What if an accident or illness made it impossible to manage your financial affairs? Would your loved ones have to go to the Dade County or Broward County courthouse to get the authority to handle your affairs? No one likes to consider such grim possibilities, but the truth is that…
The living will is an important estate planning tool. Because this form of “will” is used while an individual is still alive (but no longer able to make decisions) it is dubbed the “living will.” The purpose of a living will is to allow you to make decisions about life…
Various types of lawsuits have different requirements for venues. A venue deals with the locality of the lawsuit or where the lawsuit will be filed or commenced. Typically, the venue is a county or district and is chosen based on the subject matter of the case or the where the…
No matter how good a person’s intention may have been in creating a trust, as with any matter involving money and property, disputes often occur. Beneficiaries in Fort Lauderdale may contest the actions of the Trustee located in Miami. As with other legal disputes, it is often desirable to resolve…
In addition to utilizing a trust to provide for your family, you can also create a trust to benefit a charitable organization. To qualify as a charitable trust, the benefiting party must be a charity pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Naturally, such entity must operate solely…
In Florida, the intent of a settlor (the person who creates a trust) proves extremely important with respect to the handling of the trust’s assets. Florida Probate Code section 736.1101 states that “[t]he intent of the settlor as expressed in the terms of the trust controls the legal effect of…
The appointed personal representative of a Florida resident’s estate, i.e. the individual placed in charge of distributing the assets of the estate, must abide by certain fiduciary duties that he or she owes to the beneficiaries (the individuals named to receive assets) of the estate. Suppose you are named a…
What happens when you marry someone after they have already made a will and sometime after the marriage your spouse dies without revising that will or making a new will? For example, Joe, a successful businessman from North Miami, creates a will leaving all of his property to his two…
It is an unfortunate but inevitable fact of life that, as we grow older, there is a tendency for our mental abilities to begin to fade. When a person’s mental abilities fade to the point where they can no longer look after their own interests and are unable to understand…
In Florida, “lineal descendant” or “descendant” is defined to mean “a person in any generational level down the applicable individual’s descending line.” Essentially, a descendant is a blood-relative of the deceased. Under Florida law, adopted children are also considered descendants for the purposes of Probate. So what does this really…