Estate Planning For You

• Creating Revocable Trusts: Use of a revocable trust, often called a living trust, allows an individual or couple to plan to avoid or minimize probate court involvement, and guardianship court supervision, in the event of death or disability, respectively. In addition, through asset protect planning techniques, a spouse's assets can be safeguarded against many debts and creditors claims. Also, when passing property to your children and grandchildren, "dynasty" trust provisions can be employed in a variety of fashions to better protect those inheritances from each beneficiary's on 5 D's: Death, Disability, Debt, Dependency and Divorce. Through this insightful planning process, you can help set up your children's and grandchildren's own estate and asset protection plans today at today's prices, which will benefit them long into the future.
  
  
• Creating Wills: Use of a will is the traditional basic estate planning technique to dispose of your property at the time of your death. It backs up joint ownership of property, transfer on death and pay on death beneficiary designations, and even trust provisions. Wills give you a chance to spell out your own wishes to be followed upon your death. However, the laws of your jurisdiction may place certain requirements on you as the maker of the will, called the testator. For example, in Florida, you may not devise your homestead to anyone other than your spouse, if you are married and have minor children. Other Florida constitutional and statutory provisions apply to making a will, so it is highly advisable to use an experienced attorney to assist you in this process.
  
  
• Creating a Durable Power of Attorney: Florida law allows you to grant another person great authority to act on your behalf as your legal agent. This is usually done through a durable power of attorney. Often a spouse, responsible adult child, trusted sibling, or trusted family friend, will be named to serve in this role. Although limited in effect by practical considerations, such as "staleness," statutory constraints, such as "The Patriot Act," and other circumstances, it is highly advisable for each adult to have a properly drawn durable power of attorney as an inexpensive substitute for a possible guardianship. Durable powers of attorney generally help more than they hurt in the planning process for a possible future disability, however, if your named attorney-in-fact proves to be untrustworthy, then you and your intended beneficiaries of your estate are at risk.
  
  
• Designating a Health Care and Living Will Surrogate. Florida law permits advance directive planning for heath care and end of life decisions through the use of a heath care surrogate designation and living will. The drafting and use of these Florida documents are now made more complex by the privacy provisions of the federal "HIPAA" legislation, which generally restricts the legal ability of heath care providers, such as hospitals, nursing homes and physicians, from sharing your medical information with family members and, theoretically, even health care and living will surrogates designated by you. It is therefore strongly recommended that your health care surrogate and living will advance directives contain expansive HIPAA general release and related authority provisions, to provide maximum flexibility and authority to those surrogates to be able to interact with your health care providers with full information available to them at the time of need.
  
  
• Advance planning techniques may be necessary for many clients who need to plan ahead for Medicaid and long term care costs of chronic illness; special needs or disabilities for themselves, their spouse, or their family members; who desire asset protection planning; who desire family business or investment continuity; or whose net worth and life insurance death benefits exceed the current estate tax coupon amount of $2 million. This is a highly specific area of practice. What works for a doctor may not work as well for the real estate investor, and vice versa. You need legal counseling to effectively plan for addressing this concern. Not just form books or inexpensive “how-to” paperbacks from slick “advisors” who have never defended a lawsuit in Florida. Please let us help you incorporate this planning into your overall estate and elder law plan for you and your family.
  

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