Services
Estate Planning Services for DFW Families
and Business Owners
At Parr & Ibarra CPA, our team works with individuals, families, and business owners throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area on estate planning that coordinates the legal structure of your plan with the tax strategy behind it. Adan Ibarra, CPA, PFS, J.D. brings both accounting expertise and legal education to every engagement, which means the tax implications of your estate plan are built into the conversation from the start rather than discovered after the documents are signed.
We serve families in Hurst, Keller, Grapevine, Addison, Southlake, Colleyville, and across Tarrant and Dallas counties. Services are available in English and Spanish.
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Ways We Can Help
Our Services
Wills and Trusts
- Wills: A will is a legal document that outlines how you want your assets distributed upon your death. Our team ensures your will is crafted to reflect your wishes, providing clarity on guardianship of minor children, the distribution of property, and instructions for your estate’s administration.
- Trusts: Trusts are legal arrangements that allow you to transfer assets to a trustee who will manage and distribute those assets for the benefit of beneficiaries. We offer various types of trusts, such as:
- Revocable Living Trusts: These allow you to retain control over your assets during your lifetime while specifying how they should be distributed after your passing.
- Irrevocable Trusts: These remove assets from your estate, which can help reduce estate taxes and provide asset protection.
- Special Needs Trusts: Designed to protect the assets of a loved one with disabilities without affecting their eligibility for government benefits.
Tax Planning and Minimization
- Estate Tax Planning: We help you develop strategies to minimize federal and state estate taxes, utilizing tools such as gifting, trusts, and charitable donations. Our goal is to help preserve as much of your wealth as possible for your heirs.
- Generation-Skipping Trusts (GST): If you want to pass wealth down to multiple generations while minimizing tax implications, a GST can allow you to skip a generation for tax purposes, passing assets directly to grandchildren or other beneficiaries.
Asset Protection
Protecting your assets from potential creditors, lawsuits, or divorce settlements is a key component of estate planning. We help structure your estate with strategies that minimize exposure to risk while ensuring your family’s financial security.
Powers of Attorney
- Durable Power of Attorney: This document designates someone to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. We work with you to select a trusted agent who can make important decisions on your behalf.
- Healthcare Power of Attorney: This appoints someone to make healthcare decisions for you if you are unable to do so. It works alongside your living will to ensure your medical preferences are respected.
Living Wills and Advance Directives
A living will outlines your wishes for medical care should you become terminally ill or incapacitated. It ensures that your healthcare providers and loved ones understand your preferences regarding life-sustaining treatments and end-of-life care.
Beneficiary Designations and Retirement Planning
Ensuring that your beneficiary designations are up to date for accounts like life insurance, retirement plans, and investment accounts is crucial for an effective estate plan. We review and update these designations to ensure they align with your overall plan and minimize potential conflicts or tax burdens.
Charitable Giving and Philanthropy
For individuals who wish to leave a legacy through charitable donations, we guide you through strategies that can maximize the impact of your gift while also offering potential tax benefits. This includes establishing charitable remainder trusts, donor-advised funds, and other giving mechanisms.
Business Succession Planning
If you own a business, planning for its future is essential to ensure its continued success and avoid potential tax issues or disruptions. We help business owners develop succession plans that determine how ownership and management of the business will transition smoothly to the next generation or other stakeholders.
Probate and Estate Administration
Navigating the probate process can be complex and time-consuming. Our team helps your loved ones manage the probate process, ensuring that debts are settled, taxes are paid, and assets are distributed according to your wishes. We work closely with executors and personal representatives to ensure smooth and efficient administration.
Ongoing Estate Plan Reviews and Updates
Estate planning is not a one-time event but an ongoing process. We offer regular reviews of your estate plan to ensure it remains current with changes in tax laws, financial circumstances, and personal situations, such as marriage, divorce, the birth of children, or the acquisition of new assets.
We believe that every family and individual deserves a well-thought-out estate plan that reflects their unique goals and circumstances. Whether you’re looking to minimize taxes, protect your assets, ensure your healthcare preferences are met, or leave a lasting legacy, our team is here to guide you through each step of the process with expertise and compassion. Let us help you secure your future and provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones.
Texas-Specific Estate Planning Considerations
What Texas Families Need to Know About Estate Planning
Texas has several characteristics that affect estate planning in ways that differ from other states.
Texas Has No State Estate Tax
Texas does not impose a state-level estate tax. The only estate tax concern for most Texas families is the federal estate tax, which applies to estates above the federal exemption threshold. For 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is $13.99 million per individual ($27.98 million for married couples with proper planning). Estates below these thresholds owe no federal estate tax, though this exemption is scheduled to decrease significantly after 2025 under current law if Congress does not act to extend it.
Texas Community Property Rules Affect Estate Planning
Texas is a community property state. Assets acquired during marriage are generally owned equally by both spouses, regardless of whose name they are titled in. This affects how assets are characterized for estate planning, how they are transferred at death, and what basis adjustment the surviving spouse receives on inherited assets. The step-up in basis available to community property assets at the death of the first spouse can be more favorable than the treatment of separate property, and understanding this distinction affects how assets should be titled and transferred in an estate plan.
The SECURE Act and Texas Retirement Accounts
Texas families with significant retirement account balances need to understand how the SECURE Act changed the rules for inherited IRAs and 401(k)s. Most non-spouse beneficiaries are now required to withdraw inherited retirement account balances within ten years, which can create significant income tax consequences depending on the beneficiary’s tax bracket. Estate planning that accounts for the income tax impact of retirement account distributions often looks different from planning that focuses only on the estate tax.
Homestead Protections
Texas offers strong homestead protections against creditors for a primary residence. Understanding how the homestead exemption interacts with your estate plan and what happens to homestead status when a property is transferred to a trust is an important consideration for Texas homeowners.
Most payroll software platforms and national payroll vendors process transactions — they do not provide advice. When a question arises about worker classification, a garnishment order, a payroll tax notice from the IRS, or the tax implications of adding a new benefit, a payroll vendor cannot help you. A licensed CPA can.
At Parr & Ibarra, payroll is not a standalone product. It is part of the same relationship that includes your bookkeeping, tax planning, and business advisory services. That integration means fewer hand-off errors, tighter compliance, and a single team that understands your complete financial picture.
Why Estate Planning Requires Both a CPA and an Attorney
What Your Estate Attorney and Your CPA
Each Bring to the Table
Your estate attorney drafts the legal documents — the will, the trust agreement, the powers of attorney, the healthcare directive. These documents establish the legal framework for how your assets are owned, managed, and transferred. The attorney ensures the documents are valid under Texas law, properly executed, and legally enforceable.
Your CPA brings the tax dimension. The structure of your estate plan determines how much of your wealth is subject to estate tax, gift tax, income tax on inherited assets, and capital gains tax when assets are eventually sold. A trust that is drafted correctly from a legal standpoint may still produce an avoidable tax outcome if the tax implications were not considered when it was designed.
Adan Ibarra’s combined background in accounting, tax, finance, and legal education makes him an unusually effective bridge between these two disciplines. He can sit in the room with your estate attorney, understand the legal structure being proposed, and evaluate the tax consequences before the documents are finalized rather than after.
This is not legal advice and we do not draft estate planning documents. We provide the CPA services that surround, inform, and coordinate with your legal estate plan.
What We Do and What We Do Not Do
We want to be direct about the scope of our estate planning services so there are no misunderstandings.
We provide tax analysis, tax strategy, financial planning, and the coordination of your estate plan with your annual tax situation. We prepare trust tax returns, estate tax returns, and the final income tax return for a decedent. We review beneficiary designations, evaluate gifting strategies, analyze the tax consequences of proposed trust structures, and provide ongoing estate plan monitoring as tax laws change.
We do not draft wills, trust agreements, powers of attorney, or other legal documents. Those require a licensed estate planning attorney. We work alongside your existing estate attorney or can refer you to estate planning attorneys in the DFW area who we have established working relationships with.
For clients who need both legal and financial guidance, working with an estate attorney and Parr & Ibarra CPA together produces a better outcome than working with either alone.
How We Approach an Estate Planning Engagement
Initial Review
We begin by understanding your current financial situation, existing estate planning documents if any, beneficiary designations, business interests, retirement accounts, real estate, and any specific goals or concerns driving the engagement.
Estate Tax Analysis
We estimate the current size of your taxable estate, project its growth, and identify where estate tax exposure exists or may develop as the federal exemption changes.
Strategy Development
We identify the tax strategies appropriate for your situation, evaluate the costs and benefits of each, and recommend a coordinated approach that accounts for estate tax, gift tax, income tax, and your financial goals.
Attorney Coordination
We work alongside your estate planning attorney to ensure the legal structure of your plan reflects the tax strategy. We attend planning meetings when appropriate and review proposed document structures before they are finalized.
Implementation and Monitoring
Once the plan is in place, we monitor it annually alongside your tax preparation and planning to ensure it remains current and effective as laws and circumstances change.
Frequently Asked Questions
Knowledge Center
Does Texas have an estate tax?
No. Texas does not impose a state-level estate tax. The only estate tax that applies to most Texas families is the federal estate tax, which for 2026 applies only to estates exceeding $13.99 million per individual. The federal exemption is scheduled to decline significantly after 2025 under current law, which is one of the reasons estate planning is more time-sensitive now than it has been in recent years.
What is the difference between a will and a trust?
A will is a legal document that directs how your assets are distributed after death and goes through the probate process in Texas courts. A revocable living trust is a legal arrangement that holds assets during your lifetime and transfers them to beneficiaries at death without going through probate. Trusts also provide more privacy than wills, which become public record during probate. Not every family needs a trust, but for families with real estate, significant assets, minor children, or a desire to avoid probate, a trust often makes sense. The right answer depends on your specific situation.
How much does estate planning cost?
The cost of estate planning depends on the complexity of your situation and what documents and strategies are involved. A basic estate plan for an individual or couple with straightforward circumstances costs less than a multi-generation plan involving irrevocable trusts, business succession, and charitable giving. We discuss fees before any engagement begins so there are no surprises. The cost of an estate plan is almost always small relative to the tax savings and family clarity it produces.
When should I update my estate plan?
You should review your estate plan after any major life event including marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child or grandchild, the death of a beneficiary or trustee, a significant change in your financial situation, the acquisition or sale of a business, or a major change in tax law. Even without those triggers, a review every three to five years is appropriate to ensure the plan reflects your current situation and current law. The scheduled reduction in the federal estate tax exemption after 2025 is a reason many families are reviewing their plans now.
What is a step-up in basis and why does it matter in estate planning?
When an asset is inherited at death, its tax basis is generally stepped up to the fair market value at the date of death. This means a beneficiary who inherits appreciated stock or real estate and then sells it owes capital gains tax only on appreciation that occurred after the inheritance, not on the full gain the decedent had accumulated over a lifetime. This step-up in basis is one of the most valuable tax benefits available through estate planning and affects how assets should be held, titled, and transferred. It is one reason why gifting highly appreciated assets during life is not always the most tax-efficient strategy.
What happens to my estate if I die without a will in Texas?
If you die without a will in Texas, your assets pass under the Texas intestate succession laws, which may not reflect your wishes. For married individuals, the outcome depends on whether assets are community property or separate property and whether there are children. For unmarried individuals, assets pass to the nearest surviving relatives in a fixed order. Dying without a will also means the court appoints an administrator for your estate, which can be more costly and time-consuming than administration under a will that designates an executor.
Do I need a CPA for estate planning if I already have an estate attorney?
Your estate attorney handles the legal documents. A CPA handles the tax strategy that should inform those documents. The two roles are complementary, not redundant. Many estate plans are legally valid but produce avoidable tax consequences because the tax analysis was not part of the conversation when the documents were drafted. A CPA who understands estate planning ensures the tax strategy is built into the plan from the beginning, coordinates the plan with your annual tax situation, and monitors it as tax laws change.
More FAQs here.
Contact Us
Ready to Review or Start Your Estate Plan?
Parr & Ibarra CPA serves individuals and families throughout Hurst, Keller, Grapevine, Addison, Southlake, Colleyville, and the broader DFW area. Services are available in English and Spanish.
Schedule a consultation to discuss your estate planning goals and find out how we can help coordinate the tax strategy behind your plan.
