Family First Firm
Expert Estate Planning In Orlando
Family First Firm customizes each estate plan to protect assets for clients and prevent probate for their families.
Estate Planning Made Easy In Orlando
Estate planning isn’t just for the elderly- it’s for everyone. Though it may be an uncomfortable topic, putting affairs in order proactively ensures your plans are honored and your intended beneficiaries are clear. Estate planning is a chance to ensure steps are taken to prevent setbacks for yourself and your family.
Estate planning isn’t just the creation of wills or trusts- it involves setting advance directives to help safeguard your wishes should you ever be unable to advocate for yourself. These documents aren’t just for the wealthy- as long as you have valuable assets to your name, whether it be a car, home, art collection, or even jewelry, estate planning is essential.
Family First Firm’s estate planning and elder law attorneys can help you lay out your preferences when it comes to distributing your assets and suggest the best strategies to achieve your goals.
When Someone Dies Without A Will?
If you pass away without a will, your heirs might still receive their share of your estate. However, the allocation will be dictated by the laws of your state. In legal terms, this is what is called “intestacy.”
In Florida, the rules of intestacy dictate that the surviving spouse would receive the whole estate if there are no children, or if all surviving descendants (children) are also shared by the spouse. If there are any descendants who are not shared by a surviving spouse, the estate would be divided into two, with one-half going to the surviving spouse, and the other half subdivided among the descendants.
If you pass on without a spouse or child, your estate would go to your parents. If they are also both deceased, the estate would be divided among your siblings. With or without a will, the property in your estate is required to go through probate before any property is transferred to the purported heirs, which can take time and can be costly. Speak with an experienced estate attorney at Family First Firm to avoid inadvertently disappointing intended heirs and gain control of who receives your assets.
Why Talk To An Attorney?
An estate plan is a gift to your loved ones. Without a plan in place, your children or siblings may fight over your estate, and relatives might feel entitled to properties or other assets. In addition to the devastation it can bring to families, predatory creditors may take advantage and leave nothing to your intended beneficiaries. Speaking to an estate planning attorney can help you avoid all of these issues.
Family First Firm?
- Personalized Plans - Our elder law attorneys work with senior clients and their families to anticipate and address legal roadblocks. We tailor each estate plan and Medicaid qualification to fit your needs now, and in the future.
- Comprehensive Client Care - Applying for benefits, creating wills or trusts, and establishing other forms of asset protection can be overwhelming. To ease the stress, we are here to guide you every step of the way.
- Credible and Highly Trusted - We’ve racked up more than 600 5-star reviews from happy clients, and our firm has been repeatedly recognized as one of the fastest-growing in the U.S.
- Accessible Legal Services - Booking your first free consultation is just a click away. You can schedule a consultation with our attorneys through our website and social media pages.
What It Is, And How To Avoid It
Probate is the court proceeding where the last will and testament of a person who has passed away is reviewed and validated by a judge. This process ensures that the last will is valid and was created by the decedent with full knowledge and awareness of its contents.
Probate is costly, requiring fees and an attorney in Florida. The process is also lengthy, taking months to more than a year to settle an estate. To avoid the probate process altogether, speak to a Family First Firm attorney about setting up a trust rather than relying on a last will.
Asset Protection
Estate planning and asset protection, while different, can go hand in hand. While estate planning focuses on the allocation or distribution of property or real estate once you pass on, asset protection refers to strategies geared toward ensuring your family’s wealth is preserved and protected from irresponsible heirs, judgment orders, creditors, or other liabilities.
To learn more about how asset protection strategies can benefit you and your family, contact an experienced estate planning attorney from Family First Firm today.
Family First Firm
Estate Planning FAQs
An Advance Directive is also known as a Living Will or Proxy Directive. It specifies the medical care you choose to receive or decline in cases of severe injury or incapacitation. Typically, these documents address critical decisions like resuscitation, life-saving measures, palliative care, and organ donation. Working with an estate planning attorney to create a Living Will can ensure this vital document is legally valid and free of omissions. An experienced Living Will lawyer can help you draft an Advance Directive that may reduce legal obstacles and help caregivers make decisions on your behalf when you cannot do so for yourself.
An advance directive usually states the principal’s wishes regarding specific life-sustaining and end-of-life procedures, such as:
- Ventilation
- Resuscitation through electric shock
- Tube feeding
- Pain relief and other forms of palliative care
An Advance Directive also names a healthcare proxy- a trusted agent overseeing the care you receive and ensuring any treatment complies with your wishes. If you split your time between Florida and another state (or states), you should consult an advance directive lawyer to make sure your documents are also valid outside Florida.
Choosing the right healthcare proxy is a crucial decision that may eventually determine whether emergency and end-of-life care complies with your wishes.
Your healthcare proxy can be a spouse, partner, parent, family member, or friend. In any case, the proxy should be someone who:
- Understands and honors your wishes regarding medical care in critical situations
- Is willing and able to undertake the responsibility of overseeing your emergency medical care, including pivotal choices like surgery or resuscitation
- Has at least a basic understanding of your existing medical conditions
It’s also a good idea to appoint an alternate proxy in case your first-choice proxy cannot act on your behalf.
Although an Advance Directive is a legally binding document, in some cases, family members may dispute its validity or question the conduct of a healthcare proxy. This may happen when families disagree with the principal’s decisions about life-sustaining care.
An experienced living will and trust attorney can check your Advance Directive for any inconsistencies that could lead to controversy in urgent situations.
An experienced wills and trusts attorney can help you create a Testamentary Will that adheres to Florida’s legal requirements and includes all necessary provisions, such as:
- Listing all the testator’s significant assets and the beneficiaries who should inherit them
- Naming an executor to close the estate and distribute assets after the testator’s death
- Appointing a guardian for any minor children
If you don’t yet have a Will, contact Family First Firm. Our lawyers for wills can draft a clear and comprehensive document and suggest additional estate planning tools.
The main advantage of a Revocable Living Trust in Florida is bypassing probate. Generally, assets a decedent owned in their name only must go through probate, a lengthy and potentially expensive legal process.
Our trust attorneys can help you set up a Revocable Trust to avoid probate. You can name a successor trustee to handle trust management after your passing or incapacitation. That way, assets can move directly to beneficiaries.
Keep in mind that a Revocable Trust doesn’t protect property from creditor or Medicaid claims.
Once you place assets in an Irrevocable or Family Fortress Trust, the trust becomes the legal owner of the property, limiting your ability to use trust assets or amend trust terms. However, irrevocable trusts offer an efficient legal way to protect assets and keep wealth in your family.
Competent trust attorneys may suggest strategies like:
- Transferring property to an Irrevocable Trust as part of Medicaid planning to qualify for benefits and avoid future claims
- Creating a trust that will distribute assets to adult children under certain conditions (e.g., graduating from college)
- Using an Irrevocable Trust to protect assets from a child’s ex-spouse in case of divorce
Working with an experienced estate planning attorney to create a comprehensive estate plan can help you provide for your loved ones, protect your legacy, reduce family conflict, and possibly mitigate tax liability. A comprehensive estate plan gives you more control over your assets, both during life and after passing.
Keep in mind that you can only authorize wills, trusts, and powers of attorney while you’re in full use of your mental capacity. That’s why, if you don’t have an estate plan already, you should consult (or recommend your loved one to consult) an estate planning lawyer as soon as possible.
If a Florida resident dies without leaving a valid Will, their assets will pass to surviving family members according to Florida’s intestate succession laws, which don’t always conform to what the decedent would have wished. This is why speaking to an estate planning attorney in Florida is so important.
A competent estate planning lawyer can propose several strategies to reduce inheritance taxes and protect your intended beneficiaries’ shares of your assets. Asset protection strategies in Florida include:
- Gifting assets to family members up to a certain allowable threshold
- Placing life insurance proceeds in an irrevocable trust
- Choosing an alternative valuation date for an estate to reduce tax liability
- Making donations to trusted charities
Some of these methods work better in certain circumstances. For example, transfers to a life insurance trust may still count as part of the decedent’s estate unless the grantor survives at least three years after the transfer.
A Will is the number one, bare-bones legal document everyone needs, regardless of age and estate size. A Trust works to keep the assets described in the Will out of probate court.
Our elder law and estate planning attorneys can help you or your parents establish the following:
- A Revocable Living Trust to avoid probate
- An Irrevocable Trust to protect assets against tax liability or ex-spouse claims
- A Special Needs Trust to provide for vulnerable family members while preserving their eligibility for government benefits
Most people are familiar with a Will; it is a document that outlines instructions about how an estate should be distributed after someone passes. A Will can also contain instructions for guardianship and other estate planning tools, depending on your situation.
On the other hand, a Living Will contains directives to be carried out while one is still alive but incapacitated or terminally ill. This information includes what, if any, medical treatment should be administered when a person can no longer make those decisions on their own.
These instructions can have life-or-death implications. For example, a Living Will might contain instructions to avoid resuscitation after a catastrophic injury under specified conditions. It’s crucial that both documents are created and reviewed with an experienced elder law attorney.
Yes. We draft pour-over wills that ensure anything that isn’t in the trust at the time of your passing is moved into the trust after death. As you go through life, you may forget to title assets, or well-meaning bank clerks can undo work towards funding your trust. For this reason, a pour-over will is a catch-all to ensure that any assets that aren’t in the trust get put into it.