Living Will

June 11, 2010

Plan for Your Potential Incapacity in Florida

One important aspect of the estate planning process is determining what will happen if one day you become incapacitated. The decisions that you make on a day to day basis will no longer be possible, therefore you will be required to rely on someone else to make these decisions for you. Two positions, the Florida Health Care Surrogate and Florida Durable Power of Attorney, can serve as decision makers when your time of need arises.

The designation of a Florida Healthcare Surrogate is vital to the estate planning process because this person will make the medical decisions for you in a situations where you are unable to do so. This does not mean that the person will always make medical decisions for you. Only when an individual becomes incapacitated to the point that the primary physician decides he/she can no longer make medical decisions for themselves. Situations such as this often arise when someone is unconscious.

A Florida Durable Power of Attorney determines your financial matters in the event you become incapacitated. It is important to choose a trusting person to whom you can assign this power because of the many responsibilities he or she will have. You can control the degree of power the person chosen has over financial matters but under most circumstances they will have complete control over your banking transactions, real estate transactions, and securities exchanges. In some cases this person can even run your business for you by making contracts and running the day to day operations.

January 18, 2010

Estate Planning Professionals Network of NRA

by David M. Goldman

David Goldman of Law Office of David M. Goldman PLLC, Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog, and NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog became a member of the Estate Planning Professionals network (EPPN) of the NRA. The next EPPN event will be held in conjunction with the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina in May 2010.

As a member of the EPPN, David can modify wills and trusts with language that can be added to Florida Wills and Trusts to make bequests to the national Rifle Association or any of the NRA charities or endowments.

October 16, 2009

When to review your Florida Estate Plan.

by David M. Goldman

Many of my Jacksonville Estate Planning clients ask me when and how often they should review their Florida Estate Plan. I like to recommend that people take a look at their situation on a yearly basis and if they notice any of the following, they should make an appointment with their Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

1. Change or contemplation of change in Marital status;

2. Death of spouse;

3. You or your spouses’ health changes;

August 17, 2009

Hurricane Season and Storage of Florida Estate Planning Documents

by David M. Goldman

Florida Estate Planning Documents can be lost during a hurricane or tropical storm. Just when a Florida Will, Power of Attorney, or Florida Living Will, Designation of Health care Surrogate & HIPAA release.

You should protect your original signed documents by keeping them in with in waterproof container and if possible off the floor or at a bank in a safety deposit box A scanned copy of these documents should be keep with your and made available at an off site storage facility like Google or any free document storage provider.

If you home is damaged and is inside a Florida Revocable Trust you may have to provide an original copy of the trust to the insurance company.

May 9, 2009

Does the HIPAA Privacy Rule allow parents the right to see their children’s medical records?

by David M. Goldman

Yes, the Privacy Rule generally allows a parent to have access to the medical records about his or her child, as his or her minor child’s personal representative when such access is not inconsistent with State or other law.

There are three situations when the parent would not be the minor’s personal representative under the Privacy Rule. These exceptions are:

1. When the minor is the one who consents to care and the consent of the parent is not required under State or other applicable law;

2. When the minor obtains care at the direction of a court or a person appointed by the court; and 3. When, and to the extent that, the parent agrees that the minor and the health care provider may have a confidential relationship.

However, even in these exceptional situations, the parent may have access to the medical records of the minor related to this treatment when State or other applicable law requires or permits such parental access. Parental access would be denied when State or other law prohibits such access. If State or other applicable law is silent on a parent’s right of access in these cases, the licensed health care provider may exercise his or her professional judgment to the extent allowed by law to grant or deny parental access to the minor’s medical information.

April 11, 2009

Reviewing wills and trust for compliance with Florida Law

by David M. Goldman

While Florida generally recognizes wills created in another state that were valid at the time they were created, it is often a good idea to have your will reviewed by a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer when you move to Florida.

One problem we often run into is that guardians for minor children who reside in Florida must be a close relative or a resident of the state of Florida. Often people designate non-relatives that do not reside in Florida and these are not effective.

While it is possible to create a trust or other legal instrument to allow a non-resident to manage the property of a minor, this should not be done in a will as it may be ineffective.

April 9, 2009

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

by David M. Goldman

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.

July 1, 2008

Google Offers Personal Health Records on the Web

by David M. Goldman

Google Health just began offering personal health records on the Web. They are joining WebMD, Microsoft, and Revolution Health.

These services are designed to help consumers manage their health care and medical spending records.

Google record allows users to send personal information to some clinics or to pull records from the clinic into the Google personal file. One clinic that has begun working with Google is the Cleveland Clinic.

June 24, 2008

Terri Schiavo II?

by David M. Goldman

It could be happening again in Florida, The Palm Beach Post has a report on a similar case. If you do not have a Florida Living Will now is the time to get one.

Karen Weber did not have a Florida Living Will when she suffered a seizure back in November. Her husband wants to disconnect the feeding tube that has kept her alive for the past 7 months.

The courts have not ruled on Ms. Weber’s condition and it is Mr. Weber’s intent to keep it a private matter.

May 28, 2008

Estate Planning and Moving Overseas

by David M. Goldman

Often clients do Florida Estate Planning in anticipation of an overseas trip or international relocation. They often ask if they should make special considerations because of their anticipated location.

Generally we advise clients that the planning is basically the same even if they will be living overseas for an extended period of time. The one area where there may be differences is in their Durable Power of Attorney where it might be advisable to make changes.

These changes require an evaluation of the current and anticipated needs of the individual client and cannot be generalized.