Review Your Estate Plan Every Few Years
By Spiro Verras
Having an estate plan in place can bring welcome peace of mind. You have taken time to identify your priorities, choose people you trust and explain how you want to provide for loved ones. A periodic review helps that plan continue to reflect your life.
Reviewing...
Creating an IRA Trust
By Spiro Verras
Can a trust help your family inherit an IRA?A retirement account often represents years of careful saving. Naming a properly designed trust as its beneficiary can help you guide how those savings support your loved ones after your death. The IRA ordinarily stays in your name during...
Responsibilities of an Executor
By Spiro Verras
The person responsible for administering a Florida probate estate is called the personal representative. Other states may use the term executor or administrator. Choosing that person deserves care: the role combines practical organization, communication, and fiduciary responsibilities.
Authority and protection of estate propertyA nomination in a...
An inheritance that supports independence
By Spiro Verras
An inheritance can give someone you love more choices, more support and greater security. If that person has a disability and receives means-tested benefits, planning the way the inheritance arrives can help those resources work together.
A supplemental needs trust, also known...
Do I Need a Trust?
By Spiro Verras
A trust can be a useful part of an estate plan, but it is not a requirement for every family. The right question is what you want the plan to accomplish and whether a trust offers benefits that justify its creation, funding, and administration.
What does...Creating an Education Trust
By Spiro Verras
An education trust can give a parent or grandparent a flexible way to support learning while deciding how the funds should be managed. It may be useful when the intended support extends beyond a single child's college tuition or when a beneficiary needs help managing...
Is a living trust right for you?
By Spiro Verras
A revocable living trust can be an excellent fit for a family that wants continuity, private administration, and carefully planned inheritances. A thoughtful will-based plan can serve other families equally well. Choosing between them begins with what you own, who depends on you, and how...
Plan Carefully to Pass Down Your IRA Assets
By Spiro Verras
An IRA can provide an important inheritance, but its tax rules differ from the rules for a home or ordinary investment account. A useful plan coordinates the beneficiary form, the beneficiary's needs, and the distribution rules that apply after the account owner's death.
Begin with the...DIY Wills in Florida: A Plan That Fits Your Family
By Spiro Verras
Will a Fill-in-the-Blank Will Work for Your Family?An online form may offer a convenient starting point, but a useful estate plan needs to fit your family, your property, and Florida law. The questions go beyond who should inherit. Who will...
Debunking Common Estate Planning Myths
By Spiro Verras
Estate planning can feel less intimidating when a few common misunderstandings are set aside. The work begins with practical decisions about your property, the people you care about, and who should help if you cannot act for yourself.
Myth: estate planning is only for wealthy peopleThe...