Recent Blog Posts
Adoption and Inheritance Under Florida Intestacy Law
When a person dies without a will in Florida, the law requires that the person’s estate be divided according to Florida’s intestacy law. This means that in most cases, the descendants of the person who died inherit the assets. The law looks first to the person’s spouse and children, and then to other relatives…. Read More »
The Duties Of A Personal Representative In The Probate Process
When a person passes away in Florida, his will goes through probate. This means that the will goes through a court process in order to be validated and accepted as the true last wishes of the deceased person. When a person writes a will, they name a personal representative or executor in the will… Read More »
Passing On Your Retirement Accounts After Your Death
Retirement income can sometimes be forgotten when it comes to estate planning. Employer retirement plans and IRAs can often be a large portion of a person’s assets after he dies. Retirement accounts are handled differently than other assets, and there are rules governing what a beneficiary of a retirement account can do upon receiving… Read More »
Designing An Estate Plan For Your Art Collection
Estate planning for a person who owns a large collection of art can be a process of balancing an emotional need to preserve the collection with the financial reality of the cost to the beneficiaries to keep the collection intact. If a person has spent a lifetime creating a collection, having to come up… Read More »
Transferring Title To Trust Property
Once a person decides to make a trust as part of his estate plan, he has to fund the trust by transferring title to property from himself to the trust. The transfer of title has different consequences for the person depending on the kind of trust that is formed, and in some cases the… Read More »
Leaving Gifts In Wills And Trusts With Conditions Attached
In setting up a trust or writing a will, a settlor or testator has the choice of deciding which people are named as beneficiaries. In some cases, the testator may decide to name beneficiaries to receive payments from a trust or assets under a will only if the beneficiaries meet certain conditions. While some… Read More »
How Creditors Can Affect Your Estate Plan
A concern that may arise in the course of estate planning is the question of what happens to the debts a person accumulated in his lifetime when he dies. Generally speaking, debts are not inherited by a person’s family members or heirs under a will. This does not mean that all debts get erased… Read More »
Estate Planning For A Blended Family
Estate planning when you have a blended family sometimes has to be handled carefully to ensure that everyone in the new family is well taken care of in the event of death. A parent may wonder if his or her children will be well cared for by the surviving spouse who also has his… Read More »
Making Changes To Your Will After You Get Married
People make wills at all stages of life, and sometimes they forget to update the wills to account for changes in their lives. For example, a person who makes a will and then later gets married may not remember to go back and change the will to account for the new spouse or any… Read More »
Financial Abuse Through A Power Of Attorney
Allowing another person to legally make decisions for you while you are incapacitated requires a great deal of trust. This is why when most seniors choose to give a person power of attorney over their financial affairs, it is someone they trust and know well. Unfortunately, there are a great number of seniors who… Read More »
