Correctly planning your death and incapacity is typically not the top of most people’s to-do lists. Most of us live our lives hoping that we will not die in the near future. But we know that death is inevitable and we also know that this is important to plan for. Certainly, good planning will provide you with the peace of mind you need knowing that you and your loved ones are correctly provided for.  We want to help you create the best estate plan possible. Whether you have a large or a small estate, you should be sure that your wishes are followed upon your death and that you and your assets are protected in the event of your incapacity.

A Clear Process to Help You

You will love working with us as we make things simple, understandable and we take the time to make sure you are comfortable. When our client's estate plans are finished, they often remark how easy we made it for them. To help you, we use the following process:

Step 1: We send you a questionnaire (mail or e-mail) to complete for our initial meeting.

Step 2: In our initial consultation, we review your goals, your assets, and your family. After getting a clear picture of your desires, we will quote you a fixed fee for our services, which includes incapacity planning.

Step 3: In our next meeting (probably via ZOOM), we will review your documents as discussed in our initial meeting, discuss your living will, and will sign your will/trust, etc., if applicable.

Step 4: We meet to review our estate planning binder and how to fund your estate plan, which may include helping complete any change of ownership/beneficiaries on your documents.

Step 5: You call or e-mail us if you ever have any questions, comments or concerns. We do not charge for follow up questions as we want to be your attorney for life!

Our estate planning process is not mere document preparation - we take our time to make sure your goals correspond with a written estate plan and that your assets are part of your planning.

Protect Your Children From Your In-Laws

Part of our process will look at making sure your children's inheritance cannot be taken from an angry in-law in a divorce.  See our Personal Asset Trust can protect your children from in-laws, creditors and even Medicaid spend down. This trust system is one of the ways we are unique among local law firms.

Should you have a Will or Living Trust?

Most everyone that comes into our office wants to avoid probate upon their death. In our meeting, if you so desire, we will discuss probate, living trusts and other ways to make sure your estate planning goals are accomplished as efficiently as possible.  Planning with a last will and testament may be good for some while others may want to create a revocable living trust in order to avoid probate and save their family time and money. 

Guarantee: Our Estate Planning Process Will Be Easy 

Seminole estate planning lawyer Rep DeLoach with clients

One of our goals is to make estate planning easy to understand. After our initial consultation, many people remark that we explained things to them in simple terms that they understood.  Part of what makes things easy is our estate planning process. Our estate planning process will make you feel comfortable in making the right decisions for you and your family. To make an estate plan that works for you, our process is as follows:

In our initial meeting, we will discuss you, your goals and your assets. We will review probate, probate avoidance, wills, revocable living trusts, and incapacity planning. We help you decide what the estate plan that will be best for you and your loved ones. You may want to create an estate plan that avoids probate, such as creating a revocable living trust. You may also want to keep things more simple at this point by creating a last will and testament. Either way, we will discuss your incapacity planning, such creating a durable power of attorney, designation of healthcare surrogate and living will.

In this meeting, we will quote you a fixed fee for your estate plan choosing among a number of different options. In order to proceed with your plan, we will need a retainer for one-half of the quoted fee. If you are not ready to proceed from our initial meeting, we can always schedule a second meeting to make sure you are comfortable with your decisions.

Friendly, Efficient, and Knowledgeable

The reality is that not all attorneys are created equally. Some attorneys do not keep up with the law, some attorneys practice in many different areas of the law besides estate planning, and some attorneys are just document preparers, not bringing the entire estate plan together. Our goal is to not just create a good estate plan for you but to make sure it actually works.

We pride ourselves in making sure you understand all of your options, how probate, estate taxes, creditors, long-term care and more can affect your planning.  We also want to make things as easy for you as possible. Many of our clients leave our meetings telling us that we made things so much easier and understandable for them. Check out attorney D. “Rep” DeLoach III’s happy clients on his AVVO page.

Knowledge in Elder Law and Estate Planning

One great advantage to working with us is our additional knowledge in elder law. We know that many people spend time in long-term care before they die, which frequently results in paying vast sums of money to the nursing home. Our estate planning will prepare you for changes that may come with downturns in health so that your assets can be protected for you and your family. Not all estate planning attorneys are familiar with irrevocable trust planning, VA benefits planning or Medicaid asset protection planning, but we are!

Download our Free Guides to Estate Planning in Florida 

We want our estate planning clients to make the best decisions based upon their own situation and wishes.  To assist you, we are pleased to offer you a free copy of attorney D. “Rep” DeLoach III’s books:

The Top 20 Ways to Protect Your Florida Estate

Don’t Go Broke in the Nursing Home: Your Florida Survival Guide

Free Report: Why Most Florida Estate Plans Fail!

Other Important Florida Estate Planning Terms

We believe in educating our clients.  In addition to our books, we offer a library of information at this link.  Information such as the following will assist you in making the best decisions possible:

  • Living trusts. You don’t have to be very wealthy to create a trust. Trusts can benefit many people in a variety of situations. They can help avoid probate, protect your heirs and save them time and money. Our firm can help with many types of trusts, including:
  • Wills. Wills are more than just simply filling in a document. While using a DIY form from the internet may seem like a good idea, the typically small cost of hiring an attorney can pay off in the long run by ensuring your will is comprehensive and effective with respect to Florida law.
  • Incapacity planning. Incapacity planning allows you to make decisions about your life, finances, and medical care now that can be followed later if you are unable to make those decisions. You can dictate now what kind of medical treatments you’d like to receive and a person you trust to make decisions that can’t be foreseen. You can also choose someone to make financial decisions on your behalf for the choices that your estate plan cannot cover.
  • Enhanced Life Estate Deeds. Not every estate plan needs a revocable living trust. A simple estate plan may be able to avoid probate with this special type of deed.

While many estate plans try to avoid probate in the first place, it is our belief that probate is not always terrible in certain situations. Here, we offer extensive probate services to complement our estate planning department.

Contact Our Estate Planning Attorneys in Seminole

The lawyers at DeLoach, Hofstra & Cavonis, P.A. have been protecting the interests and ensuring the legacies of Floridians since 1976. Let us help you find the peace of mind you need with an effective, comprehensive estate plan. Call us today at (727) 397-5571 to learn more about your estate options and how to proceed.