Can a mentally incapacitated person make changes to their own will?

[amydk]

(In the state of Texoma)

If the caretakers of a woman with Alzheimer's pressured her to change her will to leave her property to them, would the attorney be to blame for permitting such a change, knowing that the woman was mentally incapacitated?

 

[justalayman]

Texoma? We have no state in the us called texoma so you must be in another country. This forum is for US law only

 

[amydk]

Texoma? We have no state in the us called texoma so you must be in another country. This forum is for US law only

Sorry for confusion. Texoma refers to the land shared by Texas and Oklahoma. I think in this case, the person resides in oklahoma.

 

[Silverplum]

Sorry for confusion. Texoma refers to the land shared by Texas and Oklahoma. I think in this case, the person resides in oklahoma.

State laws vary. It's one or the other.

 

[amydk]

State laws vary. It's one or the other.

Oklahoma state

 

[anteater]

How are you going to prove that she was mentally incapacitated?

 

[Zigner]

How are you going to prove that she was mentally incapacitated?

To make the question more succinct: How are you going to prove that she was mentally incapacitated at the time the change was made?

 

[anteater]

To make the question more succinct: How are you going to prove that she was mentally incapacitated at the time the change was made?

Quite so.

I almost got into the stages of Alzheimer's explanation, but thought better of it.

 

[curb1]

Doesn't this explain the "mentally incapacitated"? Isn't a "woman with Alzheimer's" mentally incapacitated?

The question would be, "does a woman with Alzheimer's" have the legal ability to change her will"?

"Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions."

 

[LdiJ]

Doesn't this explain the "mentally incapacitated"? Isn't a "woman with Alzheimer's" mentally incapacitated?

The question would be, "does a woman with Alzheimer's" have the legal ability to change her will"?

"Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions."

This is based on my own experience with my father, but my dad lost the ability to write his own name quite a bit before he was totally unable to make decisions for himself. Therefore he could never have signed a new will.

 

[Zigner]

Doesn't this explain the "mentally incapacitated"? Isn't a "woman with Alzheimer's" mentally incapacitated?

The question would be, "does a woman with Alzheimer's" have the legal ability to change her will"?

"Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions."

I'm not sure where you're going with that. The point I was making was that one would need to show that the testator was incompetent at the time the will was signed/changed in order to make it invalid. The diagnosis of Alzheimers alone is not enough to prove that.

 

[anteater]

Doesn't this explain the "mentally incapacitated"? Isn't a "woman with Alzheimer's" mentally incapacitated?

Do a search on the stages of Alzheimer's. Simply stating that someone has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's does not necessarily mean that they are legally incompetent.

And... what Zig says.

 

[Proserpina]

This is based on my own experience with my father, but my dad lost the ability to write his own name quite a bit before he was totally unable to make decisions for himself. Therefore he could never have signed a new will.

And conversely, a diagnosis does not equate to a finding of incompetence (you didn't imply that but curb did).

 

[curb1]

I understand the different stages of Alzheimer's. I would think that an attorney changing a will to make the caretakers the beneficiaries of a person's will would have some responsibility to determine the stage of Alzheimer's. At what point would elder abuse become an issue ("the caretakers of a woman with Alzheimer's pressured her to change her will to leave her property to them") if a person has been diagnosed (or not) with Alzheimer's?

 

[Proserpina]

I understand the different stages of Alzheimer's. I would think that an attorney changing a will to make the caretakers the beneficiaries of a person's will would have some responsibility to determine the stage of Alzheimer's. At what point would elder abuse become an issue ("the caretakers of a woman with Alzheimer's pressured her to change her will to leave her property to them") if a person has been diagnosed (or not) with Alzheimer's?

One would hope a physician has assessed the patient - and very recently - in order for a claim to have legs.

Here's the APA's guide for lawyers. https://www.apa.org/pi/aging/resources/guides/diminished-capacity.pdf