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.

Video Summary

Is it important to have a will if you have few or no assets that you’re aware of?

The answer to the question is is yes, it is important, and that you don’t know what assets you’re going to have when you pass away.  You may be the recipient of an inheritance that you didn’t know about.  You may be the lucky winner of a lottery, course you have to play to win.  But you don’t know when you’re gonna pass away, so therefore you don’t know what assets you may have at that time.  And the will gives you an opportunity to designate to whom you wish to receive those assets.

Also as far as owning assets that you may jointly own with someone else, and you anticipate that they’re going to survive you, well if they pre-decease you, well then you need to designate who you would want to receive that particular assets.  Also, it’s important to designate who you would like to administer this.  Many times, whenever you have family involved, there may be one particular child that can get along with everyone else; or you may decide that you want a complete – someone that’s not a family member to administer the estate to avoid any friction, and that way you can designate whom you would like to administer your estate.  So I believe that it is important.

Also, whenever you do your will, there are other documents that will be discussed, such as a living will, a healthcare surrogate, and durable power of attorney, all of which are estate planning documents that we discuss and usually execute in conjunction with your will, which controls the end of life situation, as far as your estate planning.

So if you ‘d like to do a will, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Why do I need a durable power of attorney? Well, there’s many reasons why a durable power of attorney is a necessary document.

First and foremost, a durable power of attorney is probably one of the most, if not the most, important estate planning document that you’ll utilize during your lifetime. And the reason that this is so is because a durable power of attorney allows you, in your lifetime, while you have capacity, to appoint an agent to act on your behalf to manage your affairs.

Also, it’s very important to know that the power of attorney statute in Florida did change in October 2011, where there are certain super powers, which now need to be specifically enumerated in your document as well as initialed in your document. These super powers include things such as the power to do banking transactions on your behalf, the power to do investment transactions on your behalf, create a Miller Trust on your behalf, even create, modify, or change a trust or a beneficiary designation. This is a lot of power that you’re giving this specific person that you’re appointing as your agent. Therefore, it’s very, very important that you choose somebody that you trust immensely, because this document will allow them to do many things on your behalf.

More importantly, a power of attorney is very important because it can prevent the necessity of a guardianship proceeding being instituted on your behalf in the event that you have an accident or you become incapacitated in your lifetime. Therefore, a durable power of attorney is a necessary document, whether you are in your 20s or whether you are in your 90s.

If you have any more questions about estate planning or a durable power of attorney, please give me a call here at Waller & Mitchell at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

What is elder law?

Many people ask me that question: Well, what exactly is elder law, or what do elder law attorneys do? Well, there are a few different practice areas that elder law attorneys cover. One of which is Medicaid planning, specifically for what’s called the ICP program – also known as the Institutional Care Program. So, getting families qualified for Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care, through a variety of methods, including a Medicaid plan, even as much as drafting a Miller Trust, or a personal services contract. So that’s one component of elder law.

Another component of elder law would be probate, whether it be a summary administration or a formal administration. So, in Florida, probate is required to transfer title to assets in a decedent’s name, absent joint ownership, or absent some other previous mechanism, such as a trust, to go and pass ownership. So probate is a part of elder law. Another component of elder law would be guardianship. Guardianship has two different forms incapacity guardianship which, in the elder law, is really gonna be used a majority of the time. And then you also have minor guardianship, so guardianships are a huge part of elder law, as far as that’s concerned.

You also have estate planning. Estate planning is a very large part of elder law. Estate planning encompasses creating actual plans for your clients, as well as creating documents for their future, as far as last will and testaments, powers of attorney, healthcare surrogate forms, and declarations of preneed guardians. So those are some components of elder law, and what elder law attorneys do.

Our office, here at , we handle all of those areas of the law. I specifically handle areas of the law, as well, and we would love to help you. If you have an elder law question, or an elder law need, please feel free to give us a call, at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Estate planning considerations after Medicaid approval.

The legal counsel of your elder law attorney does not end with the Medicaid approval notice. Discussions follow by planning measures should be considered by the single Medicaid applicant as well as the community spouse.

For the single Medicaid applicant family members are generally desirous and have exempt assets inheritable by operation of law. Well, what exactly does this mean?

For example, avoiding probate on the exempt homestead property may be advantageous under many circumstances. After evaluating the family’s dynamics and discussing the pros and cons, an Enhanced Life Estate Deed, also commonly referred to as a Lady Bird Deed may be a suitable planning technique for avoiding probate for real estate owned by the single Medicaid applicant.

In addition, simple convenience measures may be undertaken such as adding the beneficiary to certain designated countable assets such as bank accounts. If your power of attorney is necessary to perform these functions then you must be aware of the changes brought about by the Florida Power of Attorney Act which was effective October 1, 2011.

This is crucial because authority such as the ability to create a survivorship or beneficiary designation must have been expressed in the power of attorney created prior to October 1, 2011.
Furthermore, they must also be specifically enumerated and initialed and powers of attorney’s created after or on October 1, 2011.

In addition to the applicable items previously mentioned, planning for the community spouse and the objective of protecting against future disruption in Medicaid eligibility takes on a level of immediate need and importance.

Once of the first considerations is to ensure that the community spouse completes the asset transfers necessary to conform to the asset criteria for him or her and the institutionalized spouse long before recertification.

In addition, the community spouse should review all beneficiary designations on IRAs and change life insurance policies to ensure that the institutionalized spouse is not the beneficiary of same just in case a community spouse should pass away prior to the death of the institutionalized spouse.

In most cases the community spouse will usually require new estate planning documents because she or he may have named the ill spouse as the primary actor throughout these documents.
It must also be addressed in the estate planning documents that the community spouse may predecease the ill spouse and assets received in any self-settled trust whether it enter via those trust or a living trust will not be protected.

Consequently, a third party trust may need to be created under the community spouse’s last will and testament which will likely include many of the terms and conditions for a qualifying special needs trust and that sort of treatment.

It is also important to have the community spouse consult with an insurance agent regarding the affordability and insurability of a long term care insurance policy to see if this may be a viable planning tool for the future just in case the event does occur that the community spouse will require institutional care.

It is also important to note that Medicaid recovery efforts are governed by Florida Statue 409.910. As a generalization, recovery efforts are predominantly encountered when assets of the deceased Medicaid recipient pass through a probate proceeding.

Recovery is not warranted if the Medicaid recipient is survived by either a spouse, a minor child or an adult disabled child.

If you have any questions regarding a state planning consideration and the interplay with the Medicaid application process and approval, I would love to assist you. Please give us a call here at Waller and Mitchell at 727-847-2288.