Catherine E. Bright

Catherine is board certified in estate planning and probate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Catherine has practiced law in the areas of estate planning and probate since 2002. Catherine primarily represents high net worth individuals who need wills, trusts and incapacity documents to plan for the management and disposition of their estates, but also have more complex planning needs or desires such as planning for optimal lifetime transfers of wealth (through fundamental or advanced gift planning strategies), planning for the transfer of wealth after death in a tax-efficient manner, and succession planning for closely held businesses. She also handles probate matters and judicial trust modification proceedings, prepares gift and estate tax returns, and advises clients regarding the administration of family partnerships and LLCs, private foundations, estates and trusts. Catherine has extensive experience with the following tax-oriented trusts, which can help clients achieve their estate planning goals:

• Gift trusts for family members, including dynastic trusts, grantor trusts, beneficiary defective grantor trusts and spendthrift trusts
• GRATs (grantor retained annuity trusts)
• ILITs (insurance trusts)
• QPRTs (residence trusts)
• QTIP (marital) trusts and credit-shelter (bypass) trusts
• QDOTs (qualifying trusts for non-citizen spouses)