In March, the Florida governor approved a new law called the Florida Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which allows the loved ones of a decedent to access any digital assets he or she may have owned before death. This allows loved ones to access the recently deceased’s text messages,…
One question the most frequent questions our Jacksonville estate planning lawyers receive is how long does a probate case in Florida take? Often the best answer to how long a Florida Probate Case takes is “it depends.” The answer usually depends on how vast and complex the decedent’s estate is…
This year the Florida Probate Rules Committee has a added a few new rules to the Probate Code. Many of these rules are minor amendments to the old rules or clarifications of previously vague language. The biggest change to the code was the addition of a separate rule for Guardian…
The general rule in estate planning is that if something is not in writing it usually will not be legally valid. For instance, Florida law requires a Will or trust must be in writing to be effective. However, one question we often receive is if a promise to create a…
Florida offers some of the strongest homestead protection laws in all of the United States. When a resident of Florida dies, the law protects the surviving spouse and minor children from becoming homeless by preventing the decedent from giving his or her estate to someone else through a Will or…
Florida Trust Code & the Florida Long Arm Statute There are many estate planning benefits for creating a revocable or irrevocable trust in Florida. Trusts can help our Jacksonville clients avoid probate, efficiently manage assets, save money on estate taxes, and protect assets. A person can create a trust in…
As a Jacksonville elder law attorney we often run across phone scams that target the elderly. Besides the typical IRS and credit card scams the Department of Elder Affairs is warning Florida residents to watch out for scam artists who are allegedly making calls pretending to be the Department or…
A Florida Ladybird deed has become one of the increasingly most used estate planning tools by the some of best Jacksonville estate planning attorneys. One common questions we receive at our Jacksonville estate planning law firm is how the Ladybird deed works under Florida’s current homestead protections. In Florida, a…
One question the top Jacksonville elder law and estate planning attorneys often receive is who can make burial arrangements in Florida. Does it have to be the next of kin, or can any family member or interested party make funeral arrangements? Another similar question we often receive is what happens…
I have recently become acquainted with a bank who does business very different than traditional banks. As we do Trust funding for many of our estate planning, elder law, and asset protection packages, we have the opportunity to interact with many banks around the area. One of the recent banks…