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 distribution of your assets to desired beneficiaries. This is what a Fort Lauderdale estate lawyer would help you efficiently implement. Being versed in estate laws with decades of experienced working with clients across Fort Lauderdale, they know what mistakes to avoid, and what details, as trifling, as they may seem, to consider. 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.

How will our estate attorney help you?

• Create wills and trusts

The first thing your Estate planning attorney will help you do when hired is to create a will and or a living trust. These two documents allow for an efficient transfer of your entire possessions to your loved one or any other desired beneficiary. In Fort Lauderdale, your will first be admitted to a Fort Lauderdale 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. Having the two document ensures a good estate plan. 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.

• Protect you from probate and asset loss

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.

We are here to help

Get professional assistance from an estate planning attorney Fort Lauderdale, 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 Fort Lauderdale 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.

Contact us

At our law firm, we take our clients as our first priority, and so have your best interest at heart. We discuss on a personal level with our clients to understand their estate situation, educate them and offer expert advice on what needs to be done. Give us a call today.