Private Counsel · Houston, Texas

Counsel for families, fiduciaries and legacy planning.

I serve as private counsel to families, fiduciaries, philanthropists, nonprofit leaders and individuals facing important personal, financial, caregiving and legacy decisions. When something important happens, I help you think clearly, bring in the right people, make a plan and carry it through.

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Victoria Pittman-Waller, Attorney and Counselor at Law. — **Victoria Pittman-Waller** Attorney & Counselor at Law

Who I Serve

People carrying serious responsibilities

Families, fiduciaries, aging parents and the adult children who look after them, business owners, philanthropists and nonprofit leaders. What brings them to me is rarely a single legal question. It is a decision that matters, and the need for someone they trust to help them make it.

Families with complicated situations

Blended families and later in life marriages, relatives who see things differently, and family wealth that includes a business, a charity or property in more than one place.

Aging parents and adult children

Parents who want to stay independent and at home for as long as they can, and the children, often living in another city, who want them well looked after without leaving their own lives behind.

Fiduciaries, trustees and executors

People who have been handed responsibility for someone else's money, care or estate, and want counsel on carrying it out well.

Business owners, philanthropists and nonprofit leaders

People whose decisions reach beyond the family: a company to pass on, charitable commitments to honor, an organization to steer.

Anyone facing a major transition

Illness, the loss of a spouse, a move, a marriage or a sale. The moments when a good decision matters most and the way forward is least clear.

Experience matters. Judgment matters more. Credentials matter. Trust matters more.

How I Help

Planning, and then carrying it through

Sometimes the answer is estate planning. Sometimes it is caregiving, fiduciary service, a family conversation or the right advisors around the table. The common thread is helping people make good decisions when the stakes are high.

The legal tools

Planning built to hold up

Estate planning and elder law: wills and trusts, financial and medical powers of attorney, a written declaration naming who you would want as guardian, and guardianship matters when they arise. Legacy and succession planning for what a family has built, including how it is passed on, managed and governed.

Estate planning · Elder law · Guardianship · Legacy and succession

Stewardship

The work after the signing

Fiduciary guidance, care planning, family decision making, and coordinating the other advisors involved. When a matter belongs with another professional, I help you find the right one. And when you would rather not ask a family member, I can be named to serve in those roles myself.

Fiduciary guidance · Care planning · Advisor coordination

Why This Work Matters

Long before it was my practice, it was my life

I come from a family of extraordinary longevity. My grandfather and great-aunts lived into their late nineties, and my mother is now ninety. For decades I helped aging family members through the practical, financial, medical and emotional realities that come with long lives.

I lost my father young. I have walked beside close friends through serious illness and end of life decisions. I have advocated for children in foster care, and represented incapacitated adults who had no family available to help them.

Over time I came to see that the hardest problems people face are rarely purely legal problems. They are human problems. My work grew from a lifetime spent helping families navigate aging, illness, responsibility, caregiving and difficult decisions. The legal tools matter, but people rarely need a document. They need judgment, guidance and someone they trust.

The questions underneath

Who can be trusted?

Who will take responsibility? Who will make decisions when circumstances change? How do we care for the people we love? How do we preserve dignity, independence, family harmony and legacy? My professional life has kept returning to those questions.

The through-line

The specialties changed. The human problem stayed the same.

Advocacy, stewardship, responsibility and steady guidance through periods of vulnerability and change. That has been the theme of my working life, in every role I have held.

Professional Experience

A career spent where decisions are hardest

My experience reads better as a pattern than as a resume. I have spent a career helping people navigate difficult situations involving responsibility, care, governance and decision making.

In practice

Private practice and guardianship

Private practice in estate planning, elder law and guardianship. Counsel to business owners and nonprofit organizations. Fiduciary and caregiving work, for clients and within my own family.

Private practice · Guardianship · Business and nonprofit counsel

In service

Government service and advocacy

Government service, advocacy for children in foster care, and representation of incapacitated adults who had no one else to speak for them. Broad exposure to complex human situations, which is where judgment is learned.

Government service · Advocacy for vulnerable people

What makes me different

4 roles

Executor, financial agent, healthcare agent, guardian of the estate

For generations, families with real responsibilities have kept a family doctor, a family minister, a family lawyer and a family banker. Often one person sat at the center of it all, someone who knew the history, the personalities, the assets, the businesses, the children and the risks. When something important happened, the first call went to them.

That is the role I serve. Clients come to me because they trust my judgment, and I am often asked to coordinate advisors, manage complexity, help families make difficult decisions, guide fiduciaries, solve practical problems and carry plans forward after they are created.

The most valuable work often begins after the documents are signed.

Credentials

The record behind the counsel

Licensed to practice law in Texas. Every matter is handled by me personally, from the first meeting on.

Licensed TexasState Bar of Texas, Bar No. 00791999, licensed since 1994

Law school UT LawJ.D., The University of Texas School of Law

College SmithB.A., Smith College

Your consultation

What the first meeting is, and what it is not

A conversation, not a pitch. Bring the people who share the decision with you. Nothing is signed at the first meeting.

Step one

What you are facing

Who is in the picture, what you are responsible for, what you own and what decisions are coming. In person in Houston, or by telephone or video if that is easier.

Step two

A straight recommendation

Including the answer nobody is incentivized to give you: sometimes a will and current powers of attorney are enough, and an ongoing arrangement would be more than you need right now.

Step three

The arrangement, in writing

If there is work to do, you know the fee and what it covers before anything begins. Planning documents and any ongoing role, such as managing your care or serving as your fiduciary, are each agreed in writing.

Questions

Asked before the first call

No. Estate planning is one of the tools. Families also come to me for counsel on caregiving decisions, fiduciary responsibilities, family matters, charitable and succession questions, and for help bringing the right advisors together. When something belongs with another professional, I will tell you so and help you find the right person.

Often, yes, if that is what you want and your health and resources allow it. The plan sets out who arranges and supervises in-home care, who manages the household and the accounts, and how it is paid for, so that moving into a nursing home is a choice rather than the default. No plan can promise an outcome, but a plan that names the right people, with the right authority, gives home care a real chance.

This is one of the most common situations I plan for. Your children can stay informed and involved without having to drop their work and their lives to move home. I can be named to manage the care plan and your affairs day to day, and to keep the family updated.

Yes. I can be named as executor of your estate, as your agent under financial and medical powers of attorney, and as guardian of your estate if a court appointment is ever needed. It can be a relief in blended families and later in life marriages, where asking one side of the family to manage the other can feel like a conflict. The role, what it involves and how it is paid for are set out in writing before you decide.

Yes. Serving as a trustee, executor, agent or guardian carries real legal duties, often at a hard moment for the family. I counsel fiduciaries on what the role requires and how to carry it out well.

No. Texas imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, so for most families a plan is less a tax document than a control document: who decides, who does the work, and who pays for care if you cannot manage on your own.

It depends on what you need. Planning documents are quoted after the first conversation and before any work begins. An ongoing role, such as managing your care or serving as your agent, is agreed separately and in writing, so you know the arrangement before anything starts.

Sometimes, and I will tell you so. A will speaks only after death. It does not say who makes medical decisions, who manages your money or who arranges your care if you become ill first, and those are the questions families most often face. Bring what you have: a review usually shows quickly what is missing or out of date.

My practice serves Texas clients. If you own property in another state, that piece is handled with local counsel there while the Texas plan is built here.

Contact

Start with a conversation

Tell me a little about what you are facing and who is involved. Nothing is signed at the end of it, and if a simple plan is all you need, you will hear that too.

Email: victoria@vpwlawpractice.com
Office: 1415 North Loop West, Suite 760
Houston, Texas 77008
Bar: Texas Bar No. 00791999