Are you pleased with the way your Florida trustee is investing?   Are you the beneficiary of a Florida trust and wonder how your Florida trustee is doing as the stock market hits new highs?  Is your trustee encouraged by the surging stock market…….or negative and scared?  In Florida, Florida trust lawyers who represent trustees know that trust investing is not necessarily easy. 

Can a beneficiary of a Florida estate or a  Florida trust obtain punitive damages when involved in a probate litigation or a trust litigation lawsuit?   Heirs, family members and beneficiaries who inherit under a Florida will or a trust who are involved in litigation want damages.  In fact, in Florida, damages are often an important last element to proving your case.  In courtrooms across south Florida, like Palm Beach Gardens, Ft. Lauderdale or Delray Beach, you must demonstrate how you have been injured or wronged:  what are you damages?  Sometimes the question arises: can you get punitive damages in a Florida estate or a Florida trust case?

Florida probate litigation is a growth industry, for good or bad.  Whether that means that beneficiaries, heirs and children of a Florida estate or Florida trust are getting the legal help they need, or whether there are too many inheritance fights or inheritance disuptes, is left to another discussion. Regardless, children and heirs, and beneficiaries under a Florida will, are engaging in disputes (fights) over family wealth and wills throughout South Florida: from Palm Beach Gardens in Palm Beach County, down the coast to Aventura and Miami-Dade County, Florida. 

Do you understand everything you need to know about Florida trusts?  Are you a trust beneficiary of a Florida trust?  Do you need guidance from a Florida trust lawyer or Florida trustee?  In Florida, many probate lawyers and trust lawyers in cities like Jupiter, Florida, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, down to West Palm Beach draft trusts for the benefit of their Florida clients.  In many instances, Florida law will apply to the administration and interpretation of the Florida trust.

Are you a beneficiary of a Florida trust and not getting enough income?  Florida trust beneficiaries have been frustrated being an income beneficiary in a period of such historically low, and consistently low, interest rates.   After all, government debt is paying in the 2% range and although many companies have increased dividends over the recent past, the average dividend rate for many stocks remains in the 2% range as well.  What is a trust beneficiary of  a Florida trust to do?  Consider a person who retired to Boynton Beach, or Delray Beach, or Lake Worth, or who resides in Boca Raton and created a trust which pays you the income.  The trust creator is also called the  settlor or grantor of the  Florida trust. 

Did someone you know pass away in Florida?  Are you a beneficiary of a Florida will, estate or trust ?  If you are involved in a Florida probate administration or the administration of a Florida estate, finding the right Florida lawyer may seem like a challenge.  After all, finding any good service provider who is competent, available, communicative and good to deal with is not necessarily an easy task. 

Are you wondering where all of mom or dad’s money and property went after they were living in  Florida and had Florida wills and trusts and always seemed so organized and financially saavy?  Wondering where the Florida trustee put all the trust funds and assets? Did someone have a Florida power of attorney and are you wondering if the attorney in fact mis-used that Florida power of attorney and mis-appropriated Florida property? 

Do gay spouses have inheritance  and probate rights in Florida?   Will a same sex marriage be recognized in a Florida probate court?   If one spouse of a gay marriage, or a same sex marriage, dies, does the surviving spouse have inheritance rights in Florida?  What will a Florida probate court do regarding the property rights of a gay man or woman who has just lost his or her gay spouse?  

Are you involved with a Florida estate, will or trust in  Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, or Palm Beach Gardens?  These south Florida cities each have Florida probate courts.   If you are the beneficiary of a Florida estate or trust, you will want to know what assets comprise the Florida estate or trust.  

In Florida probate disputes and trials, Florida probate lawyers and Florida probate courts know that the property interests of a minor beneficiary must be protected.   Florida judges in Palm Beach County, FL,  Broward County, Florida and Miami-Dade County, Florida regularly appoint a Florida probate lawyer to serve as a guardian ad litem for the Florida estate or trust beneficiary.   A recent case or Florida opinion released at the end of September in Miami-Dade County, Florida reminds us that the guardian ad litem serves an important purpose.