Phillip W. McCrury
BIOGRAPHY
Phillip W. McCrury is the chair of the firm’s Estate, Trust, Probate, and Asset Protection section. He assists individuals, families, and family offices with all varieties of estate planning, generational wealth transfer strategies, trusts, life insurance strategies, and asset protection planning. In addition, he is involved in probate matters throughout Texas, including contested probate matters. Mr. McCrury is an active member of a number of bar sections involving estate and probate matters, and is a frequent CLE speaker on the topics of trusts and fiduciary liability.
Mr. McCrury is well-known to many lawyers, ad litems, and judges across Texas for a niche specialty of his practice, which is providing tax and trust advice to lawyers and their clients regarding the tax consequences of judgments, settlements and structured settlements, and assisting them with the preparation of Special Needs Trusts, Qualified Settlement Funds, and other trust vehicles to hold and protect settlements.
Mr. McCrury also has a broad range of experience as a business and tax lawyer and has been involved in a variety of business transactions including acquisitions, mergers, franchising, and the formation of joint ventures, corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and professional associations. His clients have ranged from mature businesses to start-ups, which he has advised in contractual and legal matters.
AFFILIATIONS
- State Bar of Texas
- Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section
- Tax Section
- Texas Bar Foundation, Sustaining Life Fellow
- Tarrant County Bar Foundation, Sustaining Life Fellow
- Tarrant County Bar Association, Member
- Tarrant County Probate Bar Section
- Tarrant County Tax and Estate Section
- Fort Worth Business and Estate Council
- National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
- North Texas Community Foundation, Chair Emeriti, 2014-Present
- North Texas Community Foundation, Chair, 2012-2014
- North Texas Community Foundation, Board of Directors, 2002-Present
- Accredited Estate Planner® (AEP®), The National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC)
HONORS
- Best Lawyers in America®, 2025
- Top Attorney, Fort Worth Magazine
- Wills, Trusts, Estates, and Probates, 2000-2019, 2022, 2024
- Top Attorney, 360 West magazine
- Wills, Trusts, Estates, Probates, 2017-2024
- Nonprofit Law, 2017-2019
- Elder Law, 2017-2018
- Tax Law, 2017-2018
- Professionalism Award, Tarrant County Bar Association, 2016
- North Texas Community Foundation Lifetime Achievement Recipient, 2016
- Martindale-Hubbell® Rating: AV® Preeminent™ (5.0)
- Top Rated Lawyer in Taxation Law
- American Lawyer Media, 2013
- Top Rated Lawyer in Taxation Law
- Attorneys of Excellence, Fort Worth Business Press, 1999-2010
- Power Attorney, Fort Worth Business Press, 2009
- Texas Super Lawyer, Thomson Reuters, 2009
EDUCATION
- Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law, LL.M., Taxation, 1978
- University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 1968
- University of Texas, B.A., 1966
ADMISSIONS
- State Bar of Texas
- State Bar of Oklahoma
- State Bar of Colorado
SPEECHES & PUBLICATIONS
- Featured Speaker, Wills and Estate Planning for Elder Clients,” Tarrant County Bar Association Brown Bag Seminar, October 2019
- Featured Speaker, South Plains Trust and Estate Council Spring Forum, April 2018
- Author, “Court Ordered Trusts in Texas,” and has made numerous presentations regarding the subject to bar groups across Texas
- Co-author, “Fiduciary Liability,” a treatise widely used in trust departments across Texas.
- Taught Fiduciary Liability for a number of years in the Texas Banker’s Association annual Trust School at the Cox School of Business at SMU
- Lecturer on the topic of court-established trusts for the Texas Center of the Judiciary at the annual meetings of the general jurisdiction and appellate court judges in Texas, 2008 and 2015