As you begin the New Year, are you looking into updating your estate plan?  Has it been a while since you pulled out your original Florida estate plan and really examined it? Have there been changes in your life and the lives of your close family? Have there been changes in the laws governing your Florida estate plan? Are you concerned about your plans to protect yourself and your family? 

As you review your current  Florida estate plan, does it: 

• Protect your ability to make your own health care decisions?
• Honor your wishes if you are in a persistent vegetative state?
• Give legal authority to another of your choosing to pay your bills if you cannot?
• Care for your pets and support your caregiver with financial resources?
• Allow your family to protect your assets if you need long-term care? 
• Leave your assets to those you want to provide for at your passing?
• Create a legacy that can outlive you?

All the questions listed above are difficult but they will enable you to think about your current estate plan and what you need to do to update it.  We also have 4 tips to share with you to get you started on updating:

1. Think about who you have chosen to be your agent and act for you in your current estate plan in a crisis, is this person still the person you trust and want to select? Is this person readily available?

2. Do you have the same person acting as an agent for you with health care decisions and financial decisions?  Are you contemplating having a different person for your health care decisions versus your financial decisions?

3. Are you concerned that you had named your spouse, but are now concerned that your spouse may not be up to the responsibility? What should you do now? 

4. Should there be multiple backup people? Also, should you name both of your children to serve as agents together or as personal representatives together? 

Now would be a good time to contact your Florida estate planning attorney to assist you in updating your estate plan.  He will be current with all laws regarding Florida estate planning and probate, federal and state tax changes and more in regard to a comprehensive Florida estate plan.  It is very important to periodically ensure that your Florida estate plan always reflects what you want, memorializes changes to your  family structure if there are any, and gives the legal authority to your decision makers to act in a crisis.
We know this article may raise more questions than it answers.  Our office is here to help you navigate the legal issues related to seeking and covering the cost of memory care. We encourage you to contact us and schedule a meeting with our attorneys.

Are you a Florida senior? Are you finding it hard to believe that the end of the year is approaching? In fact, is it even harder to believe that in just a few short weeks it will be 2023?  Are you busy finalizing your end of the year holiday plans with your children and grandchildren? Do you need to purchase last minute holiday gifts, prepare special family holiday dishes and finalize arrangements to spend time with your family? Actually, as you rush to make sure you have holiday gifts for all your children and grandchildren, we want to recommend the best gift you could give this year that does not even require gift wrapping!

What gift could we possibly be writing about?  We are writing about creating a comprehensive Florida estate plan. This gift will let you make decisions about your assets and their distribution, choose your trusted agents to take care of your finances and your healthcare decisions and protect the legacy you want to continue when you pass away. With this gift you will give yourself and your loved ones peace of mind now, in the future and when you pass away. 

As a Florida senior, are you wondering how to begin preparing an estate plan?  Or do you have a Florida estate plan but have not looked at it in years? Or, finally, did you move to Florida from another state with an estate plan and never thought to make a Florida estate plan? Do you now have questions and wonder how to start? Do your thoughts include questions such as:

• If you become incapacitated for any reason, who could make decisions for you?
• Who will have the legal authority to pay your bills if you are in a car accident?
• Who could handle your business affairs if you could not?
• Do you have any plans for your pets if you were hospitalized?
• Do you want your adult children to be in charge of your finances?
• Do you know if you will need additional insurance policies? 
• Will your retirement plans be able to support you as you age?
• If you have out of state estate planning documents, do you know if they will work in Florida? If there is any concern about them, we advise making Florida estate planning documents.
• Do you know if the laws have changed in the past few years that now makes your planning irrelevant?
• Have there been any changes in your family structure that necessitate the need to update your planning?

All of the above questions are important and we often hear questions just like them from our clients and their family members. As you work with your qualified Florida estate planning attorney to create your estate plan, you need to be assured that your estate plan will work when you need it to. This holiday season, a completed Florida estate plan that lets your loved ones know what you want for yourself and for them is quite possibly the best gift you can give and it does not even need to be gift wrapped. 

Finally, we want you to know that while Florida estate planning is a critical part of your health and well being there is a second planning component that needs to be addressed and completed as well. This is your long-term care planning. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans will need some form of long-term care once they reach the age of 70, so the time for planning is now.  You need to know that much of this care is not covered by Medicare and will, instead, fall on you, the Florida senior, to pay for out of pocket. As Florida estate planning and elder law attorneys we can assure you it does not have to be this way.  We can work with you to create not only an estate plan but also a long-term care plan that can protect the estate plan you are putting in place and allow you to be able to leave a legacy for your family, no matter what the future holds.

We know this article may raise more questions than it answers.  Our office is here to help you navigate the legal issues related to seeking and covering the cost of memory care. We encourage you to contact us and schedule a meeting with our attorneys.