AARP Magazine recently published a lengthy article on a contentious guardianship. If you would like to read the entire article, it can be found here: https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/financial-legal/info-2018/court-ordered-guardianship-separates-family.html. This newsletter will hit some highlights.
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If this isn’t a fundamental human right, I propose to make it one – the right to muddle through. This has been bothering me. America is supposed to be the land of the free, but that freedom becomes precarious when you reach “old age”. Florida’s Guardianship Law permits a Circuit Court Judge to strip you of all of your civil and personal rights. I’ve seen it happen in a 5 minute hearing. 5 minutes! That is all it takes to become a “ward of the state.” Unfortunately, unless we can start a massive human rights campaign right now, “the right to muddle through” is being lost here in Florida.
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Good news. The electronic wills and remote notarization bill died again this year. (For more details, see last year’s comments.) https://cramerlawcenter.com/areas-of-practice/florida-electronic-wills-act/. The Florida Bar’s Elder Law Section is continuing to work with legislators to try to come up with a bill that contains adequate protections against exploitation of Florida citizens, or else continue to fight it. I still think it is just a bad idea. Stay tuned.
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We recently have been involved in a case which highlights the distinction between exploitation and guardianship. An elderly gentleman was being systematically robbed by a younger woman he was infatuated with. She obtained power of attorney and withdrew over $100,000 from his accounts in less than 4 months, before the banks froze those accounts, reported suspicious activity to DCF (Florida Department of Children and Families), and a third party intervened to file a guardianship. Had she continued at that pace, he would have been flat broke in a little over a year.
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Not all estate planning “packages” of documents contain a Designation of Preneed Guardian. But, this oft overlooked document can make a big difference if someone challenges your advance directives or Power of Attorney in court. Who would challenge your documents? You might be surprised.
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More and more medical research is appearing which links simple lifestyle changes to preventing cognitive decline. A recent article in the August 22, 2016 issue of Time Magazine highlights research by a Virginia neurologist, Dr. Majid Fotuhi. He emphasizes six lifestyle changes that may help protect your brain as you age:
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In a case from our own backyard, Keul vs Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Lampp and her late husband executed wills in 2009, several months before he died. Their estate plan provided that after Mrs. Lampp’s death, the entire estate would go to Hodges Boulevard Presbyterian Church. When she died, Mrs. Lampp had $333,000 in Navy Federal Credit Union accounts that she had jointly owned with her husband before he died. Her "friendly" neighbor provided a "payable on death" form from the credit union that gave her (the neighbor!) 75% of the credit union accounts, 10% each to her son and daughter and the remaining 5% to her former daughter-in-law. Nothing was left to the church.
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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, is the single best book I’ve ever read about end of life care.
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We're thrilled to announce the opening of a new branch office on Amelia Island in order to better meet the estate planning and related needs of Northeast Florida residents! The office is located at 5211 South Fletcher Avenue.
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Recently, there has been a lot of buzz around the need to fix the rules governing “professional guardians” (i.e., persons who have been appointed guardian over three or more legally incapacitated individuals) in order to protect Florida’s elderly from predatory practices. (See here, here, here, and here.) While the Florida legislature is taking steps to address the issue, you can mitigate your risk of becoming a victim by implementing anticipatory provisions in your estate planning documents.
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