Estate planning and probate attorney, soccer mom and plant lover. I was born and raised in Louisiana. In 2008, I graduated from LSU Law and moved to Texas the very next year. I have been here ever since. There are so many I love about living in Texas like going to the Katy ISD Livestock Show and  Rodeo and eating all the tacos I can get my hands on. 

My first exposure to estate planning and probate came during law school when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. In the following years, I volunteered with other law students and attorneys to help clear title to homes destroyed by the storm. In the poorest neighborhoods, most of the homes were officially in the name of grandparents or great grandparents who were long gone. The process of clearing the title through several generations and after many records had been destroyed by flood waters was nearly impossible. There were no Wills. There were no probated estates. There was nothing to show who inherited the property. If you couldn’t prove ownership, you couldn’t receive disaster assistance. 

I saw first-hand that the storm was not the only thing to lay waste to New Orleans. By passing down property informally without the use of Wills or the probate process, the investment of grandparents and great grandparents in home ownership was lost. 

Seeing Katrina survivors lose the assets of their grandparents and great grandparents and become permanently displaced impressed upon me the value of using estate planning and probate to preserve what you have built for future generations. Through my work, I strive to help my clients preserve assets and make good decisions that will benefit their children, grandchildren, and descendants they may never even know.