Recent Blog Posts
The Sibling Rivalry-Proof Estate Plan
If you have more than one child, then dealing with your children’s conflicts with each other is just a normal part of parenting, albeit an exhausting one. Parents can console themselves that the constant fights are temporary; just as you will one day be able to laugh about the days when you were constantly… Read More »
How Decluttering Your House Can Simplify the Estate Planning Process
Lots of people have included decluttering in their New Year’s resolutions; it ranks up there with improving one’s health and working toward financial goals. If you are among the people who have set decluttering goals for 2020, you might be chasing the sense of mental clarity that the neatniks of the world claim that… Read More »
You Can Use a Divorce Decree to Make a Claim Against a Deceased Person’s Estate
If your spouse has children from a previous marriage, you are probably acutely aware that a parent’s financial entanglement with their children never completely ends. In fact, estate planning is much more complicated in blended families, because you must decide which assets to leave to your current spouse and which to leave to your… Read More »
Clearwater Nursing Home Employee Accused of Sexually Abusing Seven Patients
Stories about elderly or infirm patients being abused by the people charged with taking charge of them in nursing homes are as scary as they are heartbreaking. You might think that the only way to protect your elderly parents from such a horrible fate is to continue taking care of them in their own… Read More »
Young Woman Arrested in Tampa After Trying to Cash $1 Million Check from Elderly Husband
You might get suspicious if an elderly relative of yours begins a romantic relationship with a much younger person, but it is best to give the new partner a chance and to accept them if your relative truly seems happy with them. If you see red flags, though, it is best to speak up… Read More »
Estate Planning New Year’s Resolutions for 2020
Making an estate plan should make you feel proud of your accomplishments. You have stayed healthy and financially solvent into your retirement years. As your children and grandchildren leave after a holiday visit, which the gifts you generously gave them and the successes you have helped them achieve, look back over the past years… Read More »
What Happens If a Person Changes Their Will While Suffering from Dementia?
An early part of the process of probate involves publicly reading the deceased person’s will. Some family members might be pleasantly surprised to receive a greater share of the estate than they were expecting, while others might be in for a rude awakening; they might receive less than they had hoped, or nothing at… Read More »
Sale of Real Estate Properties During Probate, and How to Avoid It
If you think that disputes over inheritance money can lead to long-standing grudges among siblings, or between your children and your stepparent, imagine how much worse those disputes can be when the inherited property at stake is a house or other piece of real estate property instead of just money. It is easy to… Read More »
New Nursing Home Directory Has Flagged 25 Florida Facilities for Abuse and Neglect of Patients
Nursing home abuse is frightening, most of all because vulnerable patients often cannot speak up about it. Therefore, family members might remain unaware for years of the abuse and neglect that their loved ones are enduring. Sometimes it takes a disastrous event, like a MRSA infection spreading through a nursing home because of substandard… Read More »
Florida’s Laws Protecting Elderly People from Dishonest Professional Guardians Are Not Strong Enough
Imagine watching helplessly while a virtual stranger spent your money and authorized medical treatments to be administered to you or withheld from you. Imagine that, if you objected to this treatment, your objections would carry no weight, nor would the objections of your closest family members, because the stranger was legally responsible for you. … Read More »
