A Full Suite of Estate Planning Services
Some of the Services We Provide
We offer a comprehensive suite of estate planning services, including not only the preparation of key documents that make up a complete plan, but also trust administration and representation during the probate process.
Below are brief descriptions of some of the documents and services we most frequently help clients with. Please don’t hesitate to give us a call with any questions.
Revocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust will direct how your assets will be managed and distributed to your children and/or other beneficiaries after you pass away. As long as you have mental capacity, there will be no restrictions whatsoever on your ability to use and manage the assets of the trust during your lifetime.
The trust will help to avoid probate, provide for the management and distribution of the assets of the trust to the beneficiaries as necessary, and can provide asset protection for your beneficiaries for the assets that are left for their benefit.
You will need to appoint a Trustee to manage the assets and the affairs of the trust for you during any period of time in which you are unable to handle them on your own. The Trustee will also be responsible for managing the assets and distributing them to or for the benefit of your children (or other beneficiaries) after you have passed away, at least until they reach an age at which you would be comfortable with them being in charge of such things on their own.
“The trust will help to avoid probate, provide for the management and distribution of the assets of the trust, and can provide asset protection for your beneficiaries.”
It is important to note that a last will and testament does not help with probate avoidance or asset protection for your beneficiaries, but it will ensure that your assets will be distributed in the manner which you direct and allow you to determine who will handle those distributions, rather than having state law direct those aspects of your plan for you.
Last Will and Testament
“A last will and testament does not help with probate avoidance or asset protection for your beneficiaries, but it will ensure that your assets will be distributed in the manner which you direct.”
If you are not executing a trust as part of your plan, a simple will can direct how your assets are to be distributed when you pass away and will allow you to nominate the person or persons that will be in charge of making the distributions directed by you. You will appoint a Personal Representative (sometimes referred to in other states as the “executor”) to handle these responsibilities on your behalf.
Durable Power of Attorney
This document allows you to appoint someone to make financial decisions and manage financial affairs for you during your lifetime, as necessary.
“This document essentially directs that if you have been determined by two physicians to have no reasonable medical probability of recovery that you don’t want to be kept alive artificially.”
Living Will
This document essentially directs that if you have been determined by two physicians to be in a “terminal condition,” an “end-stage condition” or a “persistent vegetative state” (these terms are defined by statute) with no reasonable medical probability of recovery that you don’t want to be kept alive artificially.
Generally, the person or persons you appoint will have the ability to monitor your situation and speak to the doctors and other health care professionals on your behalf to ensure that they are following the directives contained in the document.
Designation of Healthcare Surrogate
This document will allow you to appoint someone to make medical decisions and manage medical affairs for you if you are unable to make those decisions on your own.
Probate (or “estate administration” as it is sometimes referred to) is the court process of ensuring that your will is valid (if there is a will), determining who the proper beneficiaries are, determining who the valid creditors are, making sure that valid creditors are paid, and ultimately distributing the assets in accordance with the terms of the will or Florida law if there is no will.
Probate/Estate Administration
“Probate is the court process of ensuring that your will is valid ... and ultimately distributing the assets in accordance with the terms of the will or Florida law if there is no will.”
Probate is necessary for assets that are owned by an individual with no joint owners and no named beneficiaries associated with the asset. Generally, it can’t be done without hiring a lawyer so the process can sometimes be expensive. It can also be very time-consuming (and sometimes frustrating) for the Personal Representative who has been appointed to handle the administration. Lastly, a standard formal probate administration will usually take at least 6 months to complete, but often that time period will be closer to a year or even longer.
The good thing is that the lawyer which the Personal Representative will generally be required to hire can help navigate the relatively complicated process on his or her behalf, taking on a great deal of the burden and liability from the Personal Representative. At Lance A. Ragland, P.A., we spend most of our time helping people avoid the probate process, but we are also available and happy to assist with probate when necessary.
“Trust administration is the process of getting the assets of a trust distributed to the beneficiaries in the manner directed by the maker of the trust.”
Trust Administration
A trust administration is similar to a probate administration in that this is the process of getting the assets of the trust distributed to the beneficiaries in the manner directed by the maker (sometimes referred to as the “Grantor”) of the trust.
The difference is that it is not a court process so there are far fewer formalities, it generally doesn’t take nearly as long as a probate administration and there is no requirement to hire an attorney, so it is generally quite a bit less expensive.