By Jennifer L. Fulton, Esquire<\/p>\n
The recent coronavirus pandemic has all of us making our emergency preparedness list:\u00a0 hand sanitizer, toilet paper, sanitizing wipes, etc.\u00a0 But perhaps you haven\u2019t thought of another important measure that should be in place, to protect you and your family:\u00a0 a basic estate plan. \u00a0This can be done with social distancing measures in place.\u00a0 Here are the basics you should have in place:<\/p>\n
A Health Care Surrogate<\/u><\/strong> names another person (or persons) who can make health care decisions for you if you are not capable of doing so.\u00a0 These decisions include the end-of-life decisions you would state in your living will, and decisions regarding whether or not to have a procedure or where to transfer you if you needed rehabilitative care.<\/p>\n A Living Will<\/u><\/strong> is a document that states your preferences for end-of-life decisions so your health care surrogate and doctors know your wishes and can act accordingly.<\/p>\n A HIPAA authorization and waiver<\/u><\/strong> is also a good idea.\u00a0 It allows the people named therein to ask questions of the medical staff at your hospital and receive answers.<\/p>\n A General Durable Power of Attorney <\/u><\/strong>will allow your named agent to act on your behalf to transact the business of your life.\u00a0 This document is valid immediately in Florida.<\/p>\n A Declaration of Pre-Need Guardian<\/u><\/strong> allows you to pick, while you are competent, the person you would want the court to use as your guardian if you ever were in a situation where a guardianship should be established to care for your person and your finances.<\/p>\n Your Last Will and Testament<\/u><\/strong> is important to your estate plan.\u00a0 If you have minor children, you can name a guardian for them here.\u00a0 It also identifies who your family members are (which helps the court determine that question during probate), and allows you to nominate a personal representative.\u00a0 In addition, you can state how you want your assets distributed on your death, which may be different from the default provided under Florida\u2019s intestacy statutes.<\/p>\n A Revocable Living Trust<\/u><\/strong> also benefits most people.\u00a0 During the grantor\u2019s lifetime, the trust is treated like their own money (because it is!).\u00a0 However, those assets that fund the trust during lifetime are then available to a successor trustee, if a grantor should become incapacitated, to care for the grantor and pay bills on the grantor\u2019s behalf.\u00a0 Married couples can create joint revocable living trusts.\u00a0 After the death of the grantor (or grantors, if it is joint), the assets are held and managed on behalf of the beneficiaries according to the terms of the trust.\u00a0 While trust assets are not exempt from the grantor\u2019s creditors, they are protected in most cases against the beneficiaries\u2019 creditors for so long as they remain in the trust.\u00a0 As its name implies, a Revocable Living Trust can be changed by the grantor until incapacity or death, at which time the trust becomes irrevocable.\u00a0 Since the assets in the trust avoid probate, they are not tied up in a restricted depository, and can be used to make payments to care for ongoing expenses, and pay distributions to the beneficiaries once creditors have been determined.\u00a0 Trusts can care for finances for minor children, and can hold funds beyond minority to assist the beneficiaries with schooling and beyond.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t yet have an estate plan, if your current estate plan is outdated, or if you recently moved to Florida and have will from another state, now may be a good time to address it.\u00a0 Bresky Law remain open to provide these essential services, and can help you with your estate planning needs while practicing safe social distancing.\u00a0 Consultations can be done remotely, and, as of this writing, appointments for signing and witnessing the documents can be done through the window of your car.\u00a0 While you can\u2019t control everything in life, you CAN take measures to be prepared.\u00a0 Consider creating or updating your estate plan as part of your preparedness plan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jennifer L. Fulton, Esq. is an attorney, of counsel, at The Law Offices of Robin <\/em>Bresky (www.breskylegal.com<\/u>)\u00a0focusing\u00a0on\u00a0Estate Planning, Probate, and Estate and Trust Administration. A\u00a0member of the Florida Bar since 1996 with a\u00a0Juris Doctor degree\u00a0from Nova Southeastern University,\u00a0Fulton works with clients to plan for the milestones of life (college, \u201cadulting\u201d, marriage, children, grandchildren, aging parents, pre- and post-divorce,\u00a0loss of a spouse, aging, diminished mental\u00a0capacity)\u00a0and administration upon death. She can be reached at 561-994-6273 or\u00a0EstatePlanning@BreskyLegal.com.<\/u><\/em>\u00a0 <\/em>If you have an estate planning topic you would like to hear more about, please drop her a line, and perhaps it will spark a future article! <\/em><\/p>\n This information is provided for general educational purposes and may not apply to your specific situation.\u00a0 Please consult with an attorney before relying on this information.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jennifer L. Fulton, Esquire The recent coronavirus pandemic has all of us making our emergency preparedness list:\u00a0 hand sanitizer, toilet paper, sanitizing wipes, etc.\u00a0 But perhaps you haven\u2019t thought of another important measure that should be in place, to protect you and your family:\u00a0 a basic estate plan. \u00a0This can be done with social…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1836,1806],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning","category-family"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}