Estate Planning

Estate Planning Attorney in Boca Raton, Florida

A Florida estate plan is more than a will. It decides who signs for you if you cannot, who raises or receives what, whether your family sees a courtroom, and whether your homestead passes the way you intend. Robert G. Harris has built those plans for 45 years.

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45 years in practice · 5550 Glades Rd, Suite 500, Boca Raton, FL

Signed Florida estate planning documents and a fountain pen on a walnut desk

Situations we handle

The problems clients bring through the door

Nothing in place at all

Without documents, Florida's intestacy statute picks your heirs and a judge picks your decision-makers. Both outcomes are usually worse than what you would have chosen in an afternoon.

Out-of-state documents

A will drafted in New York or New Jersey often ignores Florida homestead restrictions, the elective share and our witnessing formalities. It may function — badly — or fail entirely.

Second marriages and blended families

Leaving everything outright to a spouse frequently disinherits children from a first marriage. Florida's spousal rights make this the single most common planning mistake locally.

A child or parent who needs protection

A beneficiary with special needs, a creditor problem, an addiction or a divorce in progress needs a protective trust share, not a lump-sum inheritance.

Property in more than one state

A northern house plus a Florida homestead means two probate proceedings unless the titling is planned. A funded revocable trust usually solves it.

Aging parents and capacity

Once capacity is gone, no document can be signed and the only remaining option is guardianship — expensive, public and supervised by the court.

What a complete Florida estate plan includes

Most Boca Raton clients need a small, coordinated set of documents rather than a thick binder. The goal is that every asset has a destination, every decision has a decision-maker, and nothing contradicts anything else.

A last will and testament naming your personal representative and directing anything not otherwise titled or designated.
A revocable living trust when privacy, probate avoidance or out-of-state property makes it worthwhile — and honest advice when it does not.
A durable power of attorney so someone can handle banking, taxes, insurance and property if you are unavailable or incapacitated.
A designation of health care surrogate and living will so medical decisions and end-of-life wishes are documented, not debated.
A declaration of preneed guardian, which tells the court in advance whom you would want appointed.
Coordinated beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, annuities and life insurance — the assets that most often defeat an otherwise good plan.

Florida rules that quietly rewrite plans

Homestead is the big one. If you are survived by a spouse or a minor child, Florida law restricts how your primary residence may be devised, and a will that ignores that restriction produces a result you never chose. The surviving spouse may end up with a life estate, or an undivided interest shared with children.

The elective share entitles a surviving spouse to 30 percent of the elective estate, reaching well beyond probate assets. Planning that assumes a spouse can simply be left out rarely survives contact with that statute.

Execution formality matters too. Florida requires two witnesses signing in your presence and in each other's presence, and a self-proving affidavit spares your family the later burden of locating those witnesses. Documents downloaded and signed at a kitchen table routinely fail on exactly this point.

How the process works at this firm

The first meeting is free and lasts about 45 minutes: your family, your assets, and the people you trust. You leave with a recommendation and a flat fee quoted before drafting begins.

Drafts are then reviewed with you line by line, in plain English. Signing takes place with the required witnesses and a notary, and each document is explained again as you sign it. Deeds transferring real property into a trust are prepared here as well, so a trust is actually funded rather than merely signed.

Plans should be revisited after a marriage, divorce, death, birth, move to or from Florida, or a significant change in assets. A short review is far cheaper than an amendment made under pressure.

Boca Raton & South Florida

Estate planning shaped by how Boca Raton families own assets

The typical file here involves a homestead west of Federal Highway or out toward the western communities, a condominium governed by an association, sometimes a rental property in Delray Beach or Boynton Beach, and often a house up north that has not been retitled since a move to Florida.

Snowbird residency raises its own questions — which state's law governs, where the will should be probated, whether a homestead exemption has actually been established. Mr. Harris has handled those transitions for decades and drafts around them rather than discovering them later.

Clients come from Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Highland Beach, Deerfield Beach, Parkland, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Put the plan in place while it is still your decision.

A free consultation with Robert G. Harris tells you exactly which documents you need and what they cost — before you commit to anything.

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Answers

Frequently Asked Questions

Estate planning here is quoted as a flat fee, given to you before any drafting begins, so the price does not move as the work progresses. A simple will package sits at the low end; a funded revocable trust with deeds and coordinated beneficiary designations costs more. The consultation that produces the quote is free.

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