they helped him set up.

He always figured he had time. Time to organize the land he inherited just outside of Bushland. Time to make sure his daughter, Maddie, and his granddaughter, little Lilly, would get it all clean and simple someday. But at sixty-seven, Randy was hit with a fast-moving neurological condition — something doctors called early-onset cerebellar ataxia, which sounded like a bad punchline but quickly turned his world sideways. Within months he needed help walking. Within a year he needed assisted living.

That’s when the shock set in. His savings were about to evaporate. The land he meant to pass down wasn’t protected. Medicaid’s five-year lookback meant even if he gifted it, they could claw it right back. Randy realized too late that the “plenty of time” he counted on was already gone. He kept the house — but only while he was alive. Everything else was suddenly at risk.

This is exactly where Cotton Phillips Estate Services steps in.

With the right deed work, beneficiary structures, and asset-protection planning before a crisis hits, Randy could have kept every acre in the family. His IRA could have transferred smoothly to Maddie. And Medicaid wouldn’t have been able to touch what he’d spent a lifetime building.

Randy’s story doesn’t have to be yours — not if you start the protection before life forces your hand.

Disclaimer – Not Legal or Financial Advice

Cotton Phillips Estate Services is not a law firm, and I am not an attorney. The services I provide — including assistance with filings, paperwork preparation, negotiations, guidance through administrative processes, and general organization of your estate or benefit-related matters — are only meant to help you understand your options and navigate available procedures.