Loveland & Hurley, PLLC Online Services

Peace of Mind in an Uncertain Time

If you hire an attorney for estate planning or probate, you are creating a relationship that is personal and trusted. Loveland & Hurley, PLLC wants you to feel comfortable and at ease with the process. Your attorney needs to know about intimate details regarding you and your family so she can give the best advice possible. We care about you and your loved ones and want to make sure you comfortable and safe during these times.

The vision for Loveland & Hurley, PLLC has always been client-focused and to put clients’ needs first. We offer a streamlined and refreshing approach to how we interact with clients that we believe is different than the traditional law firm. We want to make this an easy process for you. Loveland & Hurley, PLLC has used the benefits of technology to make working together easier before the COVID-19 outbreak; however, they are now more critical than ever. We want to take the time to highlight some of our online services Loveland & Hurley, PLLC provides to ensure our clients are taken care of and stay safe and healthy.

Online services allow us to communicate and share documents securely with you. Online services ensure that the client is in control; you can schedule your meetings to find a time that works for you according to available appointments. Our office will gather all of the information we need to design your plan through our intake form. Additionally, payment is accepted online. And with online meetings, we can handle your estate planning no matter where you or your spouse are located during our session, at home, your office, or your vacation home.

If you are not comfortable with these online tools, don’t worry. Just call the office, and we will assist you.

Online Payments

Loveland & Hurley, PLLC accepts online payments in the form of eChecks and credit cards. Loveland & Hurley, PLLC accepts all major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. Clients will receive an email containing a link to review and pay their invoices or retainer.

Online Forms

Loveland & Hurley, PLLC uses online forms designed to make gathering information as easy as possible for each client. Before your consultation, potential new clients will receive an email with a link or attachment to your questionnaire. Please complete this questionnaire as best as you can. The information requested will not only guide the conversation during the consultation, but the information also is crucial for the attorney to be able to offer accurate advice. The answers you provide are kept confidential.

Please collect the contact information for every person who will be involved in your plan or your case. If we move forward with your planning or your case, Loveland & Hurley, PLLC will need the names, addresses, phone numbers, and birthdates for anyone you name to be your agent or beneficiary of your estate. For a probate matter, our office will need to information about the person who died, family members, any estate planning documents in place, people named in any will, and assets and debts of the deceased person.

For estate planning clients, this is also an excellent time to start to gather information about your assets and debts. Gather copies of any prior estate planning documents, bank statements, deeds to property, retirement account statements, stock statements, life insurance policies, your business agreements (if you own a business), car titles, and anything else that you own. If you do not have time to collect all of this before our consultation, that is okay; we can still get started. Loveland & Hurley, PLLC will work with you throughout the process. As we do move forward, for full estate planning we need to precisely know how these assets are titled and who contributed to purchasing these items (e.g., you, you and your spouse jointly, you and your sibling/children, etc.). We will also need to know if any account or policy has beneficiaries designated (such as life insurance or retirement accounts). This fact is particularly important for married couples when we are addressing community and separate property issues.

Client Portal

Loveland & Hurley, PLLC offers clients the option to access a secure Client Portal for communications. Once you become a client, you’ll receive a link to set your password for the portal. You can then use that to communicate with the office and to send documents securely at any time.

Video Meetings/Court Hearings

Loveland & Hurley, PLLC uses Zoom to host online meetings and attend court hearings until further notice.

Online Meeting Steps

1. Request an online meeting from Loveland & Hurley, PLLC.
2. You will receive an email confirmation with a link to your Zoom meeting containing detailed Zoom instructions.
3. Before the meeting, download the Zoom program to your computer, phone, or tablet. (You do not have to create an account with Zoom.)
   • To download to your computer: Visit the Zoom website Download Center and click on [Download] under Zoom Client for Meetings.
   • To download to a tablet or phone:
     Visit the Zoom website Download Center and scroll down to the section for Zoom Mobile Apps.
4. About thirty minutes before our meeting, you will receive a reminder email with the link to your session.
5. When it is time for our meeting, click on that link to join the meeting.
6. When you click on the link, the meeting will start.

Need more info? Zoom FAQs on joining a meeting.

Signing Options

It is in the best interest of a client to sign a new estate plan at a law firm, under the direction of the drafting attorney. But Loveland & Hurley, PLLC understands that in some unique situations, a client might not be able to come to the office to sign. Loveland & Hurley, PLLC has a history of creative solutions to unusual situations and will work with clients in these situations to secure the signing of new plans. Please contact us to discuss whether your circumstance requires special assistance. In such unique cases, Kimberly will visit clients in their home, the hospital, or a long-term care facility. Additional fees will apply for travel time and time away from the office. These are addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Remote / Virtual Notary Services

Loveland & Hurley, PLLC is pleased to offer online notary services. An online notary public is a commissioned notary public who has the authority to perform a remote notarization in the State of Texas. Remote Notary services utilize digital tools and an audio-visual conference instead of having the individual physically appear in-person before the Notary at the time of the notarization.

In online notarizations, the signer appears before the Notary Public in real-time using audio-video technology. You will email the documents requiring notarization to Loveland & Hurley, PLLC. We will prepare the materials for the E-sign process and upload them to DocVerify through the website. Texas requires ID verification; the signer’s identity is verified using knowledge-based authentication (KBA) and credential analysis. For ID verification, Loveland & Hurley, PLLC will need to know each of the participant’s email addresses, and they MUST be unique for each participant as sharing email addresses amongst spouses, for example, is not permitted. Once the document is uploaded, each participant is notified to go through the ID verification process. At this time, each participant can also create their e-signatures. Once the participants have completed the ID verification process, Loveland & Hurley, PLLC notified. At this point, Loveland & Hurley, PLLC can continue the remote notary process. Loveland & Hurley, PLLC will reach out to all participants to schedule a video conference. When the notary session is started, all parties will be able to see and hear each other, as particular portions of the notarial act are recorded. The online Notary must still ask to see ID credentials for the video recording and will also need to screen the signer for willingness and awareness before proceeding.

Once these steps are completed, the Notary completes the notarization with the attachment of an electronic Notary seal and a digital certificate. The Notary then records the online notarization in an electronic journal, and the video recording of the session is stored. Each participant will receive the notarized document via their email address.

Commissioned online Notaries in Texas can perform remote notarizations for a signer in any location. Still, the Notary must be physically located in the State of Texas at the time of the notarial act.

Should you prefer an in-person notary, we also have two Texas Notaries on staff at Loveland & Hurley, PLLC available to assist you.

We are always looking for new technology to assist our clients better and are here for you. We are all doing the best we can during this challenging time. Our mission at Loveland & Hurley, PLLC is to give you peace of mind regarding your estate plan and be your guide through the administration process. We would love to help you and your family in any way possible. The only thing we do know is that nothing is guaranteed. The only thing we can control is how present we are and how we respond to others. Let us all have patience and grace with one another and ourselves during this time. Let us all do the best we can each day. Be kind. Be safe. Please contact us if you have any questions about any of our online services.