Author name: Attorney Lori Vella

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Parents’ Guide to Legal Documents to Care for their Kids

If you are confused about setting up legal documents and plans for your minor kids, you are not alone. Most parents know they need to do something, but experience confusion over making the right choice and fear over how much it costs to accomplish their goals.

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Parents of 18 year olds should know

Parents in the Dark with 18 Year Olds

Turning eighteen is a special time in life.  High school graduation, new job, and possibly college.  While your son or daughter may still seem like a “child” to you, turning eighteen brings about many legal changes for your newly-minted adult.  But, there are some things that parents of 18 year olds must know.  Parents of

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Not the Best Idea to List Minors as Account Beneficiaries

Parents of young children often wonder if it is the best idea list their minors as account beneficiaries. Usually, a parent will list the spouse as the main beneficiary, but would like to name children as a contingent beneficiary, in the event something happened to both parents. This practice of naming minors as account beneficiaries, along with a few others set forth below, will cause many unintended consequences.

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Tampa-teachers-writing-wills

Tampa Teachers Writing Wills as “Back to School” Planning

Summertime is known as the perfect, relaxing time. Beaches, camping, family vacations and late nights. But unfortunately, 2020 hit us with the unexpected. This year, as we go back to school, teachers are not writing school supply lists…they are writing their own Wills! It is a terribly anxious time for our Florida teachers and out heart goes out to all of them.

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The Probate Process

The probate process varies state to state and even county to county, in terms of costs, money and the time it takes from start to finish. Usually, the estate must hire an attorney to assist the Personal Representatives in all of the tasks and necessary paperwork. A simple probate takes a few months. If litigation is involved, it may take several years. The average probate may last a year.

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Need a Will or a Trust

Need a Will or Trust? Ducks in a Row!

Almost everyone knows it is important to receive these documents but many don’t do that. And we wondered why. Why do people avoid getting necessary documents? So we did our own informal survey and discovered the people are just overwhelmed with a seemingly large vats of documents they need to give to an estate planning attorney in order to get their own plans in order.

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