Protect the people you love. Prepare for the moments nobody plans for.
Because life rarely follows the script.
Estate planning, probate and business succession for families and business owners in Grapevine and across North Texas.
No obligation. Just a conversation about your family, your goals, and your options. Or explore estate planning first.
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Legal guidance for families, businesses and life changes
Estate planning & administration
Probate & estate administration
Wills, trusts, incapacity planning, and protecting the people you love.
Settling an estate after a loss, with guidance every step of the way.
Four practice areas, one approach: a plan that works when it matters.
Adoption
Business succession & protection
Helping the family you choose.
Protecting the business you have built and planning for continuity.
Welcome. I’m Craig Choate.
This isn’t just paperwork. It’s peace of mind.
I’m Craig Choate. For more than 30 years, I’ve sat across the table from families whose lives did not fit neatly into a form: second marriages with his kids and her kids, a child who will always need protection, a family business that still depends on Dad answering the phone, or a promise everyone remembers differently.
Those are people problems — not paperwork problems that can be solved by filling in some blanks and calling it an estate plan. Left alone, they often become expensive family problems.
I begin with who matters, what could go wrong and what you want life to look like when you are no longer there to explain it. Only then do we decide whether the job calls for a will, a trust, a deed—or something simpler. The goal is a plan your family can understand and that works when it is needed most.
Leave a legacy, not a landmine.
Resources & tools
Free guides, assessments, and practical tools.
Estate Plan Reality Check
Family Backup Plan
Not sure where to start? Find out which planning issues deserve your attention first.
Could your business operate without you for 90 days? 20 questions, 5 minutes.
What happens to your kids if something happens to you? A 1-page guide for parents.
Already have a plan? Find out what’s solid, what’s outdated, and what could cause chaos later.
The Empty Chair Assessment
90-Second Estate Planning Assessment
Short reads that prevent long fights.
Password Protected
A surviving spouse. An executor. Six empty circles on a phone screen. Sometimes the hardest part of settling an estate isn’t what’s in the courthouse. It’s what’s behind a password.
Sunday at 4:17 PM
The message was only twelve seconds long. Three years later, she still listened to it.
It Worked
Sometimes the best estate plan isn’t the one everyone talks about. It’s the one no one has to.
Estate planning without the stiff collar
The stories are fictional. The situations are not.
Vol. I, No. VII - June 9, 2026
Inherited Home Inadvertently Converts Grief Into Multiple Misdemeanors
Read the issue
Vol. I, No. VIII - June 17, 2026
Family Inherits Successful Business, Searches Frantically for Instructions
Read the issue
When the time feels right, we can talk it through.
No obligation. Just a conversation about your family, your goals, and your options.