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.
- 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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- The Garrett Law Firm, PLLC
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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
- Top Elder Lawyer
- Austin Monthly
- National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
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- National Guardianship Association
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- Texas State Bar # 24048146
- Member
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- Austin Bar Association
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- New York
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- Texas
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- Credit Cards Accepted
- Estate Planning
- Guardianship & Conservatorship Estate Administration, Health Care Directives, Trusts, Wills
- Elder Law
- Probate
- Probate Administration, Probate Litigation, Will Contests
- Special Needs Planning
- Chinese: Spoken
- English: Spoken, Written
- Japanese: Spoken
- 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.
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