Family First Firm
Orlando Estate Administration Attorneys
Family First Firm is here to help you settle an estate after the death of a loved one in Florida.
Preparing For Estate Administration
Though some people are able to prepare for death and even lay out a comprehensive estate plan in advance, many families are not prepared to go through the complex process of estate administration.
Estate Administration refers to the steps and processes that ensure someone’s last wishes are eventually carried out in relation to assets in their estate. Even if a last will or trust was prepared, there are still significant steps that are often required to manage and close out the estate.
The probate process is to be initiated by the personal representative. If there is a Last Will in place, it would name the personal representative; if there is no Last Will, a personal representative will be court-appointed. In addition to inventorying all assets, the personal representative is responsible for paying outstanding debts and estate taxes, and distributing assets.
This process can become overwhelming, especially for a family member without experience regarding estate planning and succession laws. There is a risk of mismanaging funds or being accused of doing so, which can have severe consequences. This is why many people will hire an estate administration attorney to handle these responsibilities.
How An Attorney Can Help
As a personal representative, your duty is to make sure the decedent’s estate is distributed according to their instructions and last wishes. This is a huge responsibility.
Hiring an estate administration attorney at Family First Firm will give you peace of mind that all areas of estate assets are properly addressed, including:
- Locating and accounting for all properties in the estate
- Paying the creditors of the estate
- Computing and paying estate taxes
- Distributing assets to heirs per the Last Will or Trust
The decedent’s debts and obligations should be paid from their estate. As the administrator, the responsibility falls on you, and there are repercussions for mismanaging the funds. If you’ve been appointed as a personal representative, consult an estate administration attorney at Family First Firm to help.
Are Personal Representatives Entitled To Compensation?
In Florida, personal representatives are legally entitled to compensation, based on the total value of the estate. Estates of $1-million or less have an administration fee of 3%; estates worth between $1-million and $5-million have an administrative fee of 2.5%; and administrators of estates worth between $5-million and $10-million earn 2%. For the largest estates worth more than $10-million, administrators earn 1.5% of the total value.
Are Personal Representatives Liable?
Estate administrators cannot be personally liable for the decedent’s debts and outstanding obligations. All of these must be paid or charged from the estate. If the estate cannot cover these debts, creditors cannot collect from the administrator or the heirs. However, the personal representative is responsible for properly managing the funds available to cover these debts.
If you are creating an estate plan, you might also want to consider appointing a professional personal representative to administer your estate. That way, your loved ones won’t be overwhelmed with administration duties once you pass on.
Family First Firm
- Individually-Oriented Solutions - The elder law attorneys at Family First Firm work with senior clients and their families to comprehensively address legal roadblocks. Our Medicaid and estate planning services are tailored to fit each client’s current and future needs.
- Assist Clients In Every Step - Applying for benefits, guardianship, creating wills or trusts, and establishing other forms of asset protection can be overwhelming. To ease the stress, we are here to guide our clients and their family members every step of the way.
- Credible and Highly Trusted - Our firm is recognized as one of the fastest-growing law firms in the U.S. in 2021 by Law Firm 500.
- 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.
Family First Firm
Estate Administration 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.