Bradenton Estate Planning Lawyers

Creating an estate plan is more complicated than listing your assets and saying your children should get them all. Having these kinds of discussions with your family can be difficult for a number of reasons. Old wounds between parents and children may be reopened, not to mention new wounds opening up.

The elder law attorneys at Luhrsen Goldberg can help you consider different aspects of your estate plan and how they should be handled. Our estate planning lawyers near Bradenton can also assist with probate, providing much needed guidance to executors and administrators when the process gets overwhelming.

If you live in Manatee County and require assistance with elder law issues, contact our law firm for a free consultation. You can also reach Luhrsen Goldberg by phone at 941.541.3260.

You do not need to hire an estate planning lawyer to get your affairs in order, but it can benefit you in many ways. An estate planning lawyer can help you understand what to expect as you think about the end of your life and the needs of your family once you are gone.

When you visit our law office in Lakewood Ranch, FL, we’ll review required documents that make up a comprehensive estate plan and make sure they’re set up properly so that they are legally binding. We can also make sure you address topics you may have been avoiding, such as how to ensure your final wishes are honored and what to do if you are no longer able to make decisions for yourself.
Most importantly, an elder law attorney can keep you on task and focused on what’s best for the ones you love.

There are many attorneys who assist with wills, trusts, and probate in Southwest Florida. Luhrsen Goldberg is unique given our experience in various aspects of law that affect people’s lives, livelihoods, and relationships.

Many life events can occur after you’ve written a will or established a trust. Your marital status could change, a relationship with a relative could improve, a medical condition could arise, or your financial situation may flip. The team at Luhrsen Goldberg can help you adapt. Our lawyers also handle family law cases, personal injury lawsuits, and legal matters related to VA compensation. We can take various life changes into account as we help you develop, amend, or redraft your estate plan.

The attorneys at Luhrsen Goldberg have practiced law for nearly five decades. We can use our knowledge of different facets of law to address your estate planning needs. For example, if your marriage of many years is not working out, you can consult a divorce lawyer at our firm to assist with the dissolution of the marriage. Your attorney can also review and revise an existing estate plan you may have created with your ex.

Luhrsen Goldberg is a member of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, and the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance (LWRBA). Our attorneys can help aging residents of Palmetto, Foxleigh, and Bradenton with their estate planning needs so they can enjoy what Southwest Florida has to offer.

Luhrsen Goldberg can offer estate planning assistance in Spanish to better serve the local community. You can rest assured that you or a Spanish-speaking elderly relative will have information translated for them. We want everyone to be able to make fully informed decisions, especially when it comes to elder law, incapacity planning, and end-of-life care.

If you need help getting your affairs in order, trust the elder law team at Luhrsen Goldberg. We have helped numerous people achieve peace of mind throughout their golden years. Our clients know that their loved ones will be provided for when the time comes.
To speak with skilled estate planners in Sarasota County and Manatee County, contact our law firm near Bradenton. Our estate planning lawyers are ready to listen to you.

Both wills and trusts help transfer a person’s assets to others, but there are numerous differences in how this happens. Wills can cover much more than the distribution of assets to specified heirs upon death; different kinds of trusts can circumvent probate and may even have potential tax benefits.

At Luhrsen Goldberg, our team will discuss your finances and overall situation and help you pick an option that best suits your estate planning goals. Bradenton residents who hire our elder law attorneys can feel confident that their will or trust will be created properly.

While there are simple online tools you can use to create a will yourself, it’s worthwhile to hire an attorney to ensure you’re doing it right.
An elder law attorney may be especially helpful if you anticipate someone challenging your will, you have complex assets that need to be evaluated, you have stepchildren or a blended family, or you have many assets spread across multiple accounts.

Trusts can provide an immediate passing of a person’s assets to a trustee without going through the probate process. The assets in a trust will immediately come under the control of a named successor trustee(s) upon the grantor’s death.

Creating a trust is more complicated than writing a will, which is why it’s a good idea to hire an estate planning attorney for help. Your lawyer will go over which kind of trust ought to be set up and other matters worth considering when controlling the distribution of your assets.

Medical, financial, and personal circumstances can change as you get older. We strive to be adaptable when it comes to elder law issues in Southwest Florida, and are able to help when life events require necessary changes to an estate plan.

Our lawyers can review your needs regarding your will and/or trust as part of a free consultation. We’ll then determine what steps you need to take next.

Do you need help writing a will or setting up a trust in Manatee County? The attorneys of Luhrsen Goldberg are ready to help. We can give you all the guidance you need to feel reassured as you get your affairs in order.

To get sound advice on wills, trusts, and other issues related to elder law and estate planning, contact our lawyers serving Bradenton.

Probate refers to the judicially overseen legal process of validating a will and distributing the assets of a deceased person to their beneficiaries. In a will, a personal representative (also known as an executor) is named who will then settle the estate. If there’s no will, a probate court will appoint a personal representative based on statutory preferences of appointment.

This really depends on the estate of the deceased. When there are few issues with the estate and all matters can be addressed easily, a personal representative can settle an estate in roughly four to six months. When an estate is contested or there are significant issues with the estate, it can take years to complete the process.

Numerous problems could arise during estate administration. Some examples include:

Lack of a will or an invalid will
Lack of willing personal representative for the estate
The estate plan is incomplete
Challenges to a deceased person’s will or trust
Disagreements in the family on estate distribution
Numerous claims from creditors
Delays in the probate process
The existence of hidden or unaccounted for digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin and crypto currencies)

Florida requires that personal representatives be represented by an attorney.
A probate lawyer near Bradenton can offer guidance on how to resolve any outstanding tax obligations or debts, transfer assets to the proper beneficiaries, and prepare any documents to be filed with the probate court. Your probate attorney can potentially expedite the process as well, saving you weeks if not months when settling an estate.
As with other aspects of estate planning, the Luhrsen Goldberg team will consider changing life events and how to help personal representatives achieve peace of mind when performing their duties.

Being a personal representative of an estate can be difficult for so many reasons. Luhrsen Goldberg is here to help. We can assist with the location and distribution of assets and offer guidance should any obstacles arise during the probate process.

If you have questions about probate and live in Southwest Florida, contact our law office serving the Bradenton area. Our estate planning lawyers are ready to listen to your concerns.

As we get older, there is a risk that we may no longer be able to make decisions for ourselves. This advanced level of physical, mental, and/or cognitive decline is known as incapacity. Incapacity may be the result of a catastrophic injury in an accident, a serious medical health issue, or a neurodegenerative disease like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Our estate planning attorneys near Bradenton will make sure your estate plan has explicit instructions for unexpected life events that render you temporarily or permanently incapacitated. Preparing durable power of attorney, health care surrogate designation, HIPAA authorization, and living will documents are ways we can provide peace of mind to our clients.

Discussing the possibility of incapacity can be a difficult conversation. The topic can make some people uneasy, and understandably so. Yet these kinds of conversations are necessary when it comes to estate planning and elder law.

At Luhrsen Goldberg, we will approach these discussions with a high degree of sensitivity and compassion. We will emphasize that incapacity planning is a precautionary measure, and that having these conversations and making the right decisions now will avoid more difficult conversations among your closest loved ones in the future.

As part of our holistic approach to wills, trusts, and probate, the team at Luhrsen Goldberg has the experience to help with estate planning help after divorce. If you’re going through a divorce, we can help revise any estate plan that was in place with your spouse once the divorce is finalized

In addition to estate planning after a divorce, our lawyers can help Bradenton residents create estate plans if they get married again later in life. This is part of the peace of mind that comes when you hire experienced estate planning attorneys who understand how end of life decisions correlate with different life events.

Some people decide they’d like to raise a child later in life, and so they hire a lawyer to help with the adoption process. Our Southwest Florida law firm can help you adopt a child in need of a loving home and make sure your adopted son or daughter is included in your estate planning documents.

Keep in mind that stepparents can adopt their stepchildren, which can be helpful for end of life decisions and estate plans. This is something you can discuss with our lawyers, and we’ll walk you through the process so you know what to expect.

The elderly community in Manatee County knows they can trust Luhrsen Goldberg with their estate planning needs. When your life changes, we’ll help you anticipate and adapt accordingly. Our goal is your peace of mind.
If you need help with estate planning near Bradenton, contact our lawyers in Lakewood Ranch. You can also reach our elder law attorneys by phone at 941.541.3260.