Are you a high net worth individual who is leaving tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars to your family in your estate plan? Maybe you have a massive family trust that you are creating or maybe you are transferring the family jewel-a multi-million dollar family business that you started from scratch. Who will run the business? Who will oversee the family wealth and be charged with maintaining and growing it? Who will protect it ? Who will take over for you?
Are you concerned that mom or dad could be the victim of elder abuse or financial exploitation? Many times, mom or dad retire and move to Florida, while the kids grow up, stay put and raise families of their own back home: hundreds or thousands of miles away from mom and dad. Life gets busy. The job is hectic and the family needs your attention and time. Meanwhile, mom and dad age in Florida.
Are you concerned about how assets and property in a Florida estate are being invested? Are you a beneficiary or heir or family member to a Florida estate which is supposed to give you your inheritance? Or maybe you are the Florida executor, the Florida personal representative of the Florida probate and want to know how to invest. I’m sure that your Florida probate lawyer has informed you about how an estate in Florida is administered.
Florida probate litigators deal with contested or disputed issues of wills, trusts, estates, inheritances and guardianships every day. Many times there are family members or those who are related to the decedent, client or person by marriage who don’t get along. Frustration is high. Blood runs hot. Money is at stake. While Florida attorneys, indeed trust and estate clients, should be good advocates, one must always be mindful what everyone’s role in probate litigation and trust trials is: to find out the truth and then apply the law to that truth, those facts.
Florida has a number of retirees, and its elder community is large. As we live longer as a society, there is a great likelihood that we will become incapacitated, or incompetent, before we pass away. When that happens, documents like powers of attorney, living wills, health care proxies, and other “health care” documents which designate someone to make medical or health care decisions can become very important. When those documents are not present, it may be necessary to have a guardianship. (Admittedly, even when you do have POAs and health care docs, families “fight” over who will make personal and financial decisions for someone.)