Quality estate planning in Florida is more than just a matter of drafting legal documents. When it comes to trusts and estate planning that achieves what you want it to, you need a Florida estate planning lawyer who can help you define your goals and counsel you toward a strategy that will achieve those goals.
In today’s world traditional estate planning, with a will and designated beneficiaries, is not enough. Alone, these things will not protect your estate from probate fees, creditors, taxes or unscrupulous people — they will not guarantee that your estate will pass to the people you want it to pass to.
At Stross Law Firm, P.A., based in Oldsmar, Florida, our estate planning lawyers have more than 35 years of experience helping individuals and families protect their estates through estate plans that successfully achieve their goals and dreams.
Elements of Good Estate Planning in Florida
Trusts and Limited Liability Companies
Key components of good estate planning include limited liability companies (LLC’s) and trusts, and estate planning without them offers little control over your assets. Wills, beneficiary designations and joint tenancy properties do not avoid probate, provide protection against taxes or assure that property will end up in the hands you intended it to. Only a plan involving properly structured trusts and LLC’s, or other types of legal entities such as corporations, give you control over your assets after your death.
Proper Titling of Assets to Fund a Trust
A trust can only control assets that it owns. Unless your assets, property interests and business interests are properly titled to your trust, they can still end up in probate or in unintended hands. Titling assets to a trust or designating the trust as beneficiary of your insurance policies and bank accounts is referred to as funding the trust.
Updating of Trusts and other Estate Planning Tools
Estate planning in Florida is not complete just because the papers are signed and filed. Good estate planning includes a regular schedule of updating. At least every two years you should sit down with your Florida estate planning lawyer and review your trust and other documents to ensure that all your assets are protected and all beneficiaries and inheritance terms are correct. Circumstances and families change. It’s important that your plan be kept up to date with those changes or it could end up troubled or insolvent.
A Team Approach
An estate plan is much more likely to work if it has the input of all your professional advisors. Your lawyer, CPA, financial advisors and insurance agents all have a unique perspective and insight into your situation and can provide solutions that ensure a strong estate plan. Working separately, however, they are likely to give conflicting advice, which often leads to confusion and indecision.
Estate Planning in Florida with Howard Stross and Stross Law Firm, P.A.
At Stross Law Firm, P.A. we take a team-oriented approach to estate planning. In Florida our estate planning lawyers work with your other advisors to develop a comprehensive strategy for protecting your estate and achieving your goals. Firm founder Howard Stross is a member of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys and has more than 30 years of estate planning experience.
Please see the following brochure that discusses how we approach estate planning services in our firm.*Three Step Strategy For Estate Planning - From the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys *The brochure is in PDF format, and Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view it. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, please click here for a free download. (Links open a new tab or window.)
We include DocuBank as part of our estate planning services to you to ensure that your documents are where they are needed, when they are needed. DocuBank members can update their emergency contact information by clicking on the DocuBank logo. For more information on this valuable service, visit www.DocuBank.com.
To find out more about how the Florida estate planning lawyers at Stross Law Firm, P.A. can help you develop a secure estate plan, please contact Stross Law Firm, P.A. regarding estate planning in Florida via the Contact Us page. You can also call us directly at 813-852-6500 or call toll-free at 866-815-0081.
For more information about trusts and estate planning in Florida or other services from Stross Law Firm, P.A., please visit these pages:
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