Legal Consequences of No Estate Plan

When someone passes away without a will or estate plan, Florida law determines how their assets are distributed. These intestacy laws follow a strict formula that may not reflect your personal wishes. Assets could be divided among relatives you did not intend to benefit, while individuals you care deeply about may receive less or nothing at all.

This situation can be especially concerning for parents of minor children. Without an estate plan, the court may appoint a guardian based on legal standards rather than your preferences. This decision could overlook trusted family members or close friends you would have chosen yourself. Court involvement can also lead to increased delays, costs, and emotional strain for your family.

Financial Impacts on Your Estate

The financial consequences of not having an estate plan can be significant. Assets that are not properly planned for often must go through probate, a court-supervised process for settling an estate. Probate can be time-consuming and expensive, with court fees, attorney fees, and administrative costs reducing the value of the estate.

Taxes are another important consideration. Without proper planning, your estate may be subject to higher estate and gift taxes, leaving less for your heirs. According to the Internal Revenue Service, strategic estate planning can help reduce tax exposure and preserve more of your wealth for beneficiaries. Thoughtful planning may also help avoid unnecessary tax complications for surviving family members.

Family Conflict and Emotional Stress

Beyond legal and financial concerns, a lack of planning can create tension among family members. When instructions are unclear or missing, disagreements over asset distribution, responsibilities, and decision-making authority are more likely to arise. These disputes can damage relationships and lead to prolonged legal battles.

An estate plan helps reduce uncertainty by clearly outlining your intentions and wishes. By naming decision-makers and beneficiaries in advance, you provide clarity that helps your family focus on healing rather than resolving conflicts.

Protecting Loved Ones and Your Wishes

An estate plan allows you to decide who receives your assets, who manages them, and who will care for your children or dependents if you are no longer able to do so. You can also include instructions for charitable giving, healthcare decisions, and long-term care planning.

Documents such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives work together to ensure your wishes are respected during your lifetime and after your passing. This level of preparation helps protect vulnerable loved ones and ensures that important decisions are made by people you trust.

Why Working With an Attorney Matters

Estate planning involves more than filling out forms. Laws change, family dynamics evolve, and financial situations become more complex over time. Working with an experienced attorney helps ensure your plan is legally sound and tailored to your specific goals.

France Law Firm provides comprehensive estate planning services designed to protect clients and their families. Whether you need a simple will or a more complex trust-based plan, proper legal guidance can make a meaningful difference.

Next Steps Toward Peace of Mind

Creating an estate plan is not only about preparing for the unexpected; it is also about ensuring that your wishes are fulfilled. It is about providing clarity, security, and protection for the people who matter most to you. France Law Firm focuses on wills, trusts, and estate planning strategies that align with your goals and comply with Florida law.

If you are ready to take the next step, schedule a consultation to begin building an estate plan tailored to your unique needs. Planning today can help spare your loved ones unnecessary stress tomorrow.

The post What Happens Without an Estate Plan appeared first on France Law Firm.

An accident or an unexpected illness can render you incapacitated or take your life at any time. Even if you have one bank account, a car, and some personal belongings, and are too young to have a substantial retirement account or bank accounts, your estate must still go through probate—unless you have an estate plan that could bypass the process.

An experienced estate planning attorney at France Law can help you create an estate plan, including documents such as living wills, powers of attorney, and other documents to give your loved ones permission to make decisions should you become incapacitated.

What Is Estate Planning and Why Does it Matter?

An estate plan is more than a Will. The plan encompasses trusts, health directives, medical and financial powers of attorney, and asset protection. And, estate planning is not just for rich people or seniors—even young people should have an estate plan to protect their assets and wishes should they become incapacitated or die because of an illness or accident.

An estate plan ensures your loved ones carry out your wishes and minimizes burdens for them. Experienced probate attorneys can review your assets and discuss your wishes to help you create an appropriate estate plan for your situation.

Benefits of Estate Planning

Creating an estate plan when you are younger—even as young as your late teens or early 20s—has many benefits for you and your family.

• Peace of Mind and Reduced Stress: Documenting your assets and intentions reduces personal anxiety and stress on your loved ones should something happen to you. It also reduces conflict between family members and prevents rushed decisions that may be wrong later in life.
• Protecting Loved Ones and Avoiding Family Conflict: Estate plans provide clear instructions for taking care of you should you not be able to make decisions on your own, and tell them how to distribute your assets. They also prevent infighting among family members, especially if you choose to leave more of your assets to one person. They also protect your wishes for asset distribution if you have a blended family.
• Save Money and Avoid Probate Costs: Probate court fees, legal expenses, and delays can quickly drain an estate, leaving nothing for your loved ones, even if you are more well-off, but not rich. Trusts and early planning can minimize or even avoid probate. Additionally, early estate planning generally costs less than emergency legal work later.
• Unexpected Illness or Incapacity: An estate plan includes powers of attorney and healthcare directives to ensure your family and healthcare professionals meet your wishes. Without these documents, your family must go through guardianship or other court processes during stressful times. These documents give your loved ones guidance.
• Tax Advantages and Asset Protection: Planning early allows you to create strategies to use trusts, gifting, and other avenues to minimize your tax burden. It also protects our business and some family assets from creditors.

When You Should Start Estate Planning and How to Get Started

There is no set amount of assets needed to start an estate plan. As soon as you have one or more of the following, you should contact estate probate attorneys to get started:

• Personal preferences about healthcare and finances
• Assets
• Dependents

It’s never too early, but waiting can make it too late to create your estate plan. The best time to create an estate plan is when you move out independently, as you will most likely have a bank account and a vehicle. Your loved ones will need access to your bank account and permission to handle your finances if an accident or illness incapacitates you or a fatal accident or illness takes your life.

To get started on your estate plan, set up a consultation with a wills and estate lawyer. Before your appointment:

• Take inventory of your assets and debts
• Decide who to name as a guardian, beneficiaries, and who should make healthcare decisions on your behalf

Once your attorney creates the documents for your estate plan, please review them carefully. As you have significant life changes, update your estate plan. Life changes that affect your plan include:

• Marriage
• Divorce
• Birth of a child
• Adoption of a child
• Significant purchases, such as a home, vacation home or vehicle

If you don’t have substantial life changes, you should still update your estate plan every two to three years, as probate and tax laws change frequently.

Contact France Law Firm

Regardless of your age or financial standing, contact France Law Firm today to schedule an estate planning consultation.

The post The Benefits of Early Estate Planning appeared first on France Law Firm.

While planning for the future, you must consider certain factors, such as safeguarding your loved one’s government benefits and providing financial stability. An estate planning attorney at France Law Firm can help you create an estate plan that benefits your unique situation.

The Impact of Inheritance on Benefits

One of the primary reasons for creating an estate plan when you have a loved one with special needs is to provide for him or her. However, a direct inheritance can jeopardize your loved one’s eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid.

It takes special planning to provide for a loved one after your death without jeopardizing his or her much-needed government benefits. Florida law allows for special trusts that protect your loved one’s government benefits.

Key Estate Planning Tools for Special Needs

Some of the key estate planning tools to protect your loved one’s benefits include:

Special Needs Trusts

A special needs trust (SNT) creates a fiduciary relationship that allows a special needs person to receive income without reducing or removing his or her ability to receive government disability benefits from Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid programs.

It does not replace benefits but supplements them instead. Proceeds from the SNT can pay for medical expenses, transportation costs, caretakers, and other needs.

The trustee, a person you trust implicitly, controls the trust and oversees its management, including the disbursement of funds.

Third-Party Special Needs Trust

A third-party special needs trust can pass to other heirs after the beneficiary dies. Someone other than the beneficiary funds a third-party trust.

First-Party Special Needs Trust

The beneficiary funds a first-person SNT with assets, such as a settlement or an inheritance. After the beneficiary dies, the trustee may have to use any remaining funds in the trust to pay benefits back to the state.

Pooled Trusts

Some nonprofits manage pooled trusts for multiple beneficiaries. These trusts are generally helpful for smaller amounts if a private trustee is unavailable.

ABLE Accounts

Another estate planning option for a special needs person is an ABLE account, a savings or investment option created by Section 529A of the Internal Revenue Service tax code. These accounts allow someone whose disability began before 26 the age of to save money without affecting federally funded benefits.

The growth in these accounts is not subject to taxation. Beneficiaries can pay for qualified disability expenses.

Steps to Creating an Estate Plan for a Special Needs Person

Always consult with experienced asset protection attorneys when creating an estate plan, especially when the plan must include an SNT.

• Do not name a special needs person as a direct beneficiary on retirement plans, financial accounts, or life insurance.
• Update your will and beneficiary designations.
• Fund an SNT with life insurance.
• Appoint a guardian where applicable.
• Create a letter of intent that details the special needs person’s routines, medical information, preferences, and care instructions.

Review and Update Your Estate Plan Regularly

You must update your estate plan each time you have a significant life change, such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a death in the family, or a substantial investment. If you do not have a significant life change within three years of your last life change, contact France Law Firm to update your estate plan, as probate and federal taxation laws change frequently.

Don’t Leave Your Loved Ones in a Bind

Contact a wills and estate lawyer at France Law Firm at 850-224-1040 or by completing our online contact form for a consultation to create or update an estate plan or to create a special needs trust.

The post How to Plan for Special Needs Family Members in Your Estate appeared first on France Law Firm.

Trust administration happens when the decedent establishes a trust during their lifetime and appoints a trustee to manage and distribute assets. The trust contains instructions on the distribution of assets and often bypasses the probate process.

An experienced Florida estate planning attorney can help determine which process is best for your situation when you complete an estate plan or can guide personal representatives and trustees through administering a will or trust.

What is Probate?

The probate process is the court-supervised process of distributing assets that the decedent did not include in a trust. It also handles beneficiary designation. The probate process includes:

• Filing a petition and the will with the court
• Appointing a personal representative if the decedent died intestate or approving the personal representative the decedent named in the will
• Filing a notice to creditors, beneficiaries, and other interested parties
• Taking an inventory of the estate’s assets
• Paying creditors and other expenses
• Paying real estate taxes
• Distributing assets to beneficiaries
• Creating a final accounting
• Filing a closing statement

The probate process is very public, as the records are available. It can take 6 to 18 months or longer to complete the probate process, depending on several factors, including the complexity of the will and whether family members contest the will. Estate probate attorneys can represent the estate should someone challenge the will.

What is Trust Administration?

If the decedent has a trust, the process is more private, as many documents do not require court supervision. Key steps in trust administration include:

• Posting the fiduciary bond, if necessary
• Trust asset management
• Protecting the value of trust property
• Enforcing legal claims of the trust
• Distributing assets under the trust
• Maintaining or dissolving the trust based on the decedent’s intent

Trust administration is often less expensive and faster than probate, as a trust does not need to go through the probate court.

Key Differences Between Probate and Trust Administration

The significant differences between the probate and trust administration processes include:

• Court Involvement: Probate requires court involvement, while trust administration does not
• Privacy: The probate process is a public record, while trust administration remains private unless someone contests the trust, in which case, it goes to court and becomes a matter of public record.
• Time: Trust administration is usually faster because trusts generally do not go through the court process
• Cost: Trust administration is generally less expensive, as the process is shorter and you do not have court fees and other expenses related to probate
• Flexibility: Trust administration is more flexible, as it is led by the trustee, as opposed to the probate process, which requires court oversight

In addition to the additional cost and loss of privacy in the probate process, there is a higher potential for conflict from disinherited heirs when the estate uses only a will.

Which Process is Right for You?

When creating an estate plan, the probate attorneys at France Law Firm can review your situation and recommend whether you need to create a trust or if a will will work best for you. Factors affecting your decision include:

• Complexity of the estate
• Size of the estate
• Privacy concerns
• Cost sensitivity
• Family dynamics
• Blended families
• Federal tax laws

Contact France Law Firm

A wills and estate lawyer at France Law Firm can review your situation, advise you of how state laws may affect your estate, and help you create an estate plan unique to your financial situation and needs. Contact us today for a consultation by calling 850-224-1040 or completing our online contact form.

The post Probate vs. Trust Administration: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter? appeared first on France Law Firm.

Creating an estate plan—or at least a detailed will—can prevent scenarios such as this from happening. The experienced probate attorneys at France Law Firm can help you create a will or an appropriate estate plan for your situation.

When Adults Should Create a Will

Every adult, regardless of age, should have a will. Even if you are still living with your parents at 18 or are just starting, you most likely have a bank account, a vehicle, and sentimental items you would like a particular person to have should something happen to you.

Anything could happen at any time in your life. An unexpected, sudden illness or an accident could easily take your life at 18 as it could at 80.

Reasons Every Adult Should Have a Will

Creating a will allows you to name a guardian to care for minor children and family members who may be unable to care for themselves. A well-drafted will also allow you to name an executor—someone you trust to oversee the distribution of your estate. Additional reasons to create a will early in your life include:

• Making bequests and donations to certain people and charities can decrease estate taxes.
• The possibility of avoiding probate, which is time-consuming and often expensive.
• Minimizing family stress during a difficult time.

As you add assets, you can easily change your will. Over your lifetime, as you start earning more, amassing more assets, and having children, you can create an estate plan that can help protect your assets and your family should you become incapacitated or die.

Information Required for a Will

Before you speak with an experienced estate planning attorney, it helps to gather the information required to draft a will. You will need:

Personal Information

You will need the legal names, birthdates, and addresses of you, your spouse, children, beneficiaries, and potential executors or guardians. Phone numbers are helpful, too. You will also need the date and place you married your current spouse, prenuptial and/or postnuptial agreements, divorce decree, and custody paperwork.

A List of Assets

All property you own, whether in your name only or jointly with your spouse, should be on the list. The list should include bank accounts, cash, life insurance policies, pension plans, retirement accounts, annuities, real estate, businesses, vehicles, jewelry, boats, items of sentimental value, and furniture. If you have pets that should go to a specific person, be sure to list them, too. Don’t forget book collections, coin collections, and tools.

A List of Debts

Include all debts such as credit cards, mortgages, promissory notes, and mortgages. You should also include account locations and the location of account access information.

Beneficiaries

Know who you plan to bequeath your assets to. Bank accounts and life insurance accounts may already have a beneficiary—be sure they are the same person on the account and in your will.

You should also add secondary beneficiaries if something happens to the primary beneficiary before your death, or if the primary beneficiary dies simultaneously.

Representatives

To protect your interests, you should have a list that includes an executor plus two alternatives, as the probate court must approve the named executor. You should also include:

• Lawyers
• Trustees
• Guardians for minor children and family members who require care

Contact France Law Firm

Create a will or an estate plan to protect your assets and your family. It does not matter how young you are—if you are an adult, even if you still live with your parents, you should have a will or an estate plan. Contact France Law Firm at 850-224-1040 or complete our contact form today to schedule a consultation.

The post Why Every Adult Needs a Will: A Guide to Protecting Your Wishes appeared first on France Law Firm.

The Tax Benefits of Charitable Giving

When you donate to qualified charitable organizations, you can reduce your overall tax liability. This type of deduction is valuable to those earning a high income, helping them minimize their tax burden while supporting worthy causes at the same time.

To maximize tax deductions, you should consider several factors, including:

• Choose the Right Charitable Vehicle: Common options for charitable giving include charitable remainder trusts, donor-advised funds, cash donations, and private foundations. Each type has its benefits, including control over funds and tax efficiency. Your estate planning attorney and tax attorneys can help you choose the best charitable vehicle for your situation.
• Leverage Appreciated Assets: By donating appreciated assets, such as artwork or real estate, you can support your favorite charity and maximize your tax deductions. In many cases, if you held the asset for over a year, you can deduct the asset’s fair market value when you donate. In addition to minimizing your tax burden, you could avoid paying capital gains tax. Other assets may include restricted stock, publicly traded securities, private equity fund interests, post-IPO stock, cryptocurrency, equity compensation awards, and privately held business interests.
• Qualified Charitable Distributions: If you are 70.5 years or older and required to take minimum distributions from your retirement accounts, you can transfer funds from your IRA to a charity without realizing taxable income from the distribution.
• Use Bunching Strategies and Optimize Timing: If you can bunch more than a year’s worth of charitable deductions and optimize the timing, for example, by coordinating charitable donations with significant financial events, you could increase your tax savings. Bunching may benefit those who can now take the much higher standard deduction. For example, if you donate for two years in one year, you can itemize in 2023 and then take the standard deduction in 2024.

Charitable Giving and Estate Planning

Charitable giving can also affect the amount of taxes your estate pays. Strategic charitable giving can maximize wealth transfer to your heirs by using various vehicles. Your tax attorneys and estate planning attorneys at France Law Firm can help you structure your charitable giving to minimize not only your yearly tax obligation but also your estate tax obligation.

Obligations for Charitable Giving: Documentation and Record-Keeping

To take advantage of charitable giving, you must document your donations and keep the documentation to prove your donations to the Internal Revenue Service. When you submit your receipts to your tax attorney at France Law Firm, your attorney can include the donations as long as they are to qualified charitable organizations.

Documents may include receipts, appraisals for non-cash assets you donated, and letters of acknowledgment from charitable organizations. Your attorney can use this documentation to file the required tax forms to receive a tax deduction without incurring potential penalties if you exceed certain thresholds.

Contact France Law Firm

Charitable giving and tax planning are complex aspects of your finances. A tax attorney can help you claim charitable giving on your taxes and estate to maximize tax deductions. Your tax and estate planning attorney can help you choose the right philanthropic vehicle and leverage appreciated assets to maximize your tax deductions.

Contact a tax and estate planning attorney at France Law Firm for a consultation by calling 850-224-1040.

The post Maximizing Tax Deductions for Charitable Giving appeared first on France Law Firm.

Why Estate Tax Planning in Florida is Important

Many people retire to Florida because of its weather and lack of state income tax. However, the federal government seeks its share after you pass. An estate planning attorney can help you set up a trust to minimize that tax burden.

Another very important reason for using an estate lawyer to help you set up a plan is that anything can happen at any time. A trust can help with asset protection should you become incapacitated. It can also allow a loved one to handle your affairs until you are well enough to do it yourself.

You do not have to be a certain age to create an estate plan. In fact, if you are over 18 and own assets, regardless of the value, you should create an estate plan.

Types of Trusts for Minimizing the Estate Tax Burden

Florida has several types of trusts that can help minimize your tax burden, including:

Revocable Living Trust

One of the most common trusts in Florida is a revocable living trust. This flexible estate planning tool allows you to keep control over your assets during your lifetime and specifies how your assets should be distributed upon your death. A revocable living trust can help avoid probate and minimize estate taxes.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust

When you need a trust to hold life insurance policies, you can use an irrevocable life insurance trust. When you place your life insurance policies in this trust, the proceeds from the policy can be excluded from the taxable estate. This trust is needed (but not required) if your estate is valued at over $12.92 million.

Qualified Personal Residence Trust

You can transfer your primary residence to a qualified personal residence trust and still keep your right to live in it for a certain number of years as dictated by the trust. In the trust, list the number of years you expect to live – you have a right to stay in the house until then. This is one of the ways you can minimize your tax burden. If you are still alive when the time ends, you can pay rent to the estate, which further reduces your estate tax burden.

Charitable Remainder Trust

When you wish to give to a charitable organization, you can choose a charitable remainder trust. Any assets placed in this trust provide income to beneficiaries for a set time. If there is anything left in the trust, the remaining assets go to the charity you choose.

Dynasty Trust

Use a dynasty trust to provide for multiple generations. You can preserve wealth for the long term, plus reduce estate taxes for each generation so that your grandchildren and great-grandchildren can enjoy your wealth. The asset protection attorneys at France Law Firm can help you set up a dynasty trust.

Contact France Law Firm

While Florida offers many benefits because of its tax laws, the federal government is still going to use the long arm of the Internal Revenue Service to collect what it can get. You can use one or more trusts to minimize the tax burden for your heirs. Contact the probate attorneys at France Law Firm for a consultation to discuss a new estate plan or to update a current estate plan.

The post Estate Tax Planning: Utilizing Trusts to Minimize Tax Burden on Your Heirs appeared first on France Law Firm.

Considerations for Your Living Will

When creating a living will, you’ll have several things to consider before creating the document with the help of an attorney. You will want to talk with your family, your lawyer, your doctor or an important religious figure in your life. You want to consider your attitude towards living as well as dying. You’ll also want to think about how the treatments will impact your family and how ready they are to let go – should it come to that.

Know What You’re Refusing

A living will that meets your needs and life philosophy requires a little familiarity with the medical jargon used to describe situations or procedures that a doctor may want to perform when you’re incapacitated. You may feel okay with a doctor performing some of them and you may not want others.

Resuscitation – restarts your heart when it has stopped. It can be either Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) or the electric shock. A medical professional may use these after an event like an auto accident, so you may want to allow this one.

Mechanical Ventilation – a device takes over your breathing when you can’t do it for yourself.

Tube Feeding – provides nutrition the body needs if you are incapacitated. Not only can you issue an order preventing a doctor from initiating this treatment, you can determine the length of time to allow it to continue once it has started.

Dialysis – does what your kidneys cannot do if you are incapacitated, remove waste from bodily fluids. Like tube feeding, it can be time regulated.

Antibiotic or Antiviral treatments – if you are incapacitated and contract a disease, a doctor may prescribe aggressive (and possibly expensive) medications to stop the spread of the infection.

You can approve or disapprove any kind of treatment in your will. You have an absolute right to control your medical care. Only in extreme circumstances can anyone force an invasive treatment on you.

Family Considerations

As we all know, medical treatments, even with “blue blood” insurance, can be expensive. Unfortunately, that cost would be one of the burdens you’d be placing on your family for some types of medical care should you become seriously ill. You should take the costs into account when making a decision on what types of care you would allow in your will.

The other burden you could place on your family is an emotional one. They may be desperate to see you recover from your illness or injury. Yet, as time wears on, they may be suffering unnecessarily. You may have young children that you have hopes of seeing grow older, and you may not quite understand the circumstances they are in when you are incapacitated for a length of time. Limiting the length of time under which you are subject to some treatments may be a good compromise between the two extremes; you give them hope but limit their angst.

Decisions That Affect You

Those issues focus on others. You also have to think about yourself. What kind of lifestyle do you enjoy now? How would you feel knowing that you are bed-ridden and dependent on machines and a team of medical professionals to keep living? Do you want to attempt to extend your life at any cost?

You can get very specific in dictating your treatment. You can make your demands situational. You can specify how you will be treated in case of an accident versus how you will be treated if you have suffered a currently incurable disease.

Talk to an Attorney About a Living Will

Discussing end-of-life issues are among the most difficult topics we can broach with each other, let alone with an attorney. Good lawyers are aware of this and will treat topics like a living will with the appropriate sensitivity and compassion. At the France Law Firm, we will give you peace of mind as we help you navigate the legal issues associated with medical care so that you can plan for your family’s future.

The post Things to Consider When Creating a Living Will appeared first on France Law Firm.

These three steps can help you get the process started, and your estate planning lawyer can help you make your plan virtually flawless.

1. Develop Your Estate Planning Goals.

Perhaps the hardest part of creating an estate plan is to develop what you want to accomplish with your scheme. You have a lot to consider when planning for your legacy. You may want to think about the following questions:

• Whom do you want to be sure you include?
• Do you need to consider complete support for someone or will your inheritance just be a helpful gift?
• Which assets need to be distributed?
• Should particular people get specific assets?
• Whom do you want to administer your estate?
• Do you have concerns about privacy?
• How will your estate affect your family dynamic?
• Are you concerned about minimizing tax obligations?
• If you own a business—how will your business be affected by your passing? Should it be addressed in your estate plan?

Deciding what you want to accomplish with your estate plan means considering the who, what, and why of everything you own and many people that you love. It can be somewhat overwhelming and may take time. It is a good idea to sit down and do some conscious analysis of what your estate will look like when you pass and how you want to pass down your legacy.

2. Analyze and Discuss with a Professional.

The best way to ensure that you are going to accomplish your estate planning goals is to work through potential scenarios and options with an experienced professional. Your attorney will be able to examine your assets, review your goals, and craft a tailored estate plan to meet those objectives.

No one has the same estate plan, just like no one has the exact financial situation or legacy planning goals. Do not assume that something that works well for another person will fit your needs.

Unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of assuming they can use a ready-made plan off of the internet. Those plans do not specifically address your situation, and they certainly cannot consider the best options for your needs. Instead, a professional will be able to help you create a package of estate planning tools to create a great plan. These tools may include a will, a power of attorney, trust instruments, or even insurance policies.

3. Review and Revise.

As your life changes, you may need to adjust your estate plan so that it continues to meet your needs. For example, if you welcome a new grandchild into the world, you may need to adjust the assets or funds that you are providing to each child or even the grandchildren individually. You may also need to adjust individuals whom you have named as guardians or as an executor if some change should affect those people as well.

It is a good idea to do a periodic review of your estate plan to ensure that you do not need to make any changes. Most estate planning attorneys will suggest a review once per year, but you should be sure to review your plan any time your family situation changes as well.

Using a Florida Estate Planning Attorney

You may not realize which type of estate planning documents will work best for your situation. It is essential to keep in mind that proper estate planning often goes far beyond crafting a simple will. Having an experienced estate planning attorney to help you with this process will increase the likelihood that your plan will be upheld if it is challenged—saving your loved ones significant time, money, and stress after you have passed.

If you are ready to start the estate planning process, involve the team at the France Law Firm. Call today to schedule a consultation.

The post 3 Steps for Flawless Estate Planning appeared first on France Law Firm.

Will vs. Trust

Both documents are used to give your assets to those of your choosing after you die. However, a trust doesn’t usually provide for personal items, wherein a will does. In most cases, it’s beneficial to have both documents. Larger items, such as vehicles, are usually placed in a trust. In some cases, your home may be placed in a trust.

If you have a small estate, you may not need a trust. However, a living/revocable trust is funded with your assets during your lifetime. Should you become incapacitated due to an accident or illness, the trustee, or successor trustee if you named yourself trustee, will be able to continue managing your assets just as you would have. In many cases, the trust keeps creditors, nursing homes and medical facilities from depleting your estate.

If you die with just a will, your assets are not automatically passed to your heirs, nor could they be managed by someone else if you become incapacitated. Furthermore, a will allows your assets to become public record, but a living trust keeps your assets private.

Avoiding Probate

In many cases, you may be able to avoid probate if you have a trust. In some cases, a will may allow you to avoid probate. This depends on the types of assets you have and whether your friends and family contest your will.

If you die intestate – without a will – you will have to go through the probate process. If you die testate – with a will – your heirs may be able to avoid the probate process. With a trust, your heirs have a better chance of avoiding the probate process. You want to try to avoid this process at it could become costly. And, it does take time to go through the process. Because of the cost and time it takes, probate adds another stress to the stress of loved ones at this time.

The Catch

Of course, there is always a catch. If you create a living trust, creditors have two years to file claims against your estate. Until that time is up, your trustee cannot fully pay out the trust. However, if you do file probate, the two-year waiting time is reduced to three months. But, if you do file probate, then you end up having that cost anyway.

When determining whether you should create a living will, keep in mind the time frames, and whether your heirs will have to or want to file probate. In most cases, if you do have a lot of assets, it’s always best to create a trust and a will, as a trust is an excellent estate management tool – especially since you can’t see into the future to know if you are going to be become incapacitated.

Simplified Probate and Trusts

While you should always have a will, even if you don’t own real property or other large assets, you may not need a trust. If your estate is valued at less than $75,000, your heirs may be able to file a simplified probate proceeding, which makes having a trust an expense that you could avoid.

The Bottom Line

When creating your estate, if you have real property or a large number of assets, you should create a will, some type of trust, living will and a power of attorney. The will ensures that your assets are passed to those you want to have them. A living trust allows you to manage your assets while you are living and lets the trustee manage them if you become incapacitated. The living trust also facilitates the giving of your assets after your death.

A living trust instructs your doctors when they should revive you and continue life-giving treatments, such as a ventilator to keep you alive. And, a power of attorney allows a beneficiary to conduct legal transactions on your behalf. Depending on how the power of attorney is drafted, a beneficiary could buy and sell real estate, file bankruptcy on your behalf, and conduct other legal matters.

Contact France Law Firm

Regardless of your age, contact France Law Firm for help in determining which estate documents are best for your situation. Even if you are very young, it’s not to early to create your estate documents.

The post Will Vs. Trust, Which Do I Need? appeared first on France Law Firm.