Secure Your Legacy: Have a plan.
After over two decades of litigating cases, I assist families and individuals in developing an estate plan that is comprehensive and designed to reflect your circumstances and desires, and to save the love ones you leave behind from dealing with the costs (financial and emotional) of a probated estate.
I helped care for my father in the last ten years of his life. I learned through experience all the challenges faced to provide care for our loved ones as they reach their silver years. Upon his death, I grieved and in the midst of this grief, I learned all the processes necessary to wrap up his affairs. My practice has focused on family law and litigation. In my time of grief, the last thing I desired was to deal with lawyers and court proceedings. I wanted time to cry and celebrate the life he lived, not draft and file paperwork, locate assets, and try to figure out what my dad’s wishes might have been.
After my dad’s passing, my mom became ill. In her darkest hours, I spent time rummaging through her important papers searching for her will and advanced directives. She had a will, but no trust. She is now in a (very expensive) facility. While I should have been comforting her through this hard transition from freedom to facility, I instead was consulting with lawyers to find ways to protect her assets or get the care she needed in place.
Litigation is for lawyers and judges, not grieving families. Plans should be in place to avoid costly court proceedings and to clearly inform the loved ones you leave behind of your circumstances and desires so that you have time to grieve the passing of a loved one or to celebrate their life.
If you would like me to help you, contact me at (352) 418-0418 or by email at mary@yourfamilylawadvocate.com or CLICK HERE.
Last Will & Testaments
A Last Will & Testament (your Will) is a letter to a judge asking him or her to abide by your wishes. It names your beneficiaries – those who you desire to receive the assets you have accumulated throughout your life. If designates a Personal Representative – the person you select to direct and manage your estate. It includes the specifics of how your property will be distributed upon her death. It instructs what happens with your financial accounts, real estate and personal property. These instructions override the inheritance laws of the state. It also allows you to designate the person or people who will care for your children should both parents pass away. It is the instruction manual for your Personal Representative to follow in executing your desires; with your Will, they find your way of distributing your assets.
Powers of Attorney
A Power of Attorney is a document that is effective during your lifetime, which allows another person to handle your finances. Most commonly, they are intended to allow someone to manage your day-to-day financial affairs when you are not able to do so. They can also be for a particular purpose (such as selling a home) if you are unavailable for whatever reason.
Health Care Surrogate
A Health Care Surrogate is the document that designates the individual who can make health care decisions on your behalf when you are unable to do so.
Living Wills
A Living Will may irreverently be called the “pull the plug” document. It instructs your desire to (or not to) artificially prolong your life if you are incapacitated, in a persistent vegetive state, have a terminal or end stage condition.
Trusts
A trust is a document that creates a legal entity in which one party (the trustee) holds and manages assets on behalf of another party (the beneficiary), allowing for controlled management and distribution of property during the grantor’s life time and after his or her death.
The grantor (aka settlor or trustor) is the person who creates the trust and transfers assets into it. The trustee is the person or entity responsible for managing and administering the trust assets according to the grantor’s instructions. The trustee is a fiduciary who must act in the best interests of the beneficiaries. The beneficiary is the person or group designated to receive benefits or income from the property held by the trust.
A trust may be created for a variety of reasons, including estate planning so that the assets are distributed according to the desires of the grantor and to avoid time-consuming and expensive probate procedures, to protect assets from creditors or legal claims, to provide fort the care and maintenance of your pets (aka fuzzy babies), to minimize estate, gift or income taxes, to manage your assets in the event you become incapacitated, or to support a charity or individual with special needs.
A trust enables precise control over asset distribution, including conditions such as age, events, or milestones a beneficiary must meet to receive a distribution. They are broadly categorized by the grantor and their revocability. Revocable trusts can be modified, amended or revoked during the grantor’s life and the assets held by the trust remain part of the grantor’s estate, thereby creating a source of income. An irrevocable trust cannot be changed. It relinquishes control and ownership permanently, most typically to minimize or limit estate tax and provide protections from creditors.
Once a trust is created, the grantor transfers assets to fund the trust. The trust then manages the assets according to the trust agreement, distributing income or principle to the beneficiaries as specified. The trustee has fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries of the trust.
Trusts provide continuity of management, privacy, and can help avoid the time consumed by probate and the expenses involved in probating an estate. They allow for financial planning to address tax, creditor or personal concerns. They legally separate ownership (held by the trustee) from the equitable ownership (grantor) and provide benefits (to beneficiaries) in a sophisticated and controlled manner.
Want to dictate what happens to your assets from the grave?