Durable Power of Attorney

April 9, 2009

HIPAA – Part II What are Advance Health Care Directives and What do they have to do with HIPAA?

Roy Doppelt, a California estate planning lawyer, wrote an article on HIPAA and Advanced Health Car Directives. Much of his information applies to Florida Advanced Health Care directives. Roy states that an Advance Health Care Directive appoints a family member or friend to make health care decisions for you if you become physically or mentally unable to make them for yourself.

The person appointed is your Agent and many people appoint backup agents to help make decisions. We typically draft these documents in conjunction with a living will and a HIPAA release so that your Agent cannot show one document without the other in an attempt to avoid your desires.

February 2, 2009

Gifting changes required for POA’s in NY

by David M. Goldman

There has been an effort for many years in NY to reform the POA laws to make agents more accountable and reduce the incidents of financial abuse. Governor Patterson signed the bill into law last week and it is effective in less than 30 days!! Agents are now required to sign POA and Principal must sign an addendum to grant gifting powers to agent.

As many residents of New York and Florida travel back and forth it might be important to review your Florida Durable Power of Attorney if your NY based agent intends to make gifts.

The bill is Chapter 644 of 2008 [Assembly bill A6421-B (Weinstein) Senate bill S4996-B (Volker)]

January 13, 2009

Five Essential Estate Planning Documents For A Special Needs Family

by David M. Goldman

Five Essential Estate Planning Documents For A Special Needs Family. At the minimum, a special needs child deserves a parent’s continued stewardship and guidance, even though the parent may be incapacitated or deceased. Therefore, the parents of a special needs child should typically have the following five estate planning documents prepared:

(1) Last will and testament.

(2) General durable power of attorney for financial affairs (“GDPA”). The parent’s GDPA should permit the agent to make discretionary non-support distributions to or for the benefit of the special needs child, and to establish a SNT for the benefit of the special needs child.

December 27, 2008

Jacksonville Florida Guardianship Process

by David M. Goldman

Having a Florida Guardian appointed involves two separate court determinations. The first court proceeding is the Incapacity proceeding where the Florida court determines whether the person is incapacitated as defined by Florida law. The second Guardianship proceeding is where the Florida court actually determines who will serve a guardian. All Guardians are required to be represented by a Florida Lawyer (See Florida Probate Rule 5.030(a) ), submit to a criminal background check, and take an 8 hour course in Guardianship duties within 9 months of being appointed.

Step 1: (Determine Capacity). See Florida Statute

Florida’s Guardianship Statutes have been written to protect our freedom and independence. Therefore, the courts presume a person has capacity and is able to make decisions on their own until adjudicated by the courts to not have capacity. (See Florida Probate Rules 5.550 and Florida Probate Rule 5.030(a)” target=new>Florida Statute 744.3201 for what must be contained in the Petition to Determine Capacity).

November 24, 2008

2009 Annual Gift Tax Exclusion $13000

by David M. Goldman

The 2009 IRS annual gift tax exclusion is increasing form $12,000 to $13,000 for 2009.

This increase means that more money can be given away for estate tax planning purposes. For example, a married couple with two married children will be able to give away up to $104,000 in 2009 with no gift tax implications.

To discuss other ways of moving funds to your family or friends in order to reduce the effects of estate taxes, Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

October 27, 2008

Using Quicken to prepare a trust: The good, the bad, and ugly!

by David M. Goldman

I recently receive a copy of Quicken Willmaker 2009. I have previously written about many articles about the unintended results that occur with Do It yourself and Free Estate Planning Documents created by individuals without the advice of counsel and the problems with online document preparation services like LegalZoom and RocketLawyer.

I decided to try out a few of the documents in Quicken to see if they had improved the quality and accuracy of their Florida documents. Last week I wrote about problem with the Quicken Willmaker 2009 Durable Power of Attorney. This week I will be looking a the Revocable Living Trust. I have previously written about the many problems in using Quicken to create a Firearms Trust but for this article I will be focusing on the typical issues with regular estate planning and living trusts.

1. No free updates and old language, in order to keep your trust up to date, you need to purchase the software every year and hope they have dealt with changes in your state laws. Quicken seems to be slow at incorporating small or significant changes in the law. The changes in the new trust code from Florida in the years 2006 and 2007 have not been incorporated into the software. Quicken does not let you know what years statutes its language is based upon. Quicken states that when their users report problems they try to fix the program. Unfortunately, their users are not lawyers, and their users never find out about the problems. Their family may find problems when it is to late to make changes, but they have no way to ask, nor to they attempt to ask the beneficiaries to report problems.

October 16, 2008

Free Florida Durable Power of Attorney and related problems – Quicken 2009 Florida Problems (part 1)

by David M. Goldman

I recently receive a copy of Quicken Willmaker 2009. I have previously written about many articles about the unintended results that occur with Do It yourself and Free Estate Planning Documents created by individuals without the advice of councel and the problems with online document preparation services like LegalZoom and RocketLawyer.

I decided to try out a few of the documents in Quicken to see if they had improved the quality and accuracy of their Florida documents.

Problems and issues I encountered with the Quicken Durable Power of Attorney.

June 11, 2008

LIMITATIONS OF POWERS OF THE ATTORNEY IN FACT AND LIMITATIONS IN FLORIDA

by David M. Goldman

POWERS OF THE ATTORNEY IN FACT AND LIMITATIONS IN FLORIDA

Except as otherwise limited by statute (below), by other applicable law, or by the durable power of attorney, the attorney in fact has full authority to perform, without prior court approval, every act authorized and specifically enumerated in the durable power of attorney. Such authorization may not include:

1. Perform duties under a contract that requires the exercise of personal services of the principal;

June 10, 2008

PROPERTY SUBJECT TO DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY IN FLORIDA

by David M. Goldman

PROPERTY SUBJECT TO DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY IN FLORIDA.
Unless otherwise stated in the Florida durable power of attorney, the durable power of attorney applies to any interest in property owned by the principal, including, without limitation, the Principal’s interest in all real property, including homestead real property; all personal property, tangible or intangible; all property held in any type of joint tenancy, including a tenancy in common, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, or a tenancy by the entirety; all property over which the principal holds a general, limited, or special power of appointment; chooses in action; and all other contractual or statutory rights or elections, including, but not limited to, any rights or elections in any probate or similar proceeding to which the principal is or may become entitled.

If you have questions about the validity or scope of your Florida Durable Power of Attorney Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

June 9, 2008

Guardianship and Durable Power of Attorney in Florida

by David M. Goldman

Once an Agent (Attorney in fact) receives written notice which requires a signature, their powers under the Durable Power of Attorney are suspended until the court determines incapacity. The court may reinstate the Durable Power of Attorney for an emergency, when a petition if file upon the court showing the nature of the emergency, the property or matter involved, and the power to be exercised by the attorney in fact.

Notwithstanding the provisions above, a proceeding to determine incapacity must not affect any authority of the attorney in fact to make health care decisions for the principal, including, but not limited to, those defined in chapter 765, unless otherwise ordered by the court. If the principal has executed a health care advance directive designating a health care surrogate pursuant to chapter 765, the terms of the directive will control if the two documents are in conflict unless the durable power of attorney is later executed and expressly states otherwise.

If the person has not received written notice of the proceeding for which they were required to sign for, any third party may rely upon the authority granted in a durable power of attorney that is not conditioned on the principal’s lack of capacity to manage property until the third party has received the required notice. A third party may, but need not, require the attorney in fact to execute an affidavit.

If the Durable Power of Attorney is deployment contingent, any third party may rely upon the authority granted in a durable power of attorney to manage property as defined in Florida Statute 744.102(11)(a) only after receiving the affidavits provided in paragraphs (c) and (d), and such reliance shall end when the third party has received notice.
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