Our office continues to remain open – virtually (phone calls, audio/video meetings, etc.). Our next free virtual “Estate Planning Essentials” workshop will be on Saturday, May 16, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. until noon. Call (214) 720-0102 to register or sign up online at www.dallaselderlawyer.com. We begin each workshop by asking “What questions do you have about estate planning or elder law?” Then we proceed to answer your questions over the course of the workshop. Our goal is to make it easy for you to attend from the comfort of wherever you reside.

Texas has a law that if you die within three years after marriage and it is determined the deceased “spouse” lacked mental capacity to marry, then the “marriage” can be voided (which is what happened here) even though there were no divorce proceedings pending at the time of death.

Although you might think something as simple as the act of notarization would rarely result in a problem, careless errors are frequently made. The following are some of the errors we have recently seen or other common errors in connection with notarization:

Wife needs long-term care which is very expensive (statewide average is around $6,500 per month). Medicare has very limited coverage and has been utilized to the limits resulting in husband having to private pay with his limited resources which he needs to use to take care of him for the remainder of his life. Husband would like Medicaid to pay for his wife’s care. 

The coronavirus pandemic has not only resulted in the stark realization of our mortality resulting in a surge in the preparation of wills and trusts, but it has also caused the necessity for review or consider changes to the most basic estate planning documents including medical powers of attorney, directives to physicians (living wills), and financial powers of attorney as set forth: