Florida Estate Planning 101

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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Jeffrey Johnson

Insurance Lawyer

Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

Advertiser Disclosure

It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

Creating a proper estate plan in Florida isn’t difficult – as long as you use the right attorney. We asked Sarah E. Peart, an attorney from Tampa Florida whose practice focuses mainly in the areas of wills, trusts, estate planning and real estate law, to provide consumers with a basic lesson on estate planning in Florida. Here’s what she told us in a recent interview:

Who needs an estate plan in Florida?

Everyone should have an estate plan. Most people tend to put off planning for the future because it can be difficult, time-consuming, and, for some, even an emotional process. However, it is essential to have a plan in place to protect you, your loved ones, and of course, your estate assets. Unfortunately, you just never know what is going to happen and delaying planning only exposes you and your loved ones to great risk. I sometimes joke with my clients that if they have an estate plan in place, it greatly reduces the risk of anything happening to them in the near future!

What documents are typically included?

Common documents that would be included in an estate plan are typically a will, a trust if necessary, a durable power of attorney, a healthcare surrogate designation, a declaration of pre-need guardian and a living will and/or advanced care directive.

When should you create a Florida estate plan?

While everyone should have an estate plan, you should always create one or update it when any major life changes occur, such as marriage, divorce, birth of a child or grandchild or retirement. It is also a good idea to make sure you have a current plan in place before traveling, if your domicile has recently changed (from a different state or country), or if you are experiencing any other life changes such as suffering from illness. Your plan certainly needs to be reviewed if there is a substantial change in your wealth or the assets of your estate (such as purchasing real property or inheriting money or other assets).

What are the consequences of not having an estate plan in Florida?

If you don’t have an estate plan, you die intestate (without a will) and your estate would have to be administered through the probate court system. Your estate would be devised to your heirs at law as provided for by law. As a note, probate (which wills are subject to as well,) can be a very expensive, time-consuming and very emotional process and it may be advisable to avoid it whenever possible, depending on your estate circumstances and needs.

Estate planning is a very specific area of law that encompasses wills, trusts, health care directives, probate and more. To contact an experienced Florida estate planning lawyer to discuss your situation, please click here.

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Jeffrey Johnson

Insurance Lawyer

Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

Insurance Lawyer

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

Get Legal Help Today

Find the right lawyer for your legal issue.

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