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Captain’s Blog: 001 “Wow. That’s A Lot.” As an elder law attorney, I counsel clients in estate planning, long-term care planning, guardianships, and Medicaid. At the end of an initial consultation, which typically lasts between one to two hours, I have watched countless clients deeply exhale and lean back in their chairs. Then, they utter the same four words, repeated by nearly every client, “Wow. That’s a lot.” Indeed. The amount of information that attorneys deliver is a l

Captain’s Blog: 002 Plan Early. Plan Often. Plan Well. It’s more than just a catch phrase. Those three little sentences represent the foundation upon which Beach Barrister Law was built. Our hope is that it becomes your mantra as you make legal plans throughout your lifetime. Plan Early. I’ve said this countless times before, and I’ll surely say it again. And again. The absolute WORST time to plan for an emergency is DURING an emergency. When we receive a client in an elder

Captain’s Blog: 005 Not Everyone Gets the Golden Ticket Our state and federal laws impact each of us every day, whether we're aware of them or not. Some laws are literally in our faces, posted on big signs (like the speed limit), and some laws have penetrated our public consciousness (like “Don’t Text and Drive”). However, other laws—like estate planning—quietly confront us without the benefit of billboards or media campaigns at very specific times in our lives. We assume tha

A Power of Attorney is a document that establishes an agency.[1] An agency is a relationship where one person gives another party the authority to act on one's behalf.[2] The person who creates the Power of Attorney is called the “principal.” The party who will act on the principal’s behalf is called an “agent.”[3] In a Power of Attorney, the principal selects their agents and picks the different types of decision-making powers that they want their agents to have. Sometimes,

Estate planning typically refers to five legal documents: the Durable Power of Attorney, Designation of Health Care Surrogate, Living Will, Last Will & Testament, and Trusts. (Outside the state of Florida, a Durable Power of Attorney can be called a Financial Power of Attorney , and a Designation of Health Care Surrogate can be called a Medical Power of Attorney or a Healthcare Power of Attorney .) Think of these individual documents as tools that you'll keep in your Estate