Highlands County Probate - Probate in Florida
One thing that a Highlands probate lawyer can help you with is the making out of a will. Making out a will is, however, just one of the things that should be done to protect your assets and ensure that they actually end up where you want them to go. Sad to say, but wills can be contested, and the will of the deceased can end up becoming null and void - when it is subject to someone else's interpretation.
In order to prevent this from happening, you should contact a Highlands probate lawyer and talk to him or her about estate planning - before you make out a will. This is the best means of ensuring that your will is carried out - and much of it can be distributed even before you are dead. Estate planning also greatly cuts back on estate taxes.
Estate planning largely involves the setting up of trusts or similar entities, and working with life insurance, 401k's, IRA's, and other things. Your Highland probate lawyer can also show you how to give your assets away with gift giving. This way, you can learn how to use gifts as a way to directly put some of your assets into the hands of those you love, and also how to make gifts to charity to reduce those taxes. This helps your assets to be distributed where you want and apart from being in the will - where it could be contested.
Your Highland probate lawyer can also talk to you about the need for a living will or a healthcare proxy. This would set up a means for you to have a medical power of attorney selected for you if that should ever be needed. It serves to help protect your assets and your person.
If you must go through a probate because someone has died, then you may choose any probate attorney in the state of Florida who is of convenience to you; however, if there are issues in your probate being contested and that would require court appearances, then it would be wise to have a Highlands Probate lawyer because an Highlands County Probate Lawyer would be more familiar with the local Judges and Court system, and that would prove very helpful.
The fees for a Florida probate attorney are usually charged according to Florida Statutes Section 733.6171, which states:
733.6171 Compensation of attorney for the personal representative -
(1) Attorneys for personal representatives shall be entitled to reasonable compensation payable from the estate assets without court order.
(2) The attorney, the personal representative, and persona bearing the impact of the compensation may agree to compensation determined in a different manner than provided in this section if the manner is disclosed to the parties bearing the impact of the compensation and if no objection is made as provided for in the Florida Probate Rules.
(3) Compensation for ordinary services of attorneys in formal estate administration is presumed to be reasonable if based on the compensable value of the estate, which is the inventory value of the probate estate assets and the income earned by the estate during the administration as provided in the following schedule:
(a) One thousand five hundred dollars for estates having a value of $40,000 or less
(b) An additional $750 for estates having a value of more than $40,000, but not exceeding $70,000.
(c) An additional $750 for estates having a value of more than $70,000 and not exceeding $100,000.
(d) For estates having a value in excess of $100,000, at the rate of 3 percent on the next $900,000.
(e) At the rate of 2.5 percent for all above $1 million and not exceeding $3 million.
(f) At the rate of 2 percent for all above $3 million and not exceeding $5 million.
(g) At the rate of 1.5 percent for all above $5 million and not exceeding $10 million
(h) At a rate of 1 percent for all above $10 million.
Don't risk mishandling the estate you have been appointed to protect. You must be certain that all creditors and governmental agencies are properly paid so that the beneficiaries receive their assets free of problems in the future. Only a Florida probate attorney can assist you in this matter.
