Have you taken the time to focus on your goals and resolutions now that the New Year has arrived? Have you decided to get organized or are you adding new and better habits? We know you have many ideas surrounding how you will achieve the resolutions you set for yourself and want to share one that is both easy and critical to complete!
What is the most important New Year’s resolution you can make this year? Creating or updating your Florida estate plan! Your estate plan can protect you during life and at the time of your passing. Right now, you can work with your estate planning attorney to ensure that your choices and wishes surrounding your health care and finances are honored by your chosen decision maker. In addition, you also ensure that your family can be provided for when you are no longer here with them through the legacy you create.
You should start moving forward with this resolution as soon as possible! To maximize the potential benefits a Florida estate plan has to offer, take the steps needed to help ensure that your estate plan remains updated to reflect your most current circumstances and goals. If you have an existing plan, time is of the essence to review it and ensure that it still meets your needs.
In creating a Florida estate plan your estate planning attorney will use a variety of legal planning tools to address how your assets will be managed and distributed in the event of your death or incapacity, among other things. We know that many changes can happen within your family, your business, and your finances in a year. Therefore, it is important to make sure your estate plan remains effective in not only encapsulating the desired future for you and your loved ones, but also has the best tools in place to accomplish those goals. So, when there is a birth, death, divorce, or other life update or changes in laws, you should make it a priority, and an achievable resolution, to work with your attorney to determine if your estate plan needs any updates or significant changes.
Your Florida estate planning attorney will discuss with you the importance of lifetime planning tools such as the durable power of attorney for your finances and related health care documents like the living will. Deciding who should be your decision maker, and back up decision maker, in times of crisis or in an emergency situation is a very important decision and one that your estate planning attorney can advise you about. Also, your attorney can also discuss with you the difference between will based estate planning and trust based estate planning. A will is subject to the Florida probate court but a trust is not. Make learning more about these two planning tools, as well as how a trust can be a very versatile estate planning vehicle to help protect and distribute your assets, one of your achievable resolutions
We know this article may raise more questions than it answers. We want to help you achieve the New Year’s Resolution of having a Florida estate plan that can meet your needs. At the Perlin Estate Planning & Probate our credentials enable us to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to our legal services. By building relationships with our clients, we are also able to understand each client’s needs and desires, and we support such goals through thoughtful, comprehensive planning techniques. We encourage you to contact us and schedule a meeting.