Charles Kennedy's Answers

Do you have to have a will in texas or will your estate just go to your family, children

Mr. Frederick gave you an excellent answer. I hope you came out of the surgery doing well. One critical element of any legal answer is the actual "facts" regarding your situation. The fact of whether you have children with more than one person or not, or whether you are currently married and how many times you have been married are important pieces of information. Please contact a local estate planning attorney soon and have a HIPAA release prepared along with a Statutory Durable...

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What can I do as the other sybling about mom being put in Altzheimers center? Do elderly with slight incapacities have rights?

I am trying to follow the statements in your question. Creation of a guardianship voids all prior powers of attorney. A Texas Court is supposed to seek the least intrusive means of care. I wonder whether Guardianship was necessary with the powers of attorney. The Court must have found that a guardianship of the person was necessary to keep your mother from wandering. No one can legally restrict the movement of an adult without Court authorization. Your mother may well have...

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What do you do when you discover that you filed a probate in the wrong county?

It sounds like you did not provide the attorney full information about the circumstances. Probate should be filed in the County of residence or where property exists if there is no county of residence. You need an attorney to assist you in this matter. Without much more information I cannot be sure if the attorney committed malpractice by the advice given. Just because the alleged wife says she is going to do something does not mean that she will do it or that she can. However,...

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Can a person be found not to be competent to make decisions under stress due to mental disorder?

From the structure of your question it appears that the hearing was regarding mental health (distinct from incapacity and/or guardianship). It is a temporary proceeding focused on protecting a person from himself or those around him from the defendant. Normally commitment is for only 14 days or less. No guardian is appointed in a Mental Health Commitment proceeding. The longest that a person can be committed is for six months.

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Am I entitled to see my deceased father's will in Texas?

You do have a right to see the Will if you are a beneficiary. If the Will has been filed for probate you can go to the Probate Clerk and read the Will there or purchase a copy. Since the Will is in the public record it can be read by complete strangers, which is one reason why some people prefer to use Trusts to pass their property. The Executor also has a fiduciary duty to "account" or provide information to beneficiaries. If you are a beneficiary, the attorney for the Executor should...

As executor of my fathers will i oversee an estate account for my sister, am i entitled to a executors fee, doing it for 5 yrs

Mr. Sullivan gave you a very good answer. The first issue is to find out what your father instructed in his will. If he did not forbid payment the most common fee structure is 5% of receipts and 5% of disbursements excluding distributions. This is a complicated statute and has several exclusions from the computation. Normally the fee is paid on an annual basis after the annual account is approved if the estate requires court supervision. The fee would require Court approval. If, as...

When is a probate considered closed?

Most probate administrations in Texas are never formally closed. There at least two methods of closing an estate: filing a formal final account or by filing a closing affidavit. Since you have letters of administration I assume that there was no Will. There should have been an heirship determination at the time of the initial probate hearing. You do not state your relationship to the person who died. Title may already be in your name due to the Heirship Determination. if you were...

Estates

Texas favors "Family Settlement Agreements". By this I mean if ALL of the named beneficiaries in the Will agree to a different distribution than what is stated in the Will then the Court will approve of the written and properly signed agreement setting forth the alternate distribution. This alternate distribution must be presented to the Court in order for the Court to approve of it. There are also provisions in Texas law that provide for the sale of Estate assets to pay creditors instead...

Estate Planning

A Family Limited Partnership can give much better asset protection than a corporation or an LLC. But it is far more complicated, expensive to properly organize and is often highly contested by the IRS after your death regarding Estate taxes. Normally one of the partners will be a corporation or an LLC organized to be the general partner. As the other attorneys have said you need independent legal counsel. Use of an FLP could be overkill for your situation or it could be the exact tool...

I have poa on my dad who is mentally unable to return to work, how do i answer questions on long term disability application?

Based on your question it appears your father has a mental illness. The important information is the medical opinion and records of his psychiatrist. I would not provide the information based on what he thinks, but rather based on what his psychiatrist has determined. Hopefully, your father designated you as having the right to access medical information under a broad form HIPAA release (Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act), a HIPAA designation at the Dr’s office or through a...