Estate Planning
In short
An estate plan is a set of legal documents recording who decides and who receives. An attorney drafts and executes them. Our part is narrower: making sure your financial plan and those documents say the same thing.
Estate planning puts four decisions in writing: who receives what you own, who acts on your money if you cannot, who makes medical decisions for you, and what care you would want at the end. In Florida those are a will, sometimes a revocable trust, a durable power of attorney and health care advance directives. A licensed attorney drafts and executes them; we do not draft them and do not give legal advice.
The four documents most people need
Each document does one job, and together they cover who receives, who decides and what you want. Whether a trust belongs in yours is a legal question for your attorney.
A will: directs property held in your sole name at death and names your personal representative, Florida’s term for the executor.
A revocable living trust, where it fits: holds what you have retitled into it, and lets a successor trustee act if you cannot.
A durable power of attorney: lets a person you name handle money and property for you.
Health care advance directives: a surrogate designation names who speaks for you medically, and a living will records what you would want.
Probate in Florida
Probate is the court-supervised process of gathering a person’s assets after death, paying debts and distributing the rest, under Chapters 731 through 735 of the Florida Statutes. The Florida Bar defines probate assets as those in the person’s sole name, or co-owned without a provision for automatic succession.
People plan around probate because it runs on the court’s calendar. Avoiding it takes setup and upkeep, and a plan built only from joint titling and beneficiary forms has problems of its own, so the right mix belongs with your attorney.
The documents that work while you are alive
A durable power of attorney covers money and property, and it keeps working if you can no longer act for yourself. Health care advance directives, defined in Chapter 765 of the Florida Statutes, name a surrogate to speak for you and record your wishes in a living will.
Without them, Chapter 765 sets an order for medical decisions: a court-appointed guardian, then your spouse, then an adult child, then a parent. For money there may be nobody with authority at all until a guardianship proceeding in circuit court.
Where the plan and the documents disagree
A common failure is documents that say one thing while the accounts say another: a will leaving everything equally while the largest account names one child, or a trust that was never funded.
We do not draft documents, give legal advice or tell you what your will should say. We read the plan and the documents side by side and list where they conflict, so you take that list to your attorney rather than paying one to find it.
Who this is for
You moved to Florida and your documents were drafted somewhere else, years ago.
You have a will in a drawer and are not certain what it says.
You have never signed a durable power of attorney or a health care surrogate designation.
Your documents are fine as far as you know, and nobody has checked that the accounts are titled to match.
Worth thinking about
Where are the original documents, and does the person who would need them know?
When were they last signed, and in which state?
Are your personal representative, agent and health care surrogate still who you would name today?
If you could not sign your name for six months, who could pay the bills?
Does anyone have a current list of what you own and how each account is titled?
Common questions
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
That is a legal question, and we would be practicing law if we answered it. The Florida Bar says a trust has to be implemented as part of an overall plan, with asset ownership coordinated between you and the trust. What we can give your attorney is an accurate picture of your assets and how they are titled.
Our documents were drawn up in another state before we moved. Are they still good?
Ask a Florida attorney, because the answer differs by document. Florida law provides that a health care directive validly executed in another state is valid here; a will or power of attorney raises separate questions. So does whether a Florida bank or hospital will act on the form in front of them.
What happens if we have nothing in place?
Florida law supplies defaults. Without a will, your property passes under a statutory formula and the court appoints a personal representative who may be a stranger to you. Without a health care surrogate, Chapter 765 sets who decides. Without a durable power of attorney, the route to your money is a guardianship proceeding.
Will our estate owe federal estate tax?
The IRS publishes a filing threshold that has changed many times, so we do not quote it here, and we do not give tax advice. The IRS explains the mechanism: what you own at death, less allowable deductions, with a credit applied. If it is a live question for your household, take it to your attorney and your tax professional.
How often should we look at all of this?
After an event rather than on a date: a move, a marriage, a divorce, a death, a birth, a serious diagnosis, or an executor who can no longer serve. A change in what you own is a reason too, because the documents were written for the assets you had then.
Sources
- Consumer pamphlet: Probate in Florida, The Florida Bar
- Probate, the court process, Florida Courts Help, Office of the State Courts Administrator
- Consumer pamphlet: Do You Have a Will?, The Florida Bar
- The Revocable Trust in Florida, The Florida Bar
- Consumer pamphlet: What is Guardianship?, The Florida Bar
- Chapter 709, Powers of Attorney and Similar Instruments, Florida Legislature, Online Sunshine
- Chapter 765, Health Care Advance Directives, Florida Legislature, Online Sunshine
- Guides for managing someone else’s money, U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Estate tax, Internal Revenue Service
These public resources support the general educational context on this page. They are not endorsements of Oliver Wealth Management, and none of the material here is personalized investment, tax, or legal advice.
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