Category Archives: Orlando Estate Planning Lawyer
Florida Hospitals Found Applying for Massive Numbers of Guardianships for Their Patients, seeking to Strip Away Their Rights
On October 21, ABC Action News broke news on an undercover investigation here in Florida involving a number of hospitals in Florida—including Miami, Naples, Orlando, West Palm Beach, and other cities—paying private attorneys to file hundreds of court petitions to place a number of their patients into guardianships. Specifically, the investigation found that hospitals… Read More »
Make Sure That Your Beneficiary Designations Do Not Mess Up Your Estate Plan
Unfortunately, even though beneficiary designations are an important part of estate planning, they are frequently overlooked. And yet, an estate plan is not simply a will and a trust; you have to make sure that your beneficiary designations go along with the rest of your plan, because if they do not, these designations can… Read More »
Estate Planning for The “Modern,” Non-Traditional Family
Given that only approximately 35 percent of today’s families are “traditional,” making the nontraditional family the “norm” when it comes to estate planning, there are a number of things that you may want to do differently when it comes to approaching estate planning if you do not have a traditional family. Below, we describe… Read More »
What Financial Advisors May Not Know to Advise You On for Estate Planning
While financial advisors have been overseeing asset management and estate planning for clients for many years, in recent years, new asset types and laws have made it important for clients to consult estate planning attorneys primarily because international law is changing things at such a rapid pace. In fact, some finance professionals may very… Read More »
How to Carefully Choose Your Trustee(s)
As estate planning attorneys here in Florida, one question that we frequently get is how to select a trustee for your trust, and whether it should be someone who has personal connections to the family or a third-party professional. Below, we discuss some key considerations you will want to take into account in making… Read More »
If Your Child’s Special Needs Trust and Related Estate Planning Is Not Done Properly, It Could Spell Disaster for Your Family
If you are a parent of a disabled child, setting up a special needs trust takes very careful planning and experience from the estate planning legal team setting it up for you. The attorney(s) that you work with should know about all of the various charitable nonprofit programs – as well as local federal… Read More »
What You Absolutely Do & Do Not Need to Take Care of Your Elderly Parents or Other Loved Ones
As attorneys who focus solely on estate planning here in Florida, we regularly receive a number of questions concerning what kinds of plans should be made to care properly for elderly parents and other relatives. The best way to carefully craft a plan based on your particular circumstances is to meet with a professional… Read More »
Using Estate Planning to Protect Retirement Accounts from Creditors in Florida
We have previously (briefly) discussed how you can ensure that beneficiaries do not have to pay creditors out of their own pockets, however, what about ensuring that retirement accounts are protected from creditors? Degrees of protection differ significantly when it comes to IRAs and 401(k)s, and this is something that your estate planning attorney… Read More »
Deciding Whether to ‘Gift’ During Your Lifetime, And How Best to Do It
Giving away assets while you are alive has typically carried with it a number of benefits, one of them being helping to lower estate taxes when you pass. However, the federal estate tax exemption is currently very high: at $11.4 million per person–and increasing every year–this exemption ends up being applicable to very few… Read More »
IRA Trusts Could Soon Become an Estate Planning Nightmare
If Congress decides to eliminate the stretch IRA, estate planning could become a lot more complicated, as we discuss below. This is unfortunately a real possibility, as the House recently passed the “Secure Act,” which eliminates the stretch IRA and replaces it with a 10-year payout for most non-spouse beneficiaries, including trusts. Stretch IRAs… Read More »