South Florida Estate Planning News

What questions should you ask your Florida estate planning attorney in 2022?

Planning an estate may seem overwhelming or challenging, but doesn’t need to be. Estate planning is not just for after your life, but for during your life as well.  Estate plans include guidance to your families if you become sick or incapacitated, or even just traveling!  Whatever the case may be, using a state-licensed, knowledgeable…

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What Is A Personal Representative And How Should I Choose One?

If you’re working on your estate plan, one of the most important steps is determining who will be the Personal Representative (Executor) of your estate. It’s an important choice – maybe you’ve read stories of some Personal Representatives behaving badly and wish to avoid that. You don’t want to make a mistake that would cause…

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Different Types Of Florida Trusts And When You Might Need Them

A trust is a legal document that can be created during a person’s lifetime and survive upon that person’s death. There are several types of trusts that can be established based upon that person’s needs or the needs of their surviving heirs. Understanding the different types of trusts and their uses may help you determine…

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Contesting a Will

How to Protect Your Will From Unhappy Relatives

Will contests should be avoided at all costs. Not only can a contest derail your final wishes, but it can also rapidly deplete your estate and wreak emotional havoc on the family members left behind. Fear not. With proper planning, you can prevent that from happening.

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Reading the will painting by Erdmann

Whatever Happened to “The Reading of the Will?”

Many movies and television shows have a scene where a family gathers around a big table after a relative has died to listen to the reading of the will. While this makes for a dramatic scene, one that may have been more common when literacy rates were lower, it doesn’t usually happen this way in the modern world.

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Declaration of Trust document image

Understanding the Differences Between a Revocable Trust and an Irrevocable Trust

Trusts can be useful tools to pass assets to the next generation, protect your assets, save on estate taxes, or set aside money for a family member with special needs. The question I hear most often regarding trusts is “What is the difference between a Revocable Living Trust and an Irrevocable Trust.”  Although both are…

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Estate Planning, Wills And Trusts

Does Your Will Name an Alternate Beneficiary?

What will happen to your estate if your primary beneficiary does not survive you? If your will does not name an alternate beneficiary, your estate will be divided according to state law. The way the state divides your estate may not agree with your wishes. Your money may go to someone you don’t like or…

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Estate Planning, Wills And Trusts

Discovery of Aretha Franklin’s Handwritten Wills Throws Her Estate Into Turmoil

Legendary singer Aretha Franklin was thought to have died without a will, but the recent discovery of handwritten documents in her home is calling that into question. A representative of her estate has asked a Michigan probate court to determine if any of the documents could be considered a valid will. When Franklin died August…

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Estate Planning, Wills And Trusts

So, You’ve Been Appointed Trustee of a Trust? Here Are 9 Do’s and 1 Don’t

Whether it’s an honor or a burden (or both), you have been appointed trustee of a trust. What responsibilities have been thrust upon you? How can you successfully carry them out? Here are nine do’s and one don’t to get you started: Do read the trust document. It sets out the rules under which you…

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