Estate Planning
Ensuring your family is cared for in the future requires careful planning. At The Simons Law Firm, PLLC, we guide our clients through every stage of estate planning while taking into consideration the specific needs and circumstances of each client. We help you determine and make decisions about your needs for a will, trust, and any other documents to help protect your legacy.
What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning is one of the most crucial steps an individual takes during their life to plan for their loved ones and beneficiaries. The estate plan ensures that your loved ones and beneficiaries are provided for after your passing.
Many people believe all that is needed is a basic will, however once you’ve consulted with an experienced estate planning attorney, you will realize there are many more steps to developing an effective and complete estate plan. By consulting and hiring an experienced attorney you will be able to avoid costly legal mistakes that could greatly impact your loved ones after your death.
Avoiding Probate in Florida
Probate is the court-supervised process to administer an estate. This process is generally slow, time consuming, and expensive.
Strategies to Avoid Probate
- Creating a revocable living trust
- Designating beneficiaries on accounts
- Using Transfer-on-Death (TOD) and Payable-on-Death (POD) accounts
- Joint ownership with rights of survivorship
Additional Estate Planning Tools
Many people also believe only a will or trust is needed when creating an estate plan. However, there are additional documents that help complete an estate plan to accomplish an individual’s goals. Each plan designed with The Simons Law Firm, PLLC ensures that our client has the ability and option to execute these ancillary documents.
- “Pour-Over Will”: This document is frequently used in trust estate plans and handles any assets that may not be named directly in the trust or acquired after the trust is executed.
- Living Will: Also known as a Medical Directive, is used to designate your medical decisions in the event that you become incapacitated or unable to make decisions on your own.
- Medical Power of Attorney: Designates someone to make medical decisions on your behalf. Those decisions must also align with any Living Will that you have executed.
- Power of Attorney: Documents that can give a designated agent the ability to help make decisions on your behalf.
- HIPAA Authorizations: These documents can be used to ensure that your agents or other individuals have access to important medical information.