Speakers, businesses, organizations will speak to seniors on legal and financial strategies

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

A panel of speakers will address issues including estate planning and more at Senior Source on Saturday, April 20. Businesses and organizations will also be available in a program put together by Coalition for Aging LGBT. Speakers include attorneys Derek Mergele-Rust, Jaime Duggan and Morgan Darling, and M. Angel Irvin of Irvin Insurance and Financial Services.

Angel Irvin

Shelly Skeen, Lambda Legal’s South Central regional director, was scheduled to speak but has been called out of town on business. She encouraged older LGBTQ individuals to attend, noting how important it is for older LGBTQ adults to take the time to execute an estate plan and write advance directives to protect themselves and their families.

While we heard lots of stories during the AIDS crisis about families coming in and taking homes from a partner, Skeen said, that sort of thing still happens. “I received a call during COVID,” she said. “Two women had been together 30 years,” and when one of the women was in the hospital, her sister came in and tried to exclude her partner and kids.

“They had bank accounts together, lived together but had not legally married,” Skeen said; however, their relationship qualified as a common-law marriage. So Skeen contacted the hospital and got her wife and children in to see her just days before she died.

Had the proper paperwork already been in place, whether the women were legally married or not, the hospital would have granted the family access to their loved one.
Rust said he’s brushing up on legal cases in advance of the summit, looking at “the challenges and pitfalls of some of the legislation that passed and how LGBT people can protect themselves from those.”

Derek Mergle Rust

He plans to address what documents are needed and why those documents are especially important to seniors in the LGBTQ community.
“Documents will override state law,” he said.

Once you’ve designated a guardian and your decision has been witnessed by people testifying to your competence to choose, a court can’t easily question your choice.

If a judge is hostile to your being transgender, he doesn’t have the power to overturn your choices, Rust explained.

“The court will look to documents” as a first choice and then for back up as well as a list of “these are the people you may not appoint.”
Rust said he’s also planning to address social security issues, such as whether LGBTQ couples are eligible for benefits and how common-law or informal marriage status in Texas affects eligibility.

Event organizer Robert Emery added to Rust’s comments, saying, “Legal documents are our best protection that will survive any challenge to marriage equality.”

Emery was particularly enthusiastic about having participants engage with the representatives of a variety of organizations that will be on hand. The VA Hospital, for example, is the only hospital in Dallas that has received a score of 100 percent in every Human Right Campaign Hospital Index.

Jaime Duggan

Despite “all the nonsense around don’t ask, don’t tell,” Emery said, the VA does quality transition care.

“The Alzheimers Association will be there with lots to share about their caregiving programs,” Emery continued. And Steven Graves with Medicare4USA.com will be available to answer Medicare questions or at least point you in the right direction.

Coalition for Aging LGBT has been working with senior living facilities to assist in making those facilities as safe and welcoming to LGBTQ seniors as possible. Representatives of The Landon of Lake Highlands and C.C. Young will attend. While Emery said a number of facilities in North Texas are very welcoming, the two attending are outstanding in their welcome and offering of activities.

The city of Dallas Office of Community Care will be present to discuss the city’s “social, human and supportive services” for seniors to “improve their quality and standard of living.”

Realtor Scott Carnes will be available to offer his services to anyone interested in upsizing or downsizing their living arrangements, and a representative from Edward Jones will offer financial management advice. Texas Instruments, which Emery described as a big supporter of CfA since the beginning, will have a table. Your Nurse Advocates will also be there with information on their healthcare options.

Morgan Darling

And The Dallas Way will explain how you can become involved in its mission to collect and preserve the history of the LGBTQ community in North Texas.

And the venue: Senior Source wants you to think of them as a resource for the LGBTQ community, Emery said.

“Senior Source wants to be available for us,” he said. “They’ve been our partner for nine years.”

April 20 from 9 a.m.-noon. The event is free but you may register at tinyurl.com/3tzkfxd9. Senior Source is located at 3910 Harry Hines Blvd.