Legal Services Provided by Attorney Katharine Walter Payne

Estate Planning

One of the most important but oftentimes overlooked areas of legal need is Estate Planning.  Estate Planning is the thoughtful process of analyzing your unique circumstances and creating an Estate Plan that accomplishes your specific goals and objectives.  Factors to consider include, but are not limited to family dynamics, the nature and value of assets, tax implications, asset protection, incapacity planning and probate avoidance. A typical estate plan may consist of a combination of the following documents:

• Last Will and Testament

• Revocable Living Trust

• Durable Power of Attorney

• Pre-Need Guardian Declaration

• Living Will

• Health Care Surrogate

• HIPAA Form

Estate Planning doesn’t have to be overwhelming or scary when you have a compassionate and competent attorney who guides you through the process.  It’s the client experience that sets our firm apart. Building strong, trusting and long-lasting relationships (which sometimes end up in genuine friendships!) with clients is part of our firm’s core fiber and character.  

Wills

A Last Will and Testament provides the instructions for how your overall probate estate is to be administered.  The Will identifies the person nominated to be Personal Representative (a/k/a “Executor”) as well as the beneficiaries to receive your assets after death.  When an individual moves to Florida and becomes a Florida resident, they subject themselves to Florida’s jurisdiction and so it becomes very important that any out-of-state Will is properly reviewed to determine whether changes are needed to comply with Florida laws. 

Trusts

A Trust is a legal contractual arrangement regarding how property and assets are to be managed and distributed. Trusts can be created to exist now or in the future. There are many different types of Trusts, with the terms of each Trust being specific to your circumstances. Trusts can be created for reasons such as, but not limited to, probate avoidance, incapacity planning, minimizing taxes and qualification for certain government benefits. The process of administering a Trust after an individual dies, becomes incapacitated or becomes disabled will vary depending on the specific terms of the Trust and the circumstances that exist at that time. 

Durable Powers of Attorney

A Durable Power of Attorney is a document which allows you to transfer specific powers and abilities you have in your individual capacity to another person or persons.  This document can be a very important part of an individual’s Estate Plan in that it can help with incapacity planning. The current Florida Power of Attorney Act became effective October 1, 2011, changing previous law and now requiring a specific enumeration of powers within the document.   

Pre-Need Guardian

A Pre-Need Guardian Declaration allows you the opportunity to specifically designate the individual you wish to serve as Guardian of your person and your property should you ever become incapacitated. 

Advanced Health Care Directives

Documents such as Living Wills, Health Care Surrogates and HIPAA forms are collectively known as “Advanced Health Care Directives”.  While the specific purpose of each document differs, they all allow you to specifically designate those individuals you wish to make health care decisions for you and receive your otherwise confidential health information. 

Probate

When an individual dies owning legal title to an asset in his or her individual name without a beneficiary designation, the need for probate arises to clear title to those assets and transfer them to the proper persons. Probate is the orderly Court administration of an individual’s estate assets after their death, involving payment of final expenses and the transfer of assets to beneficiaries. 

When an individual dies leaving a Last Will and Testament, the Will provides directions for the probate.  When an individual dies without leaving a valid Last Will and Testament, the default laws of intestacy govern the probate and instruct how the probate is to be administered. When a loved one passes away, there may be many questions regarding what needs to be done. You will want not only a competent attorney to assist you, but also an attorney who understands the delicate nature of administering the estate of a loved one. Our caring and compassionate attorneys can help guide you through the entire process.  We provide assistance in matters such as: 

• Formal Probate Administrations

• Ancillary Probate Administrations 

• Summary Probate Administrations 

• Beneficiary Representations

• Elective Share Claims

• Homestead Issues