ESTATE PLANNING AND ELDER LAW ATTORNEYS

Aug 12
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Why a Will Does Not Avoid Probate

By | Probate

Most high net worth families assume that once a will is drafted, their estate is protected. It is not. A will does not avoid probate. It simply tells a probate court what to do with assets after death, and probate itself comes with real costs. For a family with $10 million or more in assets, administrative fees through probate can run into significant sums. A properly funded trust avoids this process. An unfunded one, even if it exists on paper, does not. What the New Federal Exemption Actually Changed The federal estate tax exemption now sits at $15 million per person, or $30 million for a married couple, indexed for inflation. For most families, that number removes the tax question entirely. But estates above that threshold still face a 40% tax rate on the excess, payable within nine months of death. A single person with a $20 million estate, for…

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Jul 29
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elderly woman and caregiver

Crisis Planning: Immediate Steps When Dementia Strikes a Parent

By | Elder Care

Key Takeaways A dementia diagnosis does not automatically mean a parent has lost legal capacity — there may still be a window to get critical documents signed, but that window can close without warning. The two most dangerous mistakes families make right after a diagnosis are transferring assets impulsively to “hide” them and downloading generic legal documents from the internet that don’t meet Florida’s requirements. The durable power of attorney is the single most important document in any elder law or Medicaid crisis planning situation — without it, an attorney’s recommendations can be very limited.. Medicaid crisis planning is still possible even after a diagnosis — Florida offers meaningful options for both married couples and single individuals, but the right documents must be in place to implement them. Dementia patients are statistically the number one target for financial exploitation. Practical protective steps — online account monitoring, credit freezes, and regular…

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Jul 29
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What to Do in the First Weeks After a Dementia Diagnosis

By | Elder Care, Elder Fraud

A dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis brings a specific kind of fear into a family, fear about the parent’s health, and fear about decisions nobody has made yet. Attorney Cary Moss sees this fear walk through her office door every week. Her first job is rarely legal. It’s calming people down enough to start making decisions. The Diagnosis Alone Doesn’t Decide Legal Capacity A cognitive decline diagnosis by itself doesn’t prove someone can’t make decisions. Capacity exists on a spectrum, and someone in the early stages of dementia may still understand what a legal document does, who they’re naming, and what authority they’re handing over. Cary Moss meets with clients alone, without family in the room, specifically because someone else’s answers can mask what the client actually understands. If she’s uncertain, she’ll ask for a letter from the person’s doctor before moving forward. The diagnosis opens a conversation. It doesn’t decide…

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Jul 09
0
a person in a motorized wheelchair

Special Needs Trusts Explained: Safeguarding Benefits in Orlando

By | Estate Planning

Key Takeaways A direct inheritance of just $2,001 can immediately disqualify a person with disabilities from SSI and Medicaid — two programs that have a hard $2,000 asset cap. Generally, there are three types of special needs trusts — first-party, third-party, and pooled — and choosing the wrong one, or drafting it incorrectly, can invalidate the entire structure. A third-party supplemental needs trust is the most common and most flexible tool for parents doing proactive estate planning — it requires no Medicaid payback and allows remaining assets to pass to other family members. A supplemental needs trust is only one piece of the plan. A complete picture also includes a trustee, a beneficiary’s advocate, a trust protector, and a guardian advocate working together. Planning should start as early as possible — there is no age too young — and the plan should be reviewed every two to three years, or…

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Jun 24
0

When Good Intentions Aren’t Enough: Protecting a Disabled Loved One’s Future

By | Estate Planning

Parents of children with disabilities carry a specific fear that standard estate planning was never built to address. They worry that leaving money directly to a disabled child will disqualify them from Medicaid, SSI, or other government benefits. That fear is valid. What families do with it, though, determines whether their planning actually works. The Two Mistakes That Show Up Most Often The first mistake is cutting the disabled child out of the estate entirely. Parents assume government benefits will cover everything indefinitely. They won’t, or at least they can’t be counted on to. Benefit programs change. Funding gets cut. A child who is fine today may have significantly different needs in ten years. The second mistake is leaving assets to a non-disabled sibling with an informal agreement to “take care” of the disabled family member. That sibling may have every intention of doing the right thing. But a lawsuit,…

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