Possible capacity issues of clients create a complicated situation for estate planning lawyers and can be difficult to catch. Many factors can complicate the issue, such as cultural differences, which can both falsely present as capacity issues that do not exist and mask capacity issues that do exist. It is important that lawyers are able to ask the questions necessary to flush out whether a capacity issue exist. Open communication with clients can assist the lawyer, as clients may be more comfortable discussing the issue if they understand the benefit to them, such as protecting them from possible challenges to their will in the future.
See Suzana Popovic-Montag & Ian M. Hull, How Lawyers Should Approach Issues of Mental Capacity, Huffington Post, Jan. 24, 2015.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
