Recent Blog Posts

Conflict Management for Personal Representatives of Family Estates
Being the person that an elderly family member chooses in their will as personal representative of their estate can be both an honor and a burden. On the one hand, you want to repay your parents for the love and trust they have shown you throughout your life by honoring their wishes about what… Read More »

Two Views of Estate Planning
What is the most important thing to focus on in your estate plan? Your living expenses in your old age or the wealth that your descendants will inherit? Should you be transparent with your family members about who stands to inherit what, or does doing so only lead to resentment and hurt feelings? Should… Read More »

3 Estate Planning New Year’s Resolutions for 2021
Here are three wise ways to revise your estate plan for 2021; a Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you implement these and other estate planning strategies. Make Your IRA Investments Benefit Their Beneficiaries In 2019, the laws about IRAs changed; under the new law, most beneficiaries must receive their inherited IRA distributions… Read More »

Millennial New Year’s Resolution: Talk to Your Parents About Estate Planning
Congratulations, millennials! You survived 2020. This means that, in the near future, you will be turning 40. It has probably become painfully obvious to you that you have had to start thinking about money in terms of long-term plans at a much younger age than the previous generation did. You might have even started… Read More »

Disinherited Son Challenges Validity of Late Father’s Marriage in Probate Feud Over Family Trust
For the most part, you have the freedom to leave all or part of your estate to anyone you choose. Family members who get nothing from your estate, according to your will, might be upset, but the court will respect your wishes unless the disinherited relative can prove that the will is invalid or… Read More »

The Florida Law That Protects Divorced People from Forgetting to Disinherit Their Former Spouses
It can take a long time to sort out the financial fallout from divorce. After you finish removing your ex-spouse’s name from the titles to assets that you once held jointly, and once you are finished paying attorneys’ fees, the last thing you feel like doing is reviewing your estate plan. Section 732.507(2) Florida… Read More »

So You Want to Retire in 2030?
2020 has felt like an endless year, but Christmas-themed displays in the supermarket are a sure sign that 2021 is just around the corner. Even if the only times you have left the house in the past eight months have been to go to senior hours at Publix, the time to think about the… Read More »

Can You Name Your Stepson or Stepdaughter as Personal Representative of Your Estate?
Step-families often get a bad rap on estate planning law blogs, as many probate disputes arise between stepmothers and their stepchildren. The lurid stories of those probate disputes, some of which are genuine cases of undue influence, but others of which are just a case of old grudges playing out in court, obscure the… Read More »

The Big Declutter: A Challenging but Necessary Part of Your Estate Plan
If you are of retirement age, you probably have lots of stories about how your parents, who were of working age during the Great Depression, never threw anything away. Even if you love shopping, and even if you are proud to show guests your collection of knickknacks and to bring boxes out of the… Read More »

Gold, Silver, and Your Estate Plan
One popular stereotype about grandpas is that they live in Florida. Another is that they have coin collections. According to this stereotype, when children visit their grandparents in Florida, the children are required to sit patiently and be pleasant to their grandparents for at least a little while before heading to the beach or… Read More »