Gainesville Florida Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

Caregivers play a vital role in all families, especially those with aging parents. There are many cases I see where there are a number of adult children but only one living in the same community as their older parents.

While all of them want to help with the caregiving role, it is clearly more difficult for those who live hundreds of miles away to be active on a day-to-day basis. That often leaves the bulk of the very physical and emotional challenges to only one of the adult children.

It is often the case that the caregiver role was not one they expected or intended to play.
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This Wednesday, Sept. 21 is the day that is recognized across the globe as World Alzheimer’s Day. Alzheimer’s organizations around the world use the day to concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about Alzheimer’s and dementia. As we know, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.

This is a group of diseases that strikes often and with devastating results.
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We are always reminding people of the importance of having an up-to-date Will, Durable Power of Attorney, Health Care Surrogate, Living Will and the rest. But that may only be step one in the process of making sure your documents are in order.

The next step is to examine your assets to see how they are titled. You need to also examine your beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement funds. Until you do that, your estate plan is not complete.
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Being young often gives people the feeling that they don’t have to plan for the future. And in some cases, while they may be smart enough to plan for retirement, they do not think about what happens to their estate if they die suddenly.

Often they assume they don’t have enough of an estate to worry about it, or they have no dependents yet, so why bother.

But there are several valid reasons for doing this early planning, not the least of which is taking away the burden for those you leave behind of having to track down your financial accounts or deal with any debt you may have.

The sad reality is people can die young.
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We are seeing a marked increase in in the number of clients who have inquired about organ and tissue donation. The procedure for designation that you want to be a donor is relatively simple and can be done in a number of ways.

Florida law is very specific on how to make such designations. They include:

1. Signing an organ and tissue donor card.
2. Registering with the state’s online donor registry: Read more . . .
   
   

When your loved one goes into the hospital, they can be categorized in a variety of ways. The most common of these is inpatient. But another common designation is medical observation status.

The use of medical observation status, also known as observation outpatient, certainly has legitimate value. Doctors will often use it when they are not sure what is wrong with a person.
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Being listed as someone’s executor can be an honor at first, but it is important to realize that it is a big responsibility. Dealing with the legal responsibilities of the financial and estates aspects of a will can be very stressful. Here are some of the most common mistakes that executors make.

• Not being fully aware of what you are getting yourself involved with. Starting the role of being an executor without knowing what it is and what the job entails is a huge mistake.

Every family finds the topic of money to be very odd, sensitive and semi-uncomfortable. There are many factors that go into the discussion of money such as, how they deal with money, how to save it, how to spend it, who’s in control of it and how decisions are made. When becoming someone’s caregiver, money plays an important role in how to approach his or her care. Money can become an even bigger issue if you become the caregiver or a parent or loved one. Here are some things you should discuss if you find yourself in this sticky situation.

It took the Florida Legislature to determine this but the cremated remains of a loved one are not property and cannot be split amongst heirs like the revenue from an estate sale or other assets. The determination from the Legislature was part of wider legislation governing Florida’s funeral-home industry.

The Legislature may have stepped in because of a 2014 decision by the 4^th District Court of Appeal, which ruled a son’s ashes should not be split 50-50 between two divorced parents. The father hoped to divide the ashes with his ex-wife. He argued that they were assets from his son’s probate estate and should be divided.
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A big decision that comes with putting together a life insurance plan is deciding who the beneficiary is going to be. You could consider your spouse, a relative, a child or even a business partner. Just because you make this decision when you first set up the plan doesn’t mean that it is permanent. The plan needs to be reviewed regularly, and it is crucial to make sure that the beneficiary is still the right choice.

As time goes by, things may change and because of that, you may need to change your beneficiaries.
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Many parents are under the assumption that they can receive all of their children’s information since they still are supporting them, but that is not the case. Once a child reaches the age of 18, privacy laws are applied to them in the same way they are applied to adults. People think that the following three documents are only needed when you are older, when in reality they are needed once you turn 18 and are ready to go away for college.

 1. HIPAA Release.
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