The Community Foundation of Broward named my partner Jill Ginsberg its Professional Advisors Council Member of the Month for July and published a Q&A with her that’s worth reading. The Professional Advisors Council is the Foundation’s group of estate attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors who work with it on their clients’ charitable giving. Jill’s connection...
Most legal work doesn’t have a clean ending. Guardianship sometimes does. Jill on what the wins actually look like: The wins in guardianship aren’t verdicts. They’re stabilizations. A ward who was wandering out of the house at night is in a memory care unit where the doors are secured and the staff knows their name....
Effective July 1, 2026, Florida raised the estate-value limit for summary administration from $75,000 to $150,000. The change came in CS/HB 1337 (chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida), the most significant adjustment to Florida’s small-estate procedures in twenty-five years. The $75,000 figure had been in place since 2001, while everything an estate holds — home equity...
Most law firms will tell you they take every client who walks in the door. That’s not a virtue. It’s a business model. Jill was asked whether there are clients or situations she won’t take. Her answer: The policy is simple. If a client is nasty to the paralegals, they get fired. Not reprimanded. Not...
You walked out of the courthouse with letters of guardianship signed by a judge. The bank told you they won’t honor them. This happens constantly, and the fix is not a better phone number. In this episode, my partner Jill Ginsberg walks through what happens when financial institutions stonewall a guardian, personal representative, or agent...
Most attorneys who handle guardianship aren’t board certified in elder law. The certification is rare for a reason — the Florida Bar makes it hard to get and hard to keep. Jill on what it actually requires: Florida has 27 board certification specialty areas. Elder law is one of them. To become certified, an attorney...
It used to be easy. When a client died, their personal representative went to the house, opened the file cabinet or the kitchen drawer, and found the statements. Bank accounts, brokerage accounts, life insurance, the timeshare, the credit cards. If something wasn’t in the drawer, it showed up in the mail over the next three...
You’ve been named personal representative of a Florida estate — the person the will (or the court) puts in charge. Here’s what the job actually involves, in the order it happens, and the two mistakes that create personal liability. Before you’re appointed Deposit the original will with the clerk of court — Florida requires this...