Justin, with everything going on in the world these days, my wife and I are ready to get our estate plan in order. We especially want to get power-of-attorney documents and medical directives in place as quickly as possible. However, we’re not really getting out of the house right now. Do we just need to wait until things get back to normal? – John
John, great question, and I totally get where you’re coming from. The pandemic has caused many people to feel an increased sense of urgency to get their affairs in order. But they’ve had trouble balancing that sense of urgency with the encouragement we’ve received to stay home if possible. The great news is, you don’t have to choose. Thanks to some quick action in our state government, Arkansans can now do their estate plans entirely from home.
Until recently, it was almost impossible to have a valid estate plan without making your way into a lawyer’s office because of the witness and notary requirements on those important legal documents. But the rules have significantly loosened to allow people to take care of this important business while staying home. Now, under an attorney’s supervision, a notary can notarize legal documents remotely as long as certain technical requirements are met.
That means you could set a telephone or video conference with an attorney, talk through your estate planning options and outline your wishes, review your documents in the comfort of your own home, and then handle the document execution with the firm remotely. Our attorneys and staff have been helping families all over Arkansas in this very way for the past several weeks.
If you’re ready to get this done, give us a call today. We can move pretty quickly on these matters when we don’t have to worry about setting an office consultation. And as always, there’s no charge for the initial strategy session—whether it’s in the office, over the phone, or online.
