Estate Planning In Florida Text Size:

What Is Estate Planning?

You can save your loved ones a lot of money and frustration by devising a plan for the management of your health care and property in the event you become severely disabled or pass away. A Florida lawyer who does estate planning can help you with:

• Advance health care directives that give instructions on how you want your health care managed if you become incapacitated and unable to speak for yourself
• Powers of attorney that appoint someone to manage your property and sign legal papers for you if you become severely incapacitated
• Wills and probate that transfer your property to selected beneficiaries upon your death
• Trusts that provide for the care of minors or disabled persons, minimize taxes, or protect against creditors
• Strategies to avoid probate that transfer property at death-- insurance, gifts, joint ownership of property, bank accounts
• Medicaid eligibility planning

Advance Health Care Directives

Advance health care directives are written instructions that tell how you want your health care to be managed if you become so ill you can’t speak for yourself. You can include one or more of the following parts:

• Living Will: You can use a Living Will to indicate whether you want life prolonging procedures, like artificial respirators or feeding tubes, to be withheld if you develop a terminal condition, an end-stage condition or become permanently unconscious.
• Health Care Surrogate Designation: You can authorize someone to make health care decisions for you if you become so sick you are unable to make these decisions yourself.
• Anatomical Donation: You may give instructions about the donation of all or part of your body upon death. 

Powers of Attorney

In Florida, you can sign a durable power of attorney to appoint someone to handle your assets if you become incapacitated. At a minimum, a power of attorney should include the power to:

• Manage and transfer all assets
• Deal with the IRS
• Make gifts on your behalf
• Create and amend any trusts you set up

You don't need to transfer any assets at the time you sign a power of attorney, but it's a good idea to keep the person you've chosen informed about your ongoing financial matters.

Making A Will

In Florida, you can make a valid will if you are at least 18 years old and of sound mind. The will must be in writing and be signed by you at the end of the document, or someone else can sign your name in your presence as directed by you. Two witnesses must also sign their names to the will in your presence. It’s best if they are not beneficiaries of the will or related to you.

In the will you can

• Distribute your property
• Select a guardian for your minor children
• Name an executor to manage the probate of your will and the distribution of your property after your death

You can change your will by making a new will that replaces or revokes the old one or by making an addition to the will, called a codicil. Changes such as a marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, new property ownership, or moving to another state should cause you to review your will and consider whether it should be changed to fit your new situation.

A Florida lawyer who does estate planning can explain the consequences of some of the most basic choices you must make, such as whether property you want to leave to your minor children should be put into a trust at your death. It makes sense to consult with a Florida estate planning lawyer and have him or her draft your will so you avoid costly mistakes and achieve your intended results.

Dying Without A Will

If you die without a will (known as dying intestate) in Florida, your assets will be divided among members of your immediate family. If you have a spouse but no children, your entire estate will go to your spouse.

If you have a spouse and at least one child or grandchild who is also your spouse's descendant, the first $60,000 of your estate beyond homestead entitlements, plus one-half of the remaining estate, will go to your spouse. If you have children or grandchildren that aren't also those of your spouse, your spouse gets one half of your estate. The remainder goes to your children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren.

If you have no spouse or children, your estate will go to your parents if they are still living. If your parents aren't still alive, your estate will go to your siblings.

Related Resources on Lawyers.com^sm

- Contact an Estate Planning attorney in your area for specific advice, and read about Selecting a Good Estate Planning Lawyer
- Need a form? Access hundreds of Personal Legal Forms, including an Living Will, Power of Attorney and Last Will & Testament 
- Read Trust Basics, Gloria Allred Wills & Estate Planning Tips and other Estate Planning articles and information
- Legal Dictionary
- Visit the Legal Forums for discussions on Estates, Wills & Probate topics