Video Summary

Can a parent change their power of attorney if their agent is not cooperating and following their instructions? Well, the simple answer is first is that yes, they may. They can change or revoke their power of attorney at any time, but let’s go back to what do we mean by agent. Whenever you execute a power of attorney or designating someone to act in your behalf and under the new power of attorney statute, that’s called referred to as your agent. Your agent can act in your behalf. That does not mean that you’re giving up any of your rights and you can still operate or you can still operate, but the agent is the one who can also act in your behalf.

The question that was posed is can you change who your power of attorney and the answer is absolutely, you can revoke it, advise your agent whoever you pointed that you no longer wish for them to act in your behalf. Give them notice. Usually I record the revocation in the public records and that way, you can then designate someone else to be your agent to act for you. Powers of attorney are usually referred to as durable powers of attorney. The reason why they’re durable is because you placed language in the power of attorney itself, the document that says that your appointment survives even if you’re incapacitated, so that parties do not have to determine whether you have your competency whenever the agent is executing documents for you which really may save a guardianship as far as that’s concern if for some reason you would become disabled, either physically or mentally.

Also powers of attorney are used just to simplify matters whenever folks want their child or their agent to be able to act on their behalf for whatever reason, but they are usually durable and can be changed or revoked at any time by the person who is giving the power of attorney to the agent. The new power of attorney statute, you can provide many powers in there even as to changing beneficiaries to comply within a state plan, empowering your agent to do Medicaid planning by setting up a Miller Trust, be able to deal with your 401ks, your IRAs and there’s many, many powers that you can give your agent. All of these powers need to be enumerated and they also need to be initialed by the person granting those.

You can also give your power of attorney to more than one person and designate that either of the parties who you designate can act in your behalf. If you have any questions or need to have a durable power of attorney setup, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

If a bank account has an individual [inaudible 00:00:09] as payable on death, do the proceeds of the bank account have to go through the probate prior to being given to the POD? The answer is no and that the bank account will not be probated. The account should be payable to whoever is designated as the POD by the person or the payee, the payable on death recipient, by delivering a death certificate to the particular lending institution. My clients have experienced in the past where the banks sometimes require a 30 day waiting period before they will disperse the money, but it does not have to go through probate. That is controlled by the bank account contract, the contract with the bank that says that they are to pay it to person designated as POD.

If you have any other questions about your assets or your accounts, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

“Why is it important to do estate planning if I have more liabilities than assets?” This is a question that I am commonly asked by perspective clients. A lot of times people have the misconception that, “If I don’t really have very many assets, or no assets at all, or if I owe more than what I’m worth, why would I need to go see an estate planning attorney?” Well, the answer is very simple, because estate planning involves much more than just a last will and testament, which will dispose of your assets that you own at the time of your death. There are many documents which are utilized to assist you during your lifetime to help with things such as incapacity, whether it be due to a motor vehicle accident or whether it be due to the aging process. Incapacity happens much more frequent than people realize. This is why it’s very important to come see an estate planning attorney to talk about those different options.

As stated previously, the last will and testament, in my professional opinion, is the least important estate planning document, because it only comes into play after you’ve passed away, whereas other documents, such as a durable power of attorney, or a healthcare surrogate, or actually a living will, are the most important documents, because they deal with decisions that need to be made while you’re alive. With that being said, I would love for you come see me here at the Law Offices of Waller & Mitchell so that we can discuss all of your estate planning needs and which documents may be appropriate for your specific individuized situation. Please give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

How often should I update my estate planning? I have a pad answer on that is is that whenever you’re circumstances change or the law changes. I suggest that once you do your estate planning, that you put it someplace where you look at it approximately once a year just to look to see if that’s still what you want. Whether there’s been some change or circumstance such as losing a loved one or beneficiary that you’ve named in your will. You may want to make some changes far as that’s concerned.

Certainly if you have… You’re married and you lose your spouse, it is very important to come in and do your estate planning. Look at your estate planning to revise or to simplify your estate plan. With estate plans, folks usually want to know two things from the very beginning. One is are there any estate taxes, which unless you have a lot of money, there aren’t any estate taxes. If your estates less than five million dollars and that’s as far as the federal governments concern. The state of Florida’s done away with estate taxes so you have… You don’t have any estate taxes in Florida or with the federal government. However, if you have estate property outside the state of Florida, then there may be estate tax whatever state that that property is situated in.

The other issue is trying to avoid probate, which is really a… Something you can do particularly if you’re married on how to title your assets to try and avoid going through probate. Some circumstances if you’re by yourself then a trust is appropriate or if you’re married possibly 2 trusts are in order. However, most simple estates can be handled without that, but that’s another objective.

Also we need to, or I try to, keep my clients up to date as the changes in the law and the other estate planning documents beside will and a trust are your living will, which says that you don’t want your life to be prolonged unofficially or a healthcare power of attorney called a healthcare surrogate designation. That was changed just recently in the last couple of years and so I would suggest that you might wanna to contact your attorney or call me to see about getting your healthcare surrogate updated to comply with the new law. Not that the old one wouldn’t work, but this new one would be… Works a lot better.

Also your power of attorney form and that law changed three or four years ago and its been enhanced. The power of attorney would be a good idea to review and to update it and that you can have some other called superpowers. One of the things that just passed in legislature where you might want to update all your estate planning documents is your digital assets. When you pass away, you may have something of value such as owning domains, any sort of an accounts, but if you don’t… If your personal representative doesn’t have your passwords and then Google and these other folks, they’re not gonna give you access or give anybody access unless you have specific authority to be able to access their accounts. That act has just passed and so all your estate planning documents need to be revised to include the authority to access your digital assets. We saw that problem with the FBI trying to get into a cellphone and the Google, or whoever it was, would not let them in. You know because of privacy.

This has been addressed in legislation however, you do need to put that specific power in your estate planning documents. Give me a call if you’d like to update your estate planning documents and I’ll be happy to help you. My phone numbers 727-847-2288.