Florida Elder Law & Estate Planning Blog


Attorney Honors Clients’ Final Wishes With Donation To Animal Charity
February 24, 2024

The Karp Law Firm handles Probate and Trust Administration. Last year, three of our dear, longtime clients passed on. All were animal lovers who had named Attorney Joseph Karp as their trustee and personal representative. They instructed him to use…

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Leonard Cohen’s Trustee, Children Battle Over His Estate
February 18, 2023

Leonard Cohen, the prolific songwriter, singer and poet, died November 7, 2016 at age 82. His well-known songs include Marianne, I’m Your Man, and the iconic Hallelujah. Cohen once said that he turned to songwriting just to pay the bills,…

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Minor Children: How Your Estate Plan Can Provide for Each One’s Unique Needs
April 30, 2022

We often note in our posts that when leaving an inheritance to children, “equal” is not always “fair.” This applies if your children are adults, and it also applies if one or more of your children are minors. A prudent…

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Florida cohabiting couples need legal plans to protect themselves, one another
June 18, 2020

Many of our clients “cohabit.” They are committed to one another and share a home, but are unwilling to marry, usually for legal and financial reasons. If this is your situation, for all intents and purposes you may consider yourselves…

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Jeffrey Epstein- Heinous Life, Estate Planning Lessons From His Death
Jeffrey Epstein: Heinous Life, Estate Planning Lessons From His Death
August 21, 2019

This is not the forum to discuss the lurid details of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Others are doing a thorough job of that. However, there is one aspect of the saga with direct relevance to our readers: how trusts can…

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Rocker Tom Petty's Estate Plan Is Free-Fallin'
Rocker Tom Petty’s Estate Plan Is Free-Fallin’
May 6, 2019

It is always wise to seek experienced legal guidance when you are setting up your estate plan. Wording you may think is obvious may not be as clear to others as it is to you. Any ambiguity in your plan…

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Living Trust: The Basics
July 2, 2017

The living trust, also known as the intervivos trust or revocable trust, is a useful and popular estate planning tool in Florida, and rightly so. Here are some of the key advantages of this versatile legal instrument. And also, some…

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When the trustee and beneficiaries are siblings, everyone needs to know the ground rules to stay on good terms!
January 18, 2017

Consider this scenario: A parent passes away and one of the decedent’s children, a beneficiary of the trust, takes over because he was named trustee of the parent’s trust. His siblings are also beneficiaries. Since no one in the family…

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“The Descendants” shows challenges for trustees
November 28, 2011

The just-released film “The Descendants” has an estate planning subplot that masterfully portrays how difficult it can be to satisfy all family members when an estate planning pie must be divided and distributed. Matt King, played by George Clooney, is…

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