The state of Florida recognizes the right of any capable adult to create an advance directive known as a health care surrogate designation. This designation is typically used to allow your named surrogate (and their successors) to make every day medical care decisions like consent to surgery, consent to treatment, admission to a health care facility and the hiring and firing of doctors, nurses and therapists.
A living will is a written directive that allows you to state your wishes regarding what sort of end-of-life care you want to receive. Florida law recognizes the right of any capable adult to create a living will, which can then be used if that person becomes incapacitated and unable to communicate their wishes to their doctor and loved ones.
Many people retire to Florida because it has the reputation of being a tax friendly state. For example, there are no state income taxes in Florida, which means pensions and retirement plans are free from taxes.
A person or entity granted administrative control of a trust is called a trustee. If you have been appointed as a trustee in the Sunshine State of Florida, you have obligations under the law regarding administration of the trust.
The process that occurs after someone passes away might include probate and/or trust administration. There’s always something that needs to be done. There are essentially three over-arching steps.
What may sound like a simple question is actually quite complex. The short answer is that probate is not always required after someone passes away in Florida.
When a person passes away in Florida, there are a few ways their estate may be settled. During the estate administration process, the property and assets of a decedent are identified, collected, and distributed to their rightful beneficiaries.
Some people pass away leaving only their home or other real estate behind. Estates that are made up almost exclusively of real estate and personal items are subject to the same guidelines as any other estate.
We spend our lives working hard to accumulate assets we can pass down to our children and families after we die. Part of that hard work needs to include estate planning to ensure the property and assets we leave behind make it to our loved ones as intended
A revocable living trust is one of the most important and useful tools in the estate planning process. It allows you to create instructions for what happens to assets owned by the trust while you are alive and well, in the event you become disabled and after you pass away.
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The Law Offices of Hoyt & Bryan is Central Florida’s leading estate planning and elder law firm and the only Florida law firm with two attorneys board certified in both Wills, Trusts and Estates as well as in Elder Law. We were founded in 1999 and our main office is located in the heart of historic Oviedo, Florida.
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