Musings and Counsel from London Baker Law

Different things are needed for physical or mental incapacitation.  It’s important to have paperwork in place in the event of either.

It’s a questions that pops up often because people think having an ‘estate’ means they have a lot of money, property, etc.  Completely NOT TRUE

Each time I get asked the question about how I came to be an attorney – it’s a little different in terms of what occurs to me. Having the prompt of the Green Box adds something to the story.

The plan needs to be done correctly – with a professional – no matter what.

The tragedy of people feeling it’s necessary to cut someone out of their estate.  Very sad.

What’s important from my perspective as an estate attorney.

These are tragic. They sometimes tear families apart. Often they result in litigation where members of families sue other members of families for what is thought to be rightfully theirs. These are not situations my law firm handles. My promise is to not be in a court of law arguing over the settlement of an estate. I know good people who do help in these areas – I refer them

This is a brief overview of the basic documents of Estate Planning  Will Durable Power of Attorney Health Care Surrogate Living Will

At one second after midnight on an individual’s eighteenth birthday is a good place to start.  Another good place is when someone buys a home, gets married, or has a child. A fallout of not having one is what happened to Terry Schiavo in Florida while she was still living. A legal battle ran for years with her husband saying she never wanted to live in a persistent vegetative state while her...

An estate plan is about what happens at the end AND what happens while you’re still living.  One of the consequences of not having a plan is that families have to deal with Probate – a pricey process where the state determines who gets what, what percentages they get, and how they get it.  It can be avoided with proper counsel and planning.

A chance to share the story of how I became an attorney is always an honor and always fun. It’s a tale of following God’s direction and finding an area of service that I love.

People need Last Wills and Testaments.  They need guardians for minor children. They need Durable Powers of Attorney.

If you care about your family and don’t have a plan, NOW is the time. If you don’t have a plan created by you, no worries!  Whatever state you live in has a plan – it’s called ‘intestacy’ – it’s not inexpensive and often distributes an estate with money and/or property in a manner that has you rolling over in your grave.

The general recommendation is to have documents from wherever you’re domiciled – meaning wherever you have registered to vote, where you purchased a home and have that state’s driver’s license. In Florida, my practice is to recommend to snow birds – here for several months, that they have a Florida Power of Attorney and Health Care Surrogate.

It’s about what you own, who takes charge when you pass, who gets what at the end.

Know the impact of having the document when it’s needed. It can save a family much strife and division.

It’s very important to inventory what you have – tangible and intangible. It’s important to think about your family’s needs in terms of life insurance Naming someone to make medical decisions if you can’t and carry out end of life decisions makes for peace of mind when the time comes. Powers of Attorney let someone make financial decisions, and in Florida they go into effect as soon as the documen...

Unimaginably important in the unlikely eventuality they’re needed.

Do you have enough life insurance? If you’re married, does your spouse, who may not work outside of the home or who earns substantially less, have sufficient insurance to cover the expense of finding paid help to shuttle back and forth to school; to babysit, and a myriad of other things.

Information needs to be passed to your family when they need it, and eventually they will need it.