Your IRA, 401(k), and life insurance go where the beneficiary form says, not where your will says. Here's what that means in Florida....
Families wait. That’s the answer. Jill has been doing this for a long time and the same pattern shows up in case after case. Something is clearly wrong — mom is signing things she doesn’t understand, the new boyfriend is moving money out of the joint account, the brother who lives nearby has started “managing”...
People come in expecting a probate proceeding. Contested guardianships are litigation. Real litigation, with depositions, motions, evidentiary hearings, and a trial. Jill on what the early days actually involve: The framework is §744.331, Fla. Stat. — the incapacity proceeding. Three examining committee members are appointed. Each one independently evaluates the alleged incapacitated person and files...
The hearing is maybe one percent of the case. People think a guardianship ends when the judge signs the order. That’s when it starts. The appointment is the entry point into a court-supervised fiduciary relationship that continues, in most of our cases, until the ward dies. Every year there is a plan to file. Every...
Clarification: the spouse’s signature alone is not a waiver; the deed must contain waiver language (§732.7025). Your will doesn’t control your house. Not in Florida, not if you have a spouse or a minor child. There are three different things in Florida called “homestead” and almost everyone confuses them: the property tax exemption, creditor protection,...
Go pull your revocable trust out of the drawer. Find the paragraph that says something like “the minimum pecuniary amount necessary to reduce to zero the federal estate tax owed as a result of my death.” Or “that portion of the residue equal to the maximum amount that can pass free of federal estate tax.”...
Your will may not control what happens to your Florida home. If you have a surviving spouse or a minor child, Florida’s Constitution decides — not your documents. Most people don’t find this out until after someone dies, which is when fixing it becomes impossible. Florida’s homestead law restricts how you can leave your primary...
People used to ask me why they should hire an estate planning attorney instead of LegalZoom. Now they ask about ChatGPT. I’m not concerned. Let’s say you ask ChatGPT to draft your will. It does. It tells you how to sign in the presence of two witnesses who are also in the presence of each...