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Senate Bill 39 |
Senate Author: Zaffirini |
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Effective: 9-1-17 |
House Sponsor: Farrar |
Senate Bill 39 amends the Estates Code to revise provisions relating to estates and guardianships, substitutes for guardianships, and durable powers of attorney for persons with disabilities or who are incapacitated. The bill revises the notice requirements applicable to the removal of a personal representative of an estate, including an independent executor. The bill authorizes the court in which a guardianship is pending, with notice and on its own motion, to transfer the guardianship to another county if the ward resides in the county to which the guardianship is to be transferred. The bill authorizes the court, after providing notice, to remove a guardian for certain specified reasons on the court's own motion or on the complaint of complaint of an interested person. The bill specifies the conditions under which the court appointment of a guardian of an estate for a ward who is the principal who executed a power of attorney automatically revokes or automatically suspends the authority granted to the attorney in fact or agent named in the power of attorney and conditions under which such appointment does not so revoke or suspend such authority. The bill provides for a probate court, after a hearing and with notice to certain third parties, to remove an attorney in fact or agent under a durable power of attorney and authorizes the appointment of a successor attorney in fact or agent under certain circumstance.
Senate Bill 39 amends the Supported Decision-Making Agreement Act, Estates Code, to specify that a supporter owes certain fiduciary duties listed in a given statutory form regardless of whether that form is used for the supported decision-making agreement, to provide for the designation of an alternate supporter in certain circumstances, and to terminate a supported decision-making agreement on the appointment of a qualified temporary or permanent guardian of the person or estate for the adult with a disability.