The Coleman Law Firm is a Jacksonville, Florida estate planning, elder law, and probate firm of lawyers and attorneys who practice in the areas of estate planning, wills and trusts, elder law and Medicaid planning, financial and tax planning, business succession planning, small business entity selection and formation, wealth preservation and asset protection planning, charitable planning, probate and trust administration and probate litigation and trust litigation.  We are a participating attorney in the AARP Legal Services Network by GE.

FLORIDA ESTATE PLANNING

We believe the proper definition of estate planning is to control your assets while you are alive, protect your assets for the benefit of your family and loved ones, provide for the management of your assets and your own personal care in the event of an incapacity, and to see that upon death your assets pass to the people you want to receive them, in the manner that you want, at the time you want, at the least possible cost for taxes and professional fees.

The mission of the Florida estate planning, probate and elder law lawyers and attorneys at The Coleman Law Firm is to strive for our clients to achieve their estate planning goals and objectives consistent with that definition of estate planning.

We implement that mission by engaging our clients in comprehensive estate planning where our first objective is to gain a full understanding of each client’s needs, desires, goals, and objectives, as well as their fears and concerns, as it relates to their family and their estate planning.  Our focus is not exclusively on the passage of wealth at death, but includes consideration of lifetime needs and concerns to plan for incapacity, for long term care, and for protecting assets during life so the value and benefit of the assets you have accumulated are for you, your family, and loved ones.

We initiate our professional relationship with our clients by seeking to understand your circumstances, your family members, and your estate planning goals and objectives, as well as your fears and concerns.  We want to know about your family members, their strengths, their weaknesses, their talents and their needs.  Only by truly understanding the dynamics of your family can we then identify and help you understand the various options that are available to deal with the specific circumstances that are unique to you and your family.

After we have gained an understanding of your needs and desires, and you have gained an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the various options and alternatives available for your use to achieve your goals and objectives, and deal with your fears and concerns, we then, together with you, design a plan that is specifically tailored to help you accomplish the purposes for which you initiated the estate planning process.

Our estate planning process begins with an examination of each client’s needs for advance directives that are appropriate for them and their circumstances.  From there we proceed to evaluate their needs for incapacity and for long term care planning.  We examine tax issues, both income taxes and estate taxes.  We then develop a blue print for the wills and trusts that will be needed to accomplish the efficient transfer of wealth at death.  At each stage of the planning process we are always cognizant of the tax implications of every aspect of the plan, as well as the asset protection elements of every plan.  There is little benefit to having a great estate plan, if all of the assets can be lost to third parties because the assets were not properly titled or structured to legally protect them against third party claims.  We look at the opportunities to provide long term asset protection for the next generation, or successive generations, as well as generational planning to minimize taxes through successive generations where that is appropriate.  We help our clients evaluate options for charitable planning from the perspective of income tax savings, as well as major philanthropy through private foundation, donor advised funds, or supporting organizations.

Our documents are designed to achieve all of the objectives that have been incorporated into each client’s estate plan.  Each document is tailored to the specific requirements of the client’s unique circumstances.  The wills and trusts documents that we prepare for you are so unique to you that we copyright each one of them.

If you need to plan for your potential incapacity, for long term care, for asset protection, for income and estate tax savings, for wills and trusts, please contact the Jacksonville, Florida estate planning, probate, elder law, guardianship and asset protection lawyers and attorneys at The Coleman Law Firm so that we can help you design and implement a plan that meets your unique needs.

In the following paragraphs, we will discuss briefly each of the major topics covered in our website.  There is a more detailed discussion of each topic on the pages that follow. 

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVES

Advance directives include several different documents that are all designed to provide for some aspect of your care in the event of your absence or incapacity. 

The most common of these documents is the durable power of attorney, which is a document that allows you to designate the person or persons who you want to handle your business and financial affairs in the event of your absence or incapacity.  You should expect your durable power of attorney to be drafted to deal with your specific circumstances.  It should not be a one size fits all, cookie-cutter document. 

If both you and your spouse are in your first marriage, of long term duration, and you have one set of children, your durable power of attorney most likely should be different from the power of attorney for someone who is in their second or third marriage, as is their spouse, and you have children from a previous marriage, your spouse has children from a previous marriage, perhaps you have children together, and you want your assets to be available for your spouse’s support and comfort after your death, but your want your assets to go to your children after your spouse’s death.  A power of attorney can include provisions to allow your attorney in fact change your will or trust, to change beneficiary designations on life insurance policies or retirement plans; or your power of attorney can exclude those provisions, and include others.

Your power of attorney can be drafted to include provisions for providing for the care of pets, or for the operation of a business or farm, or any other specific circumstance you want covered.  The more complete and specific a power of attorney is drafted, the more likely that it will serve the purpose you intended.  As you review the related section of this website dealing with the Florida Power of Attorney, keep in mind that you have the right to a power of attorney that is designed to be as comprehensive or as limited as you want it to be.

Other advance directives in Florida include the Designation of Health Care Surrogate, the Declaration of Pre-Need Guardian, and the Living Will.  Again, though there are statutory forms for each of these documents, your advance directive should be designed to accomplish your specific desires or deal with your unique concerns.  Even the living will, made famous by the Terry Schiavo case, can be annotated to provide coverage of things that may be more important to you than to other people.  In many, perhaps most cases, the statutory forms are satisfactory and sufficient.  You have the right to insist that your documents are tailored to your needs.

FLORIDA WILLS AND TRUSTS

As discussed above with reference to advance directives, and even more so with wills and trusts, you should insist that your documents reflect the planning objectives you have and deal with all of the issues involved in your specifically designed estate plan.  Your family, while it may share many characteristics with other families, is unique unto itself.  Your estate plan should incorporate wills and trusts that effectively deal with the distinctive needs, goals, objectives, dreams, desires, fears and concerns that uniquely yours.

There are two major distinctions between a will based estate plan and a revocable living trust based estate plan.  If properly funded (meaning the transfer or re-titling of assets), the revocable trust (1) allows for more effective planning for the management of your estate in the event of your incapacity, and (2) allows one to avoid probate.  A more detailed explanation of Wills in Florida is found in the section entitled Do You Have A Will.  A discussion of the Revocable Living Trust in Florida is in the section bearing that same title.  Both probate administration and trust administration are discussed more completely in separate sections of this website entitled Probate in Florida, and Trust Administration.  There also is a more detailed discussion of Probate Litigation in Florida and Trust Litigation in Florida to further develop the comparison of using a will based plan or a trust based plan.

Basic estate planning is focused on the use of a will or revocable living trust as the foundation of your estate plan.  As you accumulate a larger estate, it is necessary to consider more sophisticated estate planning tools, both because of the potential impact of estate taxes, and the need to provide additional structure or control over the distribution of the estate.  When more sophisticated planning is appropriate there are a number of different trusts and other techniques that may be appropriate for your estate planning portfolio.  You will find it beneficial to consult with a Jacksonville, Florida estate planning lawyer or attorney at The Coleman Law Firm to assist you in determining which of the many techniques are most appropriate for you and your circumstances.

Various types of irrevocable trusts are available for consideration.  These include, the irrevocable life insurance trust, the private annuity trust, the qualified personal residence trust, a Retirement Plan trust, Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust, Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, charitable remainder trust, charitable lead trust, and othertypes of trusts that are used for specific purposes.

Other techniques can be used where there is a need that may be unrelated to estate taxes or pure estate planning objectives, such as asset protection planning objectives.  These techniques include family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, self cancelling installment notes, beneficiary controlled trusts, domestic asset protection trusts, premarital agreements, post-marital agreements, shareholder’s buy-sell agreements, long term care contracts, personal care contracts, and many others.

The important point to remember as you move through your estate planning process is that your plan should deal with your objectives, goals, desires, fears and concerns.  It should be as individual as you and your family, so that your individual needs are appropriately addressed and dealt with effectively.

If you want a Florida estate plan that is designed to deal with the individual circumstances involving your family and loved ones, please contact the Jacksonville, Florida estate planning lawyers and attorneys at The Coleman Law Firm so that we can help you achieve your estate planning goals and objectives.

FLORIDA PROBATE ADMINISTRATION AND LITIGATION

As experienced Florida probate lawyers and attorneys, we know how important it is for the probate estate administration process to be completed as soon as reasonably possible, and as efficiently as possible, regardless of whether the estate is simply to probate a deed, or an estate that is subject to the estate tax..  Our Jacksonville, Florida probate lawyers and attorneys provide our clients with complete and timely information regarding the status and activities of each probate case.  We are familiar with the Florida probate law, guardianship law, probate rules, probate courts and the probate forms necessary for complying with Florida probate law.  Our Jacksonville, Florida probate lawyers and trust attorneys counsel our clients on each phase of the probate estate administration process and provide direction for each step that must be taken.  Our Jacksonville, Florida probate lawyers and attorneys promptly respond to all questions that are asked, and patiently provide our clients with a complete explanation of what needs to be done to comply with Florida probate law, and why. 

As experienced probate lawyers and attorneys we understand the emotional issues that become involved in probate litigation, whether the issues involve will contests, will disputes, inheritance disputes, litigation for removal of a personal representative or executor from a probate estate, or, for removal of a personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty by a personal representative, or a will challenge based on irregularities in the formal requirements for the execution of a will, forgeries, the exercise of undue influence in the procuring of a will, the will maker's lack of capacity or inability to understand the contents of a will, the improper administration of an estate by the personal representative, or disputes that arise between the surviving spouse and the children of previous marriages, especially where the Florida spousal elective share or an inheritance through intestacy may be involved. Our Jacksonville, Florida probate lawyers and attorneys are also experienced in pursuing actions for abuse of a power of attorney.

Our legal fees for representing you in the administration of a probate estate administration will depend on the facts and circumstances of your particular case.  Often our lawyers will work on a flat fee or fixed fee basis.  Other times, a probate lawyer's hourly rates are appropriate.  In appropriate probate or will contests our Jacksonville, Florida probate lawyers will consider working on a contingent fee basis, which means there is no fee if there is no recovery.  In particular, if your probate administration is for the sole purpose of a real estate probate, i.e., transferring title to real property, our probate lawyers usually will work on a fixed fee basis, so that you will know from the beginning exactly what your total cost will be for the Florida probate process.

If you need legal representation in Jacksonville, Florida, or other locations in the Northeast Florida area for probate administration, or probate litigation, a guardianship, to pursue a claim for abuse of a power of attorney, or any other probate related matter, please contact The Coleman Law Firm, for your Jacksonville, Florida probate, trust or guardianship lawyer or attorney.

THE COLEMAN LAW FIRM

The firm’s founder, C. Randolph Coleman, has been a Florida lawyer for over 29 years, is a frequent lecturer and nationally recognized speaker in the areas of estate planning, financial planning, and asset protection. He co-authored Asset Protection Techniques in Florida, National Business Institute (2004); and authored Family Limited Partnerships in Florida (Chapter: “The Use of Family Limited Partnerships in Estate Planning”), National Business Institute (2002); Key Issues in Estate Planning and Probate in Florida (Chapter: “Protecting the Passage of Wealth”), National Business Institute (1997); Advanced Estate Planning Techniques in Florida (Chapter: “The Use of Family Limited Partnerships in Estate Planning”) National Business Institute (1995).  Mr. Coleman was the Director of Asset Protection Planning for the Florida Physicians Association from 1997 to 2006, and is a member of WealthCounsel, LLC

Mr. Coleman and The Coleman Law Firm are listed in the Martindale-Hubbell® Bar Register of Pre-Eminent Lawyers, which lists only those select lawyers who have earned the A-V® Rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and have therefore been designated by their colleagues as pre-eminent in their field.

Mr. Coleman is a member of The Florida Bar, The American Bar Association, the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys, and the Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys.  Mr. Coleman is a graduate of the University of Florida of (BSBA ‘72) and the University of Florida College of Law (JD, with honors ‘78), and serves on the Executive Committee of the UF College of Law Alumni Council.  He was a practicing certified public accountant prior to entering private law practice in 1978.

The Jacksonville, Florida estate planning lawyers and attorneys with the Coleman Law Firm offer their services as estate planning, probate, elder law, Medicaid planning, asset protection and guardianship lawyers and attorneys primarily in Northeast Florida including the following counties, towns, and cities:  Duval County - Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach; St. Johns County - St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Nocatee, St. Augustine Beach; Clay County - Orange Park, Middleburg, Green Cove Springs; Nassau County - Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Callahan; Flagler County - Flagler Beach, Palm Coast, Bunnell; Baker County - Macclenney, Glen St. Mary; Putnam County - Palatka, Interlachen; Columbia County - Lake City, Fort White; and in other parts of Florida as requested or necessary.  We are a participating attorney in the AARP Legal Services Network by GE.