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Creating a Florida Living Will

Living Will Lawyer In Fort Lauderdale

Living Will Lawyer In Fort Lauderdale​A living will is a legal document that states how an individual wishes to receive medical treatments that can prolong their life. Having a living will allows you to let your family know what type of life-prolonging treatments you may or may not wish to receive during any potential medical situation. When creating a living will you want to make sure that it is done correctly. By having a living will and appointing a health-care surrogate, you are ensuring that your wishes are carried out exactly how you want them to be handled. A living will let doctors know what measures to take during medical situations that may arise in the future for yourself. Having a wills and trust lawyer help by creating a living will and appointing a health-care surrogate ensures that your preferences and wishes will be respected should something happen. Under Florida law, for your living will to become effective, it must be signed in the presence of two witnesses. One of the witnesses must be neither the spouse nor relative of the creator of the living will.

Appointing a Health-Care Surrogate

Along with your living will, you will want to appoint a health-care surrogate. This is particularly important because under Florida law, having a health care surrogate provides the power to make any health care decisions on your behalf should you become incapacitated. This also entails doctors to provide your family with vital medical information about you if you fall ill or incapacitates. Your health care surrogate is required to make health care decisions that they believe you would have made if you were capable of doing so. Without having an appointed health care surrogate, your family can not make decisions on your behalf. This has become an issue for families that have college aged children who have become incapacitated but do not have a living will and health care surrogate in place. The Florida legislature requires that in order for a health care surrogate to become effective that the designation of the chosen health care surrogate must be made in writing and signed in the presence of two witnesses.

Fort Lauderdale Estate Planning

A living will is part of estate planning. A living will attorney is able to help you plan your estate. Writing up the will is only part of that process. You also want to be able to plan for the future. This would include retirement as well as what happens to the estate when you die. The lawyer will be able to help you minimize the estate taxes so that your beneficiaries don’t have a huge tax bill upon your death. This is very important as the taxes can accumulate quite quickly and can be a rather large bill when you pass away. Your living will lawyer or estate attorney will be able to advise you on which way is best to minimize your taxes and allow your beneficiaries to get the maximum amount of what you have left to them. Estate attorneys are very well versed in estate law and can guide you on estate planning and creating a living will that specifically outlines exactly how you want your wishes to be handled in time of illness or incapacitation.

Contact A Fort Lauderdale Living Will Attorney At Weinstein & Scharf For All Your Estate Planning

Nobody wants to think about failing ill nor our own death. When we have loved ones, we want to make sure that they are taken care of when we are gone. However, this is an important part of the wills and trust process in estate planning. If you or a loved one has not created a living will or appointed a health care surrogate, our estate planning lawyers are here to help! Our attorneys can help write both your will and living will, along with helping your beneficiaries through the probate process when you are gone. The probate process can be a complex one and can take a long time to complete. Having one of our probate lawyers go through that process with you can be very helpful and we can answer any questions that your beneficiaries may have. Contact Weinstein & Scharf now to schedule a free estate planning consultation with our of our estate attorneys today.