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Terry Garrett is a Certified Elder and Special Needs Law Attorney and a Texas Approved Guardianship Attorney. She advises people in Central Texas who are preparing for and enjoying their retirement years and people with special needs and their families. Her clients range from couples who are just starting out and people who want to stay in charge during retirement to families with multinational businesses. Having worked and studied in Asia for many years, she also enjoys advising on transnational planning. Terry Garrett graduated with honors from Cornell University. She was on the Dean's List at Wharton Business School. She earned her J.D. at Columbia Law School, receiving the Parker Award and a Melon Fellowship. She attended the Harvard Law School Negotiation Program and earned every certificate offered by the New York Institute of Finance. She is active in the Texas and Austin Bar Associations and a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. She is appointed by Central Texas courts in heirship and guardianship proceedings. She handles pro bono cases for Volunteer Legal Services, the Austin Bar Association and the Women's Resource Fair. Mother of a child with special needs, she also teaches for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Over the years she has volunteered for the Council on Adoptable Children, the AFS foreign exchange student program, Cornell Cares, Hands on Housing and as an officer of the Harmony PTO.
- Estate Planning
- Guardianship & Conservatorship Estate Administration, Health Care Directives, Trusts, Wills
- Elder Law
- Probate
- Probate Administration, Probate Litigation, Will Contests
- Special Needs Planning
- Zoom
- Credit Cards Accepted
- New York
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- Texas
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- Chinese: Spoken
- English: Spoken, Written
- Japanese: Spoken
- The Garrett Law Firm, PLLC
- Current
- Columbia University
- J.D. (1983) | law
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- Honors: Parker Award, Mellon Fellowship
- Activities: President, International Law Society; International Law Review, Environmental Law Review; Chinese and Japanese law study groups
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- Top Elder Lawyer
- Austin Monthly
- National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
- Current
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- National Guardianship Association
- Current
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- Texas State Bar # 24048146
- Member
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- Austin Bar Association
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- Illegal Skilled Nursing Facility Discharges: Appealing Medicare Notice of Nonpayment
- Texas Elder Law Flash
- Noncitizens and Public Benefits, 2020 UT Special Needs Trust Conference, Austin, Texas
- University of Texas School of Law
- Approved Guardianship Attorney
- State Bar of Texas
Pet Trusts and Tips
With a pet trust, you can plan for your pet
How To Pay Your Estate Planning Lawyer Less
These three simple steps will help you save on both legal fees and taxes...if you start now. They'll also help you get your documents organized and stay organized. You
Whats So Special About Special Needs
People with special needs can be included and lead meaningful lives with the right services and support. We can help someone grow and contribute to and enjoy life by helping them put those supports and services in place.
Best Gifts for Grandma and Gramps
This year, instead of socks and perfume, consider gifts which will make life better all year round for your grandparents. Gifts which make it easier, safer and more enjoyable to live at home are available for every budget. Consider these 19 best gifts for grandparents this holiday season and all year.
Estate Planning: How To Save the Family Home
In Texas, you can leave your home to your children free of Medicaid Estate Recovery and still have control of it while you are alive.
Make Room for Baby
The nursery is ready. Are you? Children may be our greatest treasure. Even before they arrive, we begin to protect them. When they do arrive, we often get so caught up in being parents that we forget to take some very important steps.
Special Needs Trust
Creating a trust to benefit a person with special needs is important whether your family member became disabled as a child or you became disabled as an adult. Watch this video for more information on a Special Needs Trust.
General Legal Tips - Probate
Probate sounds like such a scary word, like reprobate or probation, but all it really means is settling your estate, proving what you have, proving who you owe, and distributing the rest to your heirs. In Texas, it can be relatively simple. Watch this video for more information on probate in Texas.
5 Easy Things - Legal Documents Every Texan Should Consider
Five legal documents every Texan should consider.
- Q. Do you assist with families who were included in a trust and will but didn't receive what I'm untitled to?
- A: No one is entitled to anything ever.
You might receive a gift from someone who is living or dead. That is their choice, not your "entitlement."
- Q. If I am listed in a trust as a beneficiary wouldn't that mean I am an heir for will in probate purposes. ? TX
- A: A trust governs what has been contributed to it. Since the trust was never funded, it essentially does not exist.
Anything not in the trust (and not passing as a pay on death bank account, transfer on death brokerage account, or to a designated beneficiary of a life insurance policy, transfer on death deed, etc.) is part of the probate estate.
If there was a Will, the estate passes pursuant to that Will. If not, and if there are children who are the decedent's children but not children of the surviving spouse, the decedent's 50% share passes to his children in equal portions. The surviving spouse still has a right to live in the house, paying maintenance, mortgage interest, ... Read More
- Q. What happens if a person contests an affidavit. Of heirship filed on a house in texas?
- A: An Affidavit of Heirship does not transfer title, even though title companies sometimes treat it as though it does. It is only evidence (not proof) of the statements in it if it has been of record with no one complaining for five years. The Affidavit of Heirship and a contest of its statements can be presented to the probate court in an Application for Determination of Heirship and Issuance of Letters of Administration.
