Health Care Surrogate (Power of Attorney)

By executing a Power of Attorney for Health Care, you help to insure who will be making health care decisions for you when you're unable to do so yourself. This person can provide informed consent for treatment, or even refuse treatment for you. You can include instructions about any treatment you want or do not want. You may designate an alternate surrogate you may want in the event your first choice is unable or unwilling to be appointed.

Irrevocable Living Trust

Like a Revocable Living Trust, an Irrevocable Living Trust helps avoid the costs and publicity of probate. However, an Irrevocable Living Trust cannot be revoked after its creation; except upon the consent of all the beneficiaries, the grantor, the trustee, and usually a judge. There are many different types of irrevocable trusts; two of the more common are the Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) and Charitable Trusts.

Last Will and Testament

A last will and testament helps you decide who gets your property after you pass away, instead of the law making the choice for you. In Florida, you can have a valid will if you are at least 18 years old and are of sound mind. You can amend your will anytime and as many times as you wish during your life.

An estate-planning attorney can explain the consequences of some of the most basic choices you must make when writing a will; for instance, whether property you want to leave to your minor children should be put into a trust at your death. Our attorneys can also draft your will so that you don't make costly mistakes or unknowingly fail to accomplish what you intend.

Life Insurance Trust

A single person having more than $1,500,000.00 in assets (or 3 million married) must take extra steps to diminish or avoid paying estate taxes. The Life Insurance Trust is one of the most common estate planning techniques used to reduce the estate tax in these cases. By careful construction of a trust combined with the leveraging ability of life insurance, a client can remove a portion of his or her wealth from governmental taxation of their estate.

Probate

Probate is a court-supervised public process used in identifying, distributing, and paying taxes/claims/expenses of a decedent's assets (estate), whether the person dies with or without a will. During probate, many legal issues often arise, even in the simplest estate administration. In almost every instance, the estate must hire a licensed attorney to probate the estate.

Estates that are not required to file a federal estate tax return, and that do not involve litigation, generally close in five to six months. Although, in that case, the final accounting and papers to close the probate administration aren't due until 12 months after the letters of administration were issued.

There are a couple alternatives to formal administration. The most common is "summary administration", which is a process for estates worth less than $75,000 not including the homestead, and can be completed much faster and cheaper than a formal administration.

Property Transfer

There are many ways to transfer assets outside of a will in Florida, including:

Gifting cash/other assets during life
Joint tenancy with right of survivorship
Life Insurance polices/trusts
"Payable On Death" bank accounts
Retirement plans/Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
Revocable Living Trusts (See that section for more information)
Tenancy by the entireties (For married couples)

Revocable Living Trust

There are many kinds of trusts. A Revocable Living Trust allows the trustee (typically you, initially) to manage the trust assets before and after your death. It helps your estate avoid probate, and the expenses that accompany it. It also may help your estate save money from inheritance tax after death.

The determination of whether to use a Revocable Living Trust or a will, as an estate-planning device, must be decided on a case-by-case basis. A revocable living trust allows greater privacy and confidentiality regarding an individual's assets and financial affairs after death. A person may modify or terminate a Revocable Living Trust during their lifetime, as long as they are not incapacitated.

Trust Litigation (Including: Estate/Inheritance Disputes)

Many family disputes center around inheritance issues. Sometimes these disputes can end easily; with just a simple review and interpretation of the contents of the will. However, many inheritance disputes are not solved so easily and result in litigation to resolve the matter. In these cases, you should consult an attorney to find out how to protect your interests.

Our attorneys review will and trust documents to ensure they were executed correctly. And because our attorneys construct and review so many of these documents, they know each and every legal requirement the documents must meet and all standards the personal representatives or trustee must adhere to.