Upon creating a will (or a trust), you may turn to your friends and family about what you should do next. A basic internet search will provide countless sites listing several actionable steps. You may need to develop a list of the assets you own, identify beneficiaries, and consider a potential guardian for your children. This doesn’t consider your medical and durable powers of attorney, which are fundamental for Read More

Before you commit to making an estate plan, you may need clarification about what it is and achieves. Although it is entirely understandable to assume this, some envision it as a single document that gets signed when you meet with your attorney. Additionally, people falsely believe that people pursue an estate plan because they only want to protect their assets.    Anyone who has begun estate planning Read More

There’s a general misunderstanding surrounding the difference between estate planning and elder law. It is essential to define the two because this blog centers around a common elder law concern of keeping your house while also paying the high costs associated with long-term care. In a straightforward way, estate planning answers the question of what happens to you and your assets if you are incapacitated or pass Read More

Parents who have children with special needs face a series of challenges when it comes to raising a child with special needs. Many schools lack the funding or personnel to deliver the education they need and deserve. Additionally, these parents are committed to working with their child’s disabilities to ensure their kids receive the support they need. This line of thought extends to estate planning too. When you Read More

Luis E. Barreto & Associates represent various cases centered around guardianship, and it is important to establish its purpose. A guardian is responsible for protecting the person and their assets, and we need to emphasize how seriously the state of Florida takes them. Although we represent individuals who wish to contest guardianship, others enter into this relationship willingly and voluntarily. These Read More

At Luis E. Barreto & Associates, we have extensive experience with probate litigation. If you have read our blog in the past, you will have discovered several ways to find yourself in probate litigation. After which, you may have committed to creating an estate plan that avoids probate. Many people quickly turn to trusts as a means of bypassing probate, and in some cases, that may be the case. However, we want to Read More

There are countless situations when people get the sense they need an attorney but are hesitant to get one. For example, a person may sense their marriage is heading for divorce, but they don’t commit to getting a simple consultation with a lawyer. Why? It may be because they feel that once they do, they initiate a legal battle. Remember that when you meet with an attorney, it is confidential. Secondly, the lawyer Read More

When someone asks you to serve as the trustee of their estate, you should ensure that you have legal counsel to assist you with this monumental task. Trustees have a fiduciary duty to the trust's beneficiaries, and they have a significant amount of responsibility. Additionally, your attorney has a command of the current laws that govern trusts and will advise you in accordance with them.  Before we explore why Read More

If you become a personal representative during a Florida probate case, it is almost always required that you have legal representation. (In Florida, the executor of an estate is referred to as a personal representative.) An exception is the rare instance when the personal representative is also the sole interested person. An interested person is “any person who may reasonably be expected to be affected by the outcome Read More

As estate planning tools, trusts have valuable benefits. They enable you to control how and when your property is distributed after you pass, reduce gift and estate taxes, and avoid the delays and costs of probate. The downside is that when a trust contains a significant amount of money and property, it can cause conflict.  You can contest a trust in Florida if you are one of its beneficiaries. Sometimes, doing so Read More