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This is not true. Any amount of money requires some estate planning. Much that’s needed doesn’t need an attorney
Category: Estate Planning
The Most Important Thing to Start Estate Planning
/RSS FeedWhat’s the most important thing someone can do to get started with their estate plan?
A good place to start is to do an inventory of what you have. Not just tangible property – pictures, books, etc., but more intangible property like bank accounts and life insurance. Next figure out who you want to represent you with documents that are relevant while you’re alive and those that come into play after you pass. Work with a good attorney.
What does an Executor do?
/RSS FeedThis role only comes into play after someone passes. This person is the one you’ve chosen to dispose of your estate – whatever you own when you pass that hasn’t been legally designated to go to someone specific. A good plan covers tangible personal property from vehicles to knickknacks. Sadly, probate is the result if anything hasn’t been beneficiary designated.
Debbie London Baker on Ask The Experts, March 2024
Topics include:
–What’s an Estate Plan? Who Needs One?
–Horrible situations that come up
–How do people choose who to name for power of attorney, healthcare surrogate, personal representative?
–How do I provide for my pets?Recorded March 2024
Four Easy Pieces of an Estate Plan
/RSS FeedThe first is a Last Will and Testament, which describes how an individual wants their property (the legal term is “bounty”) distributed after passing.
The other three are essential while an individual is living.
- Durable Power of Attorney – someone who can make financial decisions, access digital assets, do planning for government benefits, sell property
- Health Care Surrogate – someone who can make talk to doctors and make medical decisions if you’re not able
- Living Will – how you want end-or-life situations handled from letting you pass as soon as it’s determined there is no reasonable medical probability of recovery to being kept alive at all costs
Quitclaim Deed or Lady Bird Deed?
What’s best for estate planning? Quitclaim Deed or Lady Bird Deed?
Why do Estate Planning? You never know what’s going to happen.
/RSS FeedIf you love your family, you plan. When you pass, your loved ones are best served if you give them a plan. Then the only thing for them to do is grieve. You plan to provide that luxury.
How do I provide for my pets?
/RSS FeedThis, like other pieces of planning, can be hard. Florida allows pet trusts where money can be set aside for the specific purpose.
Many times people, as they age, decide there will be no more pets because they’re not going to run the risk of dying and not know where their animal will go.
How do people choose whom to name?
/RSS FeedThis can be tough – people feel obligated to name spouses, to name children, to name family.
Trust is the key. The people named have to be willing to honor your wishes – not there own – whether as a power of attorney, a healthcare surrogate, or a personal representative after you pass.
These can be VERY hard choices.
The Horrible Situations That Come Up
/RSS FeedHorrible situations are those that could be avoided with a competent counsel.
- Homes don’t go where someone wanted because they didn’t find out how to get it done.
- Money goes to people you wouldn’t give a dime to.
- Children wind up with family members who look good on paper and who you wouldn’t allow to babysit.