Category Archives: wills
Amending and Revoking Wills and Trusts
Thinking about death and the people left behind is not a topic likely to find many takers, but death is the one event in life that no one is able to escape. Additionally, when a person is young and healthy, thoughts of illness and death seem so far away and unrelated to where they… Read More »
What Happens When Part of a Will Fails?
Making the decision to execute an estate plan long before concerns of major illness and frailty appear provides a huge service to a person’s spouse and family. Being able to direct when and how medical decisions are made and property is distributed after death often makes the life transition easier for the family, since… Read More »
Taking Care of Your Pet after Death
When setting up a trust or drafting a will, it is natural to think about how to best provide for the family members left behind, but there may be an additional part of the family that until recently was rarely considered – pets. Pets today are not treated or viewed the way they were… Read More »
What You Need to Know about Designating a Health Care Surrogate
Having the ability make decisions about your own health care is greatly valued by most people. Medical treatment is a very personal issue, and it is common for people to disagree on the correct approach, making the right to make these decisions even more important. At some point, though, many people will be faced… Read More »
What Happens to Your Estate If You Don’t Have a Will, or It Fails?
People often assume they have more time to think about what will happen after they die, and consequently, put off making decisions or executing formal documents, like wills and trusts. They may wait until they are very ill to make end-of-life arrangements and decide the easiest and obvious thing to do is leave a… Read More »
Overview of the Creation, Revocation, and Effect of Future Events on Wills in Florida
Everyone, at some point, needs to participate in the process of arranging for what happens to their possessions after death. While it may be a very heavy topic, creating a will and/or trust to pass your property on to family or friends is a much better alternative to a drawn-out, contentious battle in probate… Read More »
The Basics of Florida Probate
Quite a few famous people, such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, have died without wills. In fact, a dispute over Jimi Hendrix’s estate was resolved only last month. When a person dies without a will, the person dies “intestate.” “Intestate” is the legal term for lack of a will. Chapter 732, Part I… Read More »
Estate Planning for Same-Sex Couples
In January, Florida became the 36th state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. More recently, the United States Supreme Court held that same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marry. (Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) 772 F.3d 388, 576 U.S. ____). All people who are married, whether of the same or opposite sex, need to… Read More »
