Way back in 2010, my dad needed my mom to sign a document in front of a notary. At the time, my mom was experiencing cognitive changes, although we didn’t yet fully understand what was happening.

Death Readiness Dispatch

May 20, 2026

Hi there,

 

Way back in 2010, my dad needed my mom to sign a document in front of a notary. At the time, my mom was experiencing cognitive changes, although we didn’t yet fully understand what was happening. I remember sitting beside her in my parents’ apartment while the notary tried to decide something incredibly important: Did my mom understand what she was signing? 

 

He asked her a simple question. And then he had to make a judgment call. Watching that moment unfold has stayed with me because families ask versions of this question all the time: Can Mom still sign? Can Dad update his documents? Can we still fix this?

 

And usually those questions don’t come at calm, ordinary moments. They come in the middle of a crisis after memory changes, after a diagnosis, after a fall.

Hoping for One Last Signature

How do you determine whether someone has the capacity to sign estate planning documents, and who actually gets to decide?

 

In this episode, I walk through:

• Why capacity isn’t all-or-nothing,

• Why someone may have the ability to sign one document but not another,

• What attorneys, notaries, and witnesses are actually evaluating,

• Why dementia doesn’t automatically mean someone cannot sign,

• And why timing matters far more than most families realize.

Why a Will Plays by Different Rules

One of the most surprising things is that the legal standard can actually change depending on the document being signed. For a will, the standard is whether a person has testamentary capacity, and that standard is actually lower than the standard required for contracts and some other legal documents.

 

To have testamentary capacity, a person needs to understand a few things:

#1: That they’re making a will,

#2: The property they own,

#3: The “natural objects of their bounty,” which is just a fancy way of saying the people they’d normally leave things to, like a spouse or children, 

#4: And where they want their property to go.

The Weighted Vest Theory of Estate Planning

I know I’m supposed to lift weights. But I don’t own weights, don’t belong to a gym, and my strength training plan has mostly consisted of thinking about strength training. So a week ago I dug a weighted vest and wrist weights out of the garage and went for a walk. Was it the same as a carefully designed strength program? Nope. Was it perfect? Definitely not.

But it was something. And estate planning is a lot like that. People put it off because they think they need to do it perfectly. They think they need all the answers, all the documents, all the organization, and a giant uninterrupted block of time before they can begin.

 

But progress doesn’t require perfection. I’m now a person who walks three dogs while wearing a weighted vest. I stopped waiting for the perfect plan and just started somewhere.

The Death Readiness Playbook is your weighted vest version of getting started. Because sometimes the hardest part isn’t doing everything. It’s knowing where to begin.

Thanks for being here.

PS: Foster puppy update: Padme of Detroit Dog Rescue got adopted today! We’re equal parts thrilled for her and already missing her. Congratulations, Padme! Go charm your new family the way you charmed us.