The Phone Call Nobody Plans For
Robert Callahan was at a conference in Austin when his wife called. His mother, Eleanor, had fallen in her home in McKinney, fractured her hip, and was being admitted to Medical City McKinney. She was eighty-one. She had been living alone in the house she'd owned on Stonebridge Ranch since 2004, insisting she was fine, resisting every suggestion about moving or getting help. Robert had let her insist. He had not had any hard conversations about what would happen when she couldn't live alone anymore. He had not talked to a lawyer. He had not reviewed her estate plan — he wasn't sure she had one. He did not know what a durable power of attorney was or whether Eleanor had signed one.
Within forty-eight hours of the fall, Robert needed answers to all of those questions at once. The social worker at the hospital was asking about discharge planning. The orthopedist was asking about rehabilitation. The billing department was asking about insurance. And Robert was asking himself, quietly, whether he had any legal authority to make decisions on his mother's behalf at all.
He didn't. Eleanor had never executed a power of attorney. She had a will from 2001, but that document — the one that says who inherits what after you die — does not give anyone authority over your finances or healthcare while you are alive and incapacitated. Robert could make suggestions, but he could not sign financial documents, access bank accounts, or authorize care transitions on Eleanor's behalf without her signature. And Eleanor, sedated and confused from the surgery, was not in a position to sign anything.
What followed was a guardianship proceeding in the Collin County Probate Court — necessary, workable, but expensive, time-consuming, and entirely avoidable. It took seven months. It cost more in legal fees than a comprehensive elder law plan would have cost years earlier. And it did not solve the Medicaid problem that emerged when Eleanor's rehabilitation needs exceeded what Medicare would cover.
What Elder Law Actually Covers
The term "elder law" sounds straightforward — law for elderly people — but the substance is more specific and more urgent than the label suggests. Elder law is the planning discipline that addresses the legal and financial consequences of aging: how to protect an older person's assets from the cost of long-term care, how to preserve their ability to make their own decisions for as long as possible, and how to establish the legal frameworks that allow family members to step in when that ability fades.
For McKinney families, the practical scope of elder law includes four primary areas:
Medicaid planning for long-term care. Nursing home care in Texas costs an average of $7,000 to $8,500 per month. Medicare does not cover indefinite nursing home stays — it covers short-term skilled nursing care after a qualifying hospital admission, and it stops. When Medicare stops and private savings are depleted, Texas Medicaid for long-term care (administered by HHSC under the STAR+PLUS and nursing facility waiver programs) becomes the primary payer. But Medicaid eligibility comes with strict asset limits — an applicant cannot hold more than $2,000 in countable assets — and a 60-month (five-year) look-back period that penalizes transfers made for less than fair market value. The planning work an elder law attorney does is building a legally sound strategy that protects as much of the family's wealth as possible before those limits are reached.
Powers of attorney before capacity is lost. A Durable Power of Attorney (under Texas Estates Code § 751.001) and a Medical Power of Attorney (under Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 166) are the foundational documents of elder law planning. The durable power of attorney gives a named agent authority to manage finances — sign checks, pay bills, sell property, manage investments — without court involvement. The medical power of attorney gives a named agent authority to make healthcare decisions when the older person cannot make them. Both documents can only be signed while the older person has capacity to understand what they are executing. Once capacity is lost, the window closes. At that point, court-ordered guardianship is the only path to legal authority — and the Collin County Probate Court, like every Texas probate court, requires a formal incapacity finding, a guardian's bond, and annual accountings filed with the court.
Guardianship when planning was not done in time. When a McKinney family arrives at an elder law attorney without powers of attorney in place and with a parent who can no longer sign documents, guardianship is often the only remaining option. WG Law handles guardianship applications in the Collin County Probate Court, located steps from our McKinney office on Eldorado Parkway. Guardianship of the person gives a family member legal authority over healthcare and daily living decisions; guardianship of the estate gives authority over financial assets. Both require court oversight. The process works — but it is more expensive, more time-consuming, and more emotionally draining than the planning that would have made it unnecessary.
Long-term care planning as part of the estate plan. For McKinney families who engage an elder law attorney before a crisis, the planning conversation includes more than documents. It covers whether the older person's current estate plan reflects their actual wishes, whether the right family members have the right legal roles, whether their home is titled in a way that exposes it to probate (or Medicaid estate recovery), and whether there are planning strategies — revocable trusts, Lady Bird deeds, strategic spend-down approaches, spousal protections — that should be in place before long-term care becomes necessary.
The Medicaid Look-Back Trap: Why Timing Matters More Than You Think
The most common misconception about Medicaid planning is that it involves hiding assets. It does not. What it involves is arranging assets — legally, within the rules that Texas and federal law establish — so that the people who need long-term care can qualify for Medicaid coverage without depleting everything they spent a lifetime building.
The 60-month look-back period is the central constraint. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p and the Texas Medicaid rules that implement it, any asset transferred for less than fair market value within five years of a Medicaid application is presumed to have been transferred to qualify for Medicaid. The result is a penalty period — measured in months of ineligibility — calculated by dividing the transferred amount by the average daily cost of nursing home care in Texas. The Texas HHSC currently uses a divisor of $262.37 per day for 2026 penalty calculations.
To see what that means in practice: a $100,000 transfer made eighteen months before a Medicaid application would generate a penalty period of roughly 381 days — more than twelve months during which the applicant is ineligible for Medicaid nursing home coverage, even though their assets have already been transferred away. That is a painful outcome for families who acted quickly but without professional guidance.
The other key number is the Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA). When one spouse needs nursing home Medicaid, the community spouse — the one who continues living at home — is not required to impoverish themselves. For 2026, the Texas CSRA is $162,660: the community spouse may retain this amount in countable assets. The family home is generally exempt as long as the community spouse resides there. Understanding how these rules interact — the look-back, the CSRA, the home exemption, the income cap rules for Medicaid applicants — is the core of Medicaid planning. Getting the plan right can mean the difference between a family that loses a $600,000 estate to nursing home costs and a family that protects the majority of it. For a deeper look at the cost and Medicaid planning numbers, see our guide to Medicaid planning costs in Texas.
Why McKinney Families Have an Advantage They Should Use
McKinney occupies a particular position in the North Texas elder law landscape. It is the county seat of Collin County — one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, with a population that skews toward younger families but also includes a substantial and growing population of retirees, many of them with significant assets built during decades in the Dallas-Fort Worth corporate economy.
Questions about elder law? A WG Law attorney can walk you through your options.
The Collin County Probate Court, located in the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, handles all guardianship applications, trust matters, and probate proceedings for the county. WG Law's McKinney office on Eldorado Parkway is minutes from that courthouse — an arrangement that matters when guardianship proceedings require court appearances, when filings have time deadlines, and when families need attorneys who know the local court's practices and preferences.
But the more meaningful advantage that McKinney families have is simply proximity to an elder law practice that handles these matters as its primary work. Planning is dramatically more effective — and dramatically less expensive — when it happens before the crisis, not after. A family that engages an elder law attorney when their parent is seventy-five and healthy, with capacity intact and five years of lead time before long-term care becomes likely, has every major planning option available to them. A family that engages an elder law attorney after a fall, a diagnosis, or a sudden cognitive decline has fewer options, more urgency, and a much higher bill.
What the Planning Conversation Looks Like
Families who come to WG Law's McKinney office for elder law planning typically arrive in one of three situations. The first is proactive: the older parent is healthy, capacity is intact, and the family wants to get the documents and the plan in place before anything changes. This is the ideal scenario. The work involves executing or updating powers of attorney and healthcare directives, reviewing and often revising the estate plan (many older Texans have wills from the 1990s or 2000s that no longer reflect their circumstances), assessing the family's long-term care risk, and putting in place any protective structures — trusts, property retitling, strategic planning — that make sense given the timeline and the assets involved.
The second situation is post-diagnosis: a parent has received a dementia diagnosis or another condition that signals the beginning of cognitive decline. This is still a planning opportunity, and often an urgent one. The capacity window may still be open, but it is closing. An elder law attorney's first job in this situation is assessing whether the parent still has the legal capacity to execute documents, then moving as quickly as is appropriate to get everything signed. Medicaid planning that would have been straightforward with five years of lead time becomes more constrained, but there are still strategies available. For families in this situation, see our article on what to do legally after a dementia diagnosis in Texas.
The third situation — the one Robert Callahan found himself in — is crisis: the parent is already incapacitated, documents were never executed, and the family needs legal authority now. This situation requires guardianship, and WG Law handles those proceedings. But it also involves a retrospective assessment of what Medicaid planning is still possible given the timing of the crisis and whatever asset moves have already been made. The planning options are more limited, but they are not exhausted.
Taylor Willingham: WG Law's Elder Law Foundation
Elder law planning at WG Law is led by Taylor Willingham, the firm's founding attorney. Taylor has practiced estate planning, elder law, and Medicaid planning for more than fifteen years, guiding more than 10,000 clients through the decisions that protect their families and their assets. He is the author of five books on estate planning and elder law — a body of work that reflects the depth of understanding he brings to client conversations — and was recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2019 through 2022.
Taylor has handled hundreds of guardianship matters in Collin County and throughout the DFW metroplex, and he regularly speaks on elder law topics at community events, on podcasts, and in media appearances. He designed WG Law's elder law practice to serve the full spectrum of what McKinney families encounter: proactive planning for healthy older adults, responsive planning after a diagnosis, and crisis intervention when the window has already narrowed.
WG Law's McKinney office at 7701 Eldorado Pkwy, Suite 200, McKinney, TX 75070 — minutes from the Collin County Courthouse — is the firm's headquarters and the primary location for elder law consultations serving McKinney, Frisco, Allen, Plano, and surrounding Collin County communities. The firm also serves Tarrant County clients from its Southlake office. For more about WG Law's elder law services, visit our elder law practice area page. To learn more about the attorneys and the firm's background in McKinney, see our McKinney office page.
The Right Time to Call Is Before You Need To
What happened to Robert Callahan's family — seven months of guardianship proceedings, a depleted estate, decisions made under pressure instead of by design — is the outcome that elder law planning exists to prevent. It is also a common outcome, not an unusual one. Most families in Collin County have not had the planning conversation. Most older adults have not reviewed their documents in ten or fifteen years, or have never executed a power of attorney at all. Most families are one fall, one diagnosis, one hospitalization away from the exact situation Robert found himself in.
The planning conversation is not difficult. It is not expensive relative to what it prevents. It does not require anyone to make irrevocable decisions or accept uncomfortable outcomes. It requires only the willingness to look ahead and put the right structures in place before the moment when they are needed most.
Robert's mother Eleanor, by the way, is doing reasonably well. She is in a memory care community in Allen. Robert and his wife visit on weekends. The guardianship gave Robert the legal authority he needed to manage her finances and make care decisions. But he still thinks about how different it would have been if they had made one call — to a McKinney elder law attorney — a few years before the fall.
If you have a parent, spouse, or family member in McKinney or Collin County who would benefit from elder law planning, the best time to call is before anything changes. Call 214-250-4407 or contact WG Law to request a consultation with Taylor Willingham and our elder law team.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Medicaid eligibility rules, look-back periods, penalty calculations, and the CSRA are subject to annual adjustments and individual variation. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship. Consult a licensed Texas elder law attorney for guidance specific to your family's circumstances.