An estate planning attorney seeks to understand your estate situation in order to determine the right measures to adopt and instrument to utilize to ensure that your best interests are protected. A proper estate plan is one that covers all your estate affairs and personal well-being during your lifetime and as an elderly, and thereafter the efficient disposal of your assets to those who matter to you. This is what a Miami estate planning lawyer seeks to do. Being versed in estate laws with decades of experienced working with clients across Miami, they know what mistakes to avoid, and what details, as trifling as they may seem, to consider.
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Get professional assistance from an estate planning attorney Miami, FL, and have that lasting peace of mind that comes from knowing your life’s work is fully secured now and for your loved ones after death. Our Miami-based law firm is aimed at giving you that peace which you seek. We are available to help, and you can give us a call for a free first consultation.
Things a Miami Estate planning attorney will help you do
These include but are not limited to the following:
Create wills and trusts
The first thing your Estate planning attorney will help you do when hired is to create a will and trust. These two documents allow for an efficient transfer of your entire possessions to your loved one. In Miami, your will must first be admitted to a Miami probate court for before the assets addressed in the will can be distributed. Depending on the value, it can take some time and considerable cost before probate is concluded. Having some assets in a living trust will help lessen the load of the will, and thus simplify probate or even avoid it if all assets are held in the living trust at death. Your estate planning attorney will determine and implement what is best for you given your wishes and the nature of estate.
Help plan for incapacity
To prepare you for an eventuality like incapacity, there are certain documents your lawyer will include in your estate plan
- The first is a durable financial power of attorney in which you empower with the authority over your fiscal matters whenever you’re unable to handle them yourself. Incapacity can be as a result of a ghastly accident, mental disease, age etc., and you need to plan for this.
- On the other hand, a healthcare proxy allows you appoint an agent to make medical decisions on your behalf in the event of incapacity.
- If you wish, your lawyer can also establish a living will. If there are special treatments you want or do not want (such as being placed on life support) during end-of-life situations, you can state them in a living will.
Plan for minors and children with special needs
If you pass away leaving minors or children with special needs, who cares for them when you’re gone? Note that minors are not permitted by law to inherit directly until they come of age. Your estate planning attorney will help in establishing guardianship, child trust, or special needs trust — as the case may be — to care for your children should you pass away leaving them in such conditions.
Offer asset protection and probate avoidance
An irrevocable trust offers asset protection (having a tax-free estate beyond the reach of creditors) and probate avoidance as opposed to a will. But the downside is that you have no access to assets funded into an irrevocable trust during your lifetime.
If you desire asset protection and probate avoidance, your estate planning attorney can create a Pour-over will to pour all your assets into a trust at the moment you pass away.
How to choose a good estate planning attorney Miami, FL
Now it’s time to hire. Since you would be spending money on attorney fees, it is good you spend it on an attorney that has your best interest at heart and not just after your money.
So how do you identify an attorney that is right for you?
