Fort Hood Estate Planning
Military families often have estate planning questions that overlap with service, retirement, spouses, beneficiaries, and future authority.
Why it is different
Service adds moving parts civilian plans rarely touch: SGLI coverage, the Survivor Benefit Plan, a TSP account, frequent PCS moves, and stretches when a spouse must act alone during deployment. A plan that ignores those pieces leaves gaps at the worst time.
Bring your SGLI election, any existing will or power of attorney, and your beneficiary designations. Even a deployment date is enough to start the conversation.
SGLI
Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance pays whoever is named on the DD Form 1750-style election, not whoever your will names. After a marriage, divorce, or new child, an out-of-date SGLI beneficiary is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes we see.
Powers of attorney
Deployments and training rotations mean a spouse may need to sell a car, close on a house, or handle a medical decision without you present. Durable and medical powers of attorney, scoped correctly, keep the household moving when you cannot be reached.
SBP and TSP
The Survivor Benefit Plan election and your Thrift Savings Plan beneficiary both pass outside your will. The planning job is making sure those elections, your life insurance, and your will tell the same story rather than contradicting each other.
Blended families
Blended military families often want to protect both a current spouse and children from a prior relationship. That usually needs more than a basic will, and it is exactly the conversation to have before the next move.
Not sure where your situation fits? Request a free consultation or call (254) 690-5688.
Local roots
Ted Smith served as an active-duty JAG legal assistance officer with III Corps at Fort Hood before opening the Killeen practice. On-base legal assistance can help with basic documents; private counsel steps in when trusts, blended families, real property, or probate risk are involved.
How we help
Bring what you have to the first call. The firm sorts what is missing.
Who receives property and who raises minor children if the worst happens on a deployment.
Who can act on financial and property matters while you are unreachable.
Healthcare and end-of-life decisions if you cannot make them yourself.
SGLI, SBP, and TSP beneficiaries checked against the will so nothing contradicts.
Estate planning is local and document-sensitive; the firm keeps the first conversation grounded in family facts and practical next steps.
“Ted Smith and his legal assistants Carol and Crystal are highly recommended.”
Questions
On-post legal assistance is a real resource for wills, powers of attorney, and basic documents, and eligible servicemembers should use it. Private counsel is useful when planning involves trusts, blended families, real property, business interests, probate-avoidance, or coordination beyond a basic form.
No. SGLI and TSP pay the beneficiary named on those elections, regardless of what your will says. Reviewing those designations alongside your will is one of the most important parts of a military estate plan.
Review beneficiary designations (SGLI, SBP, TSP, bank and retirement accounts), your will, and any powers of attorney. Life changes (marriage, divorce, a new child, a move) are the moments old documents quietly stop matching the family.
Call or text the Killeen office and the team will get back to you, usually within one business day.
Contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.
