Preparing For The Future With A Solid Estate Plan
Estate planning is a broad term that is often used to include a number of legal provisions related to end-of-life issues and health care issues during one’s lifetime. People who have meaningful family or business relationships often express a desire to protect the interests of others whose lives are connected to theirs through estate planning. Other people have favorite charitable causes that are an integral part of the legacy that they intend to leave behind after death.
At the Law Office of Dale Brewster, we are committed to helping you accomplish your unique goals in planning for the future. Our lawyers have a wealth of collective experience crafting effective estate plans. We have done so for more than a thousand clients. You can benefit from this experience, gaining peace of mind knowing you have a solid plan in place.
Based in Sun City Center, we help clients throughout the Tampa Bay area as well as snowbirds and out-of-state residents who have property or elderly family in Florida.
What’s Involved In Estate Planning
Estate planning is much more than preparing a will. It involves:
- Preparation for possible incapacity
- Preparation for transference of assets as efficiently as possible at the time of death, including real estate, bank accounts, household goods, life insurance benefits, 401(k) savings and other retirement assets
- Preparing to pass on your interest in a home to a husband or wife with minimal or no expense
- Provision through trusts for the financial legacy that you want to leave behind
When you work with us, our lawyers will take a close look at your assets as well as your financial and personal goals to develop a tailored plan for your situation.
Common Estate Planning Tools
Our attorneys can direct you to the legal tools that you can use to have the greatest control over your assets and health care preferences. Those tools may include:
- Wills
- Pour-over wills
- Trusts
- Special needs trusts
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Educational trusts
- Charitable remainder trusts
- Powers of attorney
- Living wills
- Health care directives
- Guardianships
- Conservatorships
- Medicaid planning trusts
- Probate
- Trust administration
Carefully designed powers of attorney and other estate planning provisions can help avoid the need for guardianship to be carried out by a complete stranger in the future. A durable power of attorney will give a designated representative the authority to handle your financial affairs as well, if this is ever needed. Your representative will be able to sell property, pay bills from your bank account, file your income tax returns, handle your investments and, in general, manage your finances in accordance with your expressed desires. Talk to an attorney to ensure that your estate planning is done in accordance with your wishes.
Discuss Your Estate Planning Goals With Our Team
We’re passionate about helping clients make estate planning decisions in support of their ultimate best interests. Whether you are about to write your first will or want to review existing estate planning documents with an experienced Florida attorney, contact us online or by phone at 813-633-8772 to request a free initial consultation.