Fred Cludius

Personal Introduction

My estate planning practice was born of a personal experience after the tragic death of my late wife Jennifer. We kept putting off planning. There was always tomorrow to plan, until there wasn’t. By not putting a plan in place, Jennifer’s property went where the State of Texas said it would go and not where I knew Jennifer wanted it to go. It took years, multiple court proceedings and several lawyers to get things settled. And this was without any conflict, just going through the processes needed to get the estate settled! In law school I knew that I wanted to help people. Out of law school, I practiced in personal injury trial law with several firms finishing up with Kyle Law Firm in New Braunfels. During my career in the injury field I obtained Board Certification in Personal Injury Trial Law, was a graduate of the Keenan Trial Institute, was a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates forum and was a speaker at continuing education seminars in trucking litigation. However, Jennifer’s death in an 18 wheeler crash made it too hard to continue in injury litigation and I made the decision to find a new way to use my law license. The experiences of going through the probate process opened my eyes to the importance of planning and the fact that most people put it off until it is too late. This planted the seed to switch my practice focus to estate planning. The seed quickly took off when I was able to receive training from a nationally recognized mentor in estate planning. When I was helping people as an injury lawyer, I was only involved once something went wrong. Through my experience, I have found another way to practice and a new context for using my law license: Helping people plan so their families don’t experience conflict and their loved ones are protected. I want to help you prevent the experience I went through. I have remarried a wonderful woman (Blanca) who has embraced the challenges of marrying a widower. We have five children between us: Trevor, Ernesto, Samantha, Noah and Libby. I’d love to help you begin your process to protect the people you love.