In 2017, the Florida Senate voted unanimously to authorize electronic wills (see here). Was that the end of the story? Nope. Former Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the bill, saying it failed to strike the proper balance between convenience and …
2018 Legislative Update: Elder Law and Guardianship (+ Backstories)
Here’s my summary of what happened legislatively in 2018 on the elder law and guardianship front. The legislative focus this year is on preventing and/or responding to instances of elderly and vulnerable adult financial exploitation.
This is part two of …
2018 Legislative Update: Probate & Trust (+ Backstories)
2018 was another interesting legislative year for those of us toiling in the vineyards as trusts and estates lawyers. Here’s my summary of what happened on the probate and trust front. I’ll post a separate summary of 2018’s guardianship legislation.…
Florida Supreme Court says YES to special purpose evidence code provision specifically shielding fiduciary-lawyer communications (finally!)
In re Amends. to Fla. Evidence Code, — So.3d —-, 2018 WL 549179 (Fla. Jan. 25, 2018)
Our general-purpose attorney-client privilege rule is found in F.S. 90.502. Historically, this rule was subject to the common law “fiduciary exception,”…
Marriage, Guardianships . . . and the Power of Framing
Smith v. Smith, — So.3d —-, 2017 WL 3774702 (Fla. August 31, 2017)
How do we protect the elderly from exploitation and abuse, without sacrificing our fundamental rights as we enter old age, like the constitutionally protected right to …
2017 legislative news: Big Changes to Florida’s Elective Share Statutes
If you’re a working probate attorney, elective share claims loom large in your practice. Which means anytime the thicket of interconnected and complicated statutes making up this body of law gets changed, it’s worth paying attention to. And recently there’s …
Breaking news: Governor Rick Scott Vetoes Florida Electronic Wills Act
I previously reported here on the “Florida Electronic Wills Act”. The legislature passed this bill back in May over strong opposition from the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar. For the public policy arguments for …
The future is now! Florida passes groundbreaking legislation authorizing electronic wills
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have deployed digital tech to change the way we live, eat, and shop. And they’ve aggressively moved into crucial professional services industries like healthcare and finance. But the practice of law is one slice …
Is Florida’s post-divorce automatic revocation statute for life insurance policies constitutional?
Most of us would agree that most divorced spouses don’t want their ex’s to hit the jackpot after one of them’s died because someone forgot to update his or her estate planning documents. You’d be surprised how often this happens.…
2016 legislative news: Florida real estate = Florida law; elective share claims (they’re floors, not ceilings); attorney’s fees in breach of trust cases
In terms of legislation, the big news for 2016 was Florida’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which I wrote about here. But that’s not all that happened in 2016. There was also …