There’s Always a Plan, Just Not Always a Good Plan

If you do not plan your estate, the State will plan it for you.

Whether they know it or not, everyone in this country has an estate plan. It’s either one they did themselves or one done for them by the state where they live.

For some folks, the state’s plan for those who don’t have a Will works fine. A single man with no children often wants his estate to go to his parents if they outlive him, and that is what the law of Florida and most other states say.

For others, the state’s plan turns out to be a disaster. Take a “blended family” with the husband and wife each on their second marriage, with children by their first marriages. The second marriage is strong, lasts a long time, and the couple puts everything they have in joint names so that no probate is needed when one dies.

That’s great until the second dies, even just a few minutes after the first. The children of the second to die will get everything. The children of the first to die? They get nothing. Great plan, right?

Many people really need to have a professionally drafted Last Will.  Our Florida attorneys handle far too many estates, some of a very large size, that have either no Will or a self-made Will that is defective in one or more ways.