Digital Assets and Your Estate Plan: Navigating the Modern Landscape
By Spiro Verras
Digital accounts can hold financial assets, family memories, creative work and information needed to manage everyday life. A useful estate plan considers both who should have legal authority and how that person could obtain appropriate access without compromising security.
Make a private inventoryThink about email, cloud...
Don’t Avoid These Important Estate Planning Conversations
By Spiro Verras
Estate planning conversations can feel difficult because they involve health, family responsibilities and life after a loss. You do not have to resolve every question at once. Starting with the people you trust and the decisions they may need to make can help turn...
Reasons to Put a Power of Attorney in Place
By Spiro Verras
A durable power of attorney can make it easier for a trusted person to help with financial and legal matters during your lifetime. It can be especially useful if illness, travel or another circumstance makes it difficult to handle those matters yourself.
Choose the person and...
An ABLE account alongside a trust
By Spiro Verras
A family planning for someone with a disability may find that two tools work well together: A supplemental needs trust for longer-term support and an ABLE account for qualified spending and savings.
The choice begins with what the beneficiary needs and how...
What Is a QPRT?
By Spiro Verras
A home can be both a place your family loves and an important part of the inheritance you hope to leave. A qualified personal residence trust, or QPRT, offers one way to plan for its future ownership while keeping the right to live there for a specified...
Florida’s Intestacy Laws
By Spiro Verras
Florida's intestacy laws provide a default distribution plan for probate property that is not effectively disposed of by a valid will. Understanding those rules can reveal where the legal default differs from what you would choose for your family.
Probate and nonprobate property follow different rulesAn...
Protecting Your Legacy from Heirs with Money Trouble
By Spiro Verras
Over our lifetimes, we work hard to provide the best for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for our communities. When you plan your estate, you are making sure that your wishes are followed and your interests are protected for the rest of your...
Will Contest Actions
By Spiro Verras
A will contest asks a court to decide whether a will, or part of it, is legally valid. These disputes can be difficult for a family, especially while grieving. A useful first step is to separate disappointment about the result from a concern that the...
How to Handle Tangible Personal Property Distribution
By Spiro Verras
Personal belongings can pass through a will, a qualifying written property list, a properly funded trust or completed lifetime gifts. Informal instructions to a personal representative do not necessarily create an enforceable gift. The best approach depends on the items, your wishes and the...
Help Out Your Heirs By Organizing Your Affairs
By Spiro Verras
Organizing your affairs can be a practical act of care for the people who may someday help you or administer your estate. Clear records make it easier to locate documents, understand responsibilities and carry out the plan you have chosen.
Create a useful account inventoryList bank...