Estate Planning Attorney Palm Beach County: Wills, Trusts and Incapacity Planning
As an estate planning attorney Palm Beach County clients can reach directly, from Boca Raton and Delray Beach to West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter, I prepare wills, durable powers of attorney, health care documents and revocable trusts for individuals and couples. The whole engagement, from the first call to the signing, can be handled without anyone driving to an office. Most people who call have one of three reasons: they have never made a plan, they moved to Palm Beach County with documents written for another state, or they have a plan and are no longer sure it still works.
Free first call: (305) 224-6811 or the contact form.
If you are comparing an estate planning attorney in Boca Raton or an estate planning attorney in West Palm Beach, the first thing to know about me is where I am. My offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and I do not have a Palm Beach County office. I serve clients here remotely: consultations by phone and email, and signing arranged for each document in the way Florida law allows.
I am Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002, and the only attorney in my practice. The lawyer you speak with on the first call is the lawyer who drafts your documents and takes you through the signing. Please do not put Social Security numbers, account numbers or medical details in the web form.
| Who is it for? | Individuals and married couples anywhere in Palm Beach County who want a will, incapacity documents or a revocable trust, including people who have just moved to Florida |
| What does it cost? | A will on its own starts at $675. The core estate planning package is $1,500 for one person. A revocable living trust plan is a separate engagement, starting at $2,500, plus $575 per deed, recording included, when Florida real estate is moved into the trust, plus any documentary stamp tax above the minimum. Married couples receive a discount, quoted individually |
| Is there a free consultation? | Yes: a short phone call with me, with no charge and no obligation |
| Do I have to come to an office? | No. There is no Palm Beach County office; I work from Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and I explain on the first call which documents can be signed remotely in your situation and which need witnesses in the room |
Estate planning with attorney Jose Lorenzo for Palm Beach County
An estate plan answers two separate questions. What happens to what you own when you die, and who makes decisions for you if you are alive but cannot make them yourself. The second question comes up far more often than the first, and it is the one a plan made in a hurry usually leaves out. Everything I prepare is built to answer both.
Palm Beach County is not one kind of household. It runs from Jupiter and Tequesta in the north through West Palm Beach and Wellington to Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton in the south, and west to Belle Glade and the Glades. Whether you are retiring, raising children, in a second marriage, running a business or newly arrived from another state, the law is the same. What differs is the first question, and this page is organized around those first questions.
Individual and couple planning
Most of the plans I prepare are for one of two households: a single person, often widowed, divorced or never married, or a married couple whose two plans need to agree with each other and with how they own their home and accounts. For many single clients, a will and incapacity documents are a complete plan, and that is the core package described below. Couples have their own section.
Which planning documents match your goal?
Most people need one of three things, and the choice is easier once you see what each includes. Some need only a fourth: a deed for one property. The table below is the plan-selection table I use.
| Service | What it is for, what it includes and what it costs |
|---|---|
| Will on its own | Who inherits, who administers the estate, and the guardian you nominate for minor children. Includes: last will and testament. Fee: starts at $675. |
| Core estate planning package | A will plus the documents that work while you are alive. Includes: will, durable power of attorney, designation of health care surrogate, living will, preneed guardian designation. Fee: $1,500 for one person. |
| Revocable living trust plan | Keeping assets out of probate and handling incapacity through a successor trustee. Includes: revocable living trust, pour-over will, and the incapacity documents. Fee: separate engagement, starting at $2,500, plus $575 per deed when Florida real estate is moved into the trust, plus any documentary stamp tax above the minimum. |
| Lady bird deed only | Passing one Florida property at death without probate, while you keep full control. Includes: enhanced life estate deed. Fee: $675, a separate service (see below). |
Married couples: each spouse signs his or her own documents, and the couple receives a discount, quoted individually. Business owners: business succession planning is an additional service, quoted before that work starts.
The table is a starting point, not a verdict. On the first call I ask what you own, how it is held and who is in your family, and I tell you which of these fits. Sometimes the answer is less than you expected.
The will-and-incapacity package
The core estate planning package is $1,500 for one person: a will, a durable power of attorney, a designation of health care surrogate, a living will and a preneed guardian designation. Each one does a different job, and together they are the essential estate planning documents most Florida adults need. If you are calling a will attorney in Boca Raton for “just a will,” consider what a will cannot do: it covers only what happens after death, and the other four documents cover the years before it. For most people, a basic estate plan is exactly this package.
- Last will and testament. Names who inherits, who administers the estate and the guardian you nominate for your minor children. It operates only after death, and only through the court. Even a simple will in Florida must be signed at the end with two witnesses, and a simple document can still give a result nobody intended.
- Durable power of attorney. Lets a person you choose handle your financial and legal affairs. A Florida power of attorney generally takes effect when you sign it, and because it is durable it keeps working if you become unable to act. It ends at death.
- Designation of health care surrogate. Lets a person you choose make medical decisions and receive your records. What other states call a medical power of attorney or health care proxy, Florida calls a designation of health care surrogate.
- Living will. States your own wishes about end-of-life care, so no one has to guess. A living will is a medical document. It does not leave property to anyone, and it is not the same thing as a living trust. Many people first ask about a living will in Boca Raton after a hospital stay; it is far easier to sign one before.
A preneed guardian designation, which names the person you want appointed if a court ever decides a guardian is needed, is included in the package. Florida law gives the person you name a statutory presumption if a guardianship is ever opened.
I prepare the health care surrogate designation as its own document rather than folding health care into the durable power of attorney: the financial document falls under chapter 709 and the health care document under chapter 765, and keeping them separate means each is read for the job it does. My pages on the Florida health care surrogate and the Florida power of attorney explain each document in detail.
A separate revocable living trust plan
A revocable living trust plan is a separate engagement, starting at $2,500. I quote it once I understand what the trust needs to hold and do. The trust plan includes my review of your estate plan and your trust, so that they work together. For your beneficiary designations, I advise you on what is necessary and how to get it done efficiently. Moving your home into the trust takes a new deed, at $575 per Florida deed plus any documentary stamp tax above the minimum; what that fee includes is set out in the fee section.
When people compare Boca Raton trust attorneys or look for a trust attorney in West Palm Beach, they are usually after one of three things: keeping a house or accounts out of probate, letting someone step in without a court if they become incapacitated, or holding a child’s inheritance until an age they choose. A revocable trust in Boca Raton works the same way as one anywhere else in Florida: it controls only what is titled in it. A trust plan has two parts. The first is drafting: the trust itself, a pour-over will that catches anything never moved into the trust and nominates guardians for minor children, and the incapacity documents. The second is funding, and it is the part that decides whether the trust works. Real estate is funded by recording a new deed into the trust; in Palm Beach County, deeds are recorded with the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. Bank and brokerage accounts are retitled at the institution. You handle that step yourself, and I give you the steps to follow, because it is faster and less expensive for you to do it directly with your bank or brokerage than to pay counsel to do it. Retirement accounts and life insurance are usually handled by changing the beneficiary designation. An unfunded trust is an expensive folder.
A Florida resident’s revocable trust that disposes of property at death must be signed with the same formalities as a will. That matters if you want your plan handled remotely, and it is covered in the signing section below. My Florida living trust page goes further into how a revocable living trust in Florida works.
| Question | Will / Revocable living trust |
|---|---|
| Does it work if I become incapacitated? | Will: No; it has no effect until death Trust: Yes; the successor trustee takes over |
| Does it avoid a court proceeding? | Will: No Trust: Only for assets actually titled in it |
| Does it name guardians for minor children? | Will: Yes Trust: No |
| Does it protect assets from my own creditors while I am alive? | Will: No Trust: No |
| Does it override the homestead restrictions? | Will: No Trust: No |
| Work after signing | Will: Very little Trust: Funding is essential |
A revocable trust is not an asset protection tool. As the fourth row shows, it does not protect your assets from your own creditors while you are alive, so if you were looking for an asset protection attorney in Boca Raton, that is a separate question from the revocable trust plan described here.
Which planning situation brings you here?
Start with the row that describes you. Each one points to the part of this page, or the separate page, that answers your first question.
| If this is you… | Your first question is usually… | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| You moved to Palm Beach County with a will or power of attorney from another state | Do my documents still work here? | Moving from another state |
| You have a Florida plan and are not sure it is current | What should change, and what can stay? | Updating documents you already have |
| You are married, remarried or have children | Who inherits, and who raises the children? | Married couples and blended families |
| You own a business | What happens to the company? | Business owners |
| Your only goal is keeping one home out of probate | Is a deed enough? | A deed or a full plan |
| Someone has already died | How do we handle the estate? | That is probate: see my Palm Beach County probate lawyer page |
Moving to Palm Beach County from another state
If you moved to Palm Beach County from another state, often New York or New Jersey, your documents came with you. Some travel well and some do not. Estate planning for new Florida residents, and estate planning after moving to Florida from New York or New Jersey in particular, starts with four documents and one decision.
- The will. Under section 732.502(2), Florida Statutes, a will signed by someone who was not a Florida resident at the time is valid here if it was validly signed under the law of the place where it was signed, unless it is a holographic will. A handwritten, unwitnessed will is not valid in Florida even if the state where it was written would honor it. The Fourth District Court of Appeal applied that rule in Caveglia v. Heinen, 359 So. 3d 745 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023).
- The person you named to settle your estate. Under section 733.304, Florida Statutes, a person who does not live in Florida can serve as personal representative only if he or she is within the family relationships the statute lists. A trusted friend in another state may be exactly the right person and still be ineligible.
- The power of attorney. A power of attorney signed in New York or New Jersey is valid in Florida if it was properly signed under that state’s law when you signed it. A Florida bank or other institution asked to rely on it may request a lawyer’s opinion that it was validly signed, at your expense, and may refuse the document if the opinion is not provided. That is why I generally recommend signing a Florida power of attorney after you move.
- The health care documents. A health care proxy, living will or other advance directive signed in another state is valid in Florida if it was signed in compliance with that state’s law or Florida’s. You are not required to sign it again here, though you may want to update it, for example to name a surrogate who lives nearby.
Your home. Florida’s limit on who can receive your home by will does not wait for the homestead tax exemption. Once you actually live in your Palm Beach County home intending it to be your permanent residence, that limit generally applies: if you leave a spouse or a minor child, the home cannot pass by will to anyone else, except that it may go entirely to your spouse when there is no minor child. A will written in another state was not drafted around that rule. The homestead section below explains it.
The decision: a Palm Beach County declaration of domicile. Whether you change your domicile from New York to Florida or from New Jersey, a Florida domicile rests on facts, not on one form. A declaration of domicile is a sworn statement, filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Palm Beach County, that your home here is your permanent home. Florida treats it as evidence of where you are domiciled, not as proof: if you still vote, keep your driver’s license or spend most of the year in New York or New Jersey, the declaration alone will not make you a Florida domiciliary. Filing it also does not, by itself, make your house a Florida homestead. The Palm Beach County homestead exemption for property taxes is a separate application: you apply for the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser homestead exemption with that office, and it is not part of an estate plan.
Snowbirds. Estate planning for snowbirds who keep their domicile in another state looks different. A Florida home owned by someone domiciled elsewhere is generally handled through a separate ancillary proceeding in Florida after death, which is one reason a lady bird deed or a funded trust matters for a seasonal home.
Validity is not the same as workability. A will can be valid here and still produce a result you did not intend, because it was written for another state’s rules on spouses and real estate. A review after a move shows which of your documents still work as written and which should be updated.
Married couples
Estate planning for married couples in Florida has to account for rights a spouse holds whatever the documents say. The elective share entitles a surviving spouse to elect thirty percent of the elective estate (section 732.2065, Florida Statutes). The elective estate reaches well beyond the will, drawing in revocable trust property, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, and joint accounts, among others. These rights can be addressed, but through a properly signed marital agreement or spousal waiver, not by drafting around them.
Couples often ask whether their wills in Boca Raton or West Palm Beach should be one joint document. Each spouse signs his or her own will. Under Florida law, signing a joint will, or two matching wills, does not by itself create a promise that neither of you will change your will later. If a couple wants that kind of promise to be binding, Florida requires it to be a written agreement signed in front of two attesting witnesses (section 732.701).
Blended families and second marriages
Estate planning for blended families is where Florida’s default rules most often produce an outcome nobody chose. Without a will, section 732.102 gives a surviving spouse only one half of the estate when the deceased spouse leaves descendants and either spouse has a descendant from another relationship. In a second marriage, a will leaving the house to children from a first marriage, over a surviving second spouse, does not do what it says, because of the homestead rule below. The questions are always the same: what the surviving spouse should receive, what the children should receive, and when. The answers are different in every family, and they have to be written down to count.
Married homeowners and the homestead rule
Your house is the asset most likely to defeat a plan, and Florida homestead is the reason. Under section 732.4015, Florida Statutes, homestead is not subject to devise if the owner is survived by a spouse or minor child, except that it may be left to the spouse if there is no minor child. Moving the house into a revocable living trust does not get around this. Section 732.4017 treats a lifetime transfer in trust as outside the devise rules only where the owner keeps no power to revoke, and a revocable trust is revocable by definition. A spouse’s homestead rights can be given up only by a valid waiver in the form Florida law requires. The property tax exemption is a separate question, handled by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser.
Parents of minor children
Parents usually start with the same question: who would raise the children? Estate planning for new parents starts there, because the will is where you nominate the guardian you want for your children if both parents die. Estate planning for parents also has to decide who manages money left to a child. A minor cannot take property outright in Florida. A parent acting as natural guardian can manage up to $15,000 in total without a court (section 744.301(2), Florida Statutes). If more than that is left to a child outright, with no trust or other arrangement named to hold it, a court-appointed guardian of the property is generally required, and when that guardianship ends at eighteen, the child receives the whole balance. A trust avoids both: you choose the ages, the purposes and the trustee, with no court file.
Business owners and business succession
If you own a business, your estate plan and your company’s documents have to agree, and often they do not. An operating agreement that restricts transfers can override what your will says. A buy-sell agreement can require your estate to sell on terms your family never negotiated. An LLC interest with no succession provision can leave a spouse holding a minority stake in a company she has no role in. Estate planning for business owners covers who takes over operations, who takes the economic interest, how the interest is valued, whether a buy-sell agreement is funded with life insurance, and whether the interest is better held in a trust. It is work done alongside your accountant and your company’s lawyer, and it is quoted before that work starts.
Updating documents you already have
You do not have to start over to fix a plan. Tell me on the first call what you have and where it was signed. If you already have a trust you are happy with, the right answer may be to keep it and update the documents around it. Reviewing existing documents is separate work, and I quote it before it starts. Being told nothing needs to change is a legitimate outcome.
What is the difference between a deed and a broader plan?
A lady bird deed, formally an enhanced life estate deed, passes the one property it describes at your death without probate, while you keep the right to sell, mortgage or change your mind. It does nothing if you become incapacitated. It does not name a guardian for your children or cover your accounts, and it does not appoint anyone to act for you. A full plan does those things; a deed does one.
If your only goal is keeping one Palm Beach County home out of probate, my Palm Beach County lady bird deed service may be all you need. It is a separate service from a will, even though both start at $675. The two can be coordinated: a deed for the house and a will-and-incapacity package for everything else, drafted so that the deed and the will agree. Whichever document you use, homestead still limits who can receive the house if you are survived by a spouse or a minor child. If you are weighing the two, my comparison of the lady bird deed vs. living trust sets out the trade-offs.
How does the service work across Palm Beach County?
The documents do not change by city: a power of attorney in Boca Raton is the same Florida document as one signed in Jupiter or Belle Glade. Where you live matters in only a few practical places: which Clerk office records a deed, which Property Appraiser handles your exemption, and which courthouse would hear a guardianship or probate. In Palm Beach County, those are all countywide offices.
Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach
If you are weighing a Boca Raton estate planning attorney with a local office against working with me remotely, compare who drafts the documents, what the fee includes and whether the lawyer raises homestead on the first call. The same questions apply to any estate planning attorney in Delray Beach or Boynton Beach, FL. The Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller has a South County branch at 200 W. Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, but when a deed is part of your plan, we handle the recording and send you the recorded copy.
West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Wellington
If you are comparing West Palm Beach estate planning lawyers, the questions in the hiring checklist below apply to them and to me alike. North and west county work the same way, whether you would otherwise look for an estate planning attorney in Jupiter or North Palm Beach, in Palm Beach Gardens, or an estate planning attorney in Wellington, FL. The county’s main courthouse is at 205 N. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, and the Clerk has branches in Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach and Belle Glade. Guardianship and probate matters for Palm Beach County residents are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit. For a plan, that matters mostly as the reason to have one: without a durable power of attorney, the alternative when someone loses capacity is a court guardianship, which is slower, public, supervised and expensive. My Palm Beach County probate court guide covers the courthouses and divisions.
Is the fee different in Boca Raton or Jupiter?
No. My fees are set by what the plan includes, not by the city you live in. A will-and-incapacity package for a client in Boca Raton is the same $1,500 as for a client in Jupiter or Belle Glade.
What does estate planning cost in Palm Beach County?
I publish my estate planning fees, so the answer to how much a will costs is on this page. Here is how the fees work.
- Will. A will on its own starts at $675. (My lady bird deed is also $675, but it is a separate service that passes one property; it is not a will.)
- Core package. The core estate planning package is $1,500 for one person: a will, a durable power of attorney, a designation of health care surrogate, a living will and a preneed guardian designation.
- Trust. A revocable living trust plan is a separate engagement, starting at $2,500. I quote it once I understand what the trust needs to hold and do.
- Deed into the trust. The deed that moves your home into the trust is $575. That fee includes reading your recorded deed, deed preparation, online notarization, witnesses, county recording fees, and the minimum documentary stamp charge; documentary stamp tax above the minimum is separate.
- Couples. Married couples receive a discount. Each spouse signs his or her own documents, so I quote a couple’s plan individually rather than doubling the single price.
So how much does a living trust cost in Florida with me? A trust plan with the deed for your home starts at $3,075, plus any documentary stamp tax above the minimum. The $575 applies only when Florida real estate is moved into the trust, and it is per deed, so each additional Florida property is another $575. If a property is outside Florida, I advise you to have counsel in that state prepare and record the deed.
Every figure is agreed before drafting begins, so an estate planning flat fee here, for an individual or a couple, means you know the number before I write a word. The quote changes if the plan needs more than the documents listed, for example a business succession arrangement, a second property in another state, or a trust. I tell you the figure before that work starts.
What is the average cost of estate planning in Florida?
How much estate planning costs in Florida depends on what the plan contains, and estate planning attorney cost varies widely because published averages mix wills, packages and trusts together. The useful comparison is not an average but what each quote includes. For a trust in particular, ask what the quote covers on funding, because a trust that is never funded does nothing. My own figures are in the list above.
Is the first consultation free?
The first conversation is free: a short phone call with me, so you can tell me what you have in mind, ask how the process works and decide whether you want to go ahead. There is no charge and no obligation. It is a free consultation with the estate planning attorney who would draft your documents, not with an intake coordinator.
How do consultation, drafting and signing work?
Working with a virtual estate planning attorney does not mean working with a less involved one. The process is simple, and none of it requires a trip to an office. You call; we talk; you decide whether to go ahead. Then there is a questionnaire, the drafting, your review, and the signing.
If you decide to go ahead, we email you an intake questionnaire. It covers your family, the people you want to name and a general picture of what you own. You don’t need every answer before we begin; anything you are unsure about, we work through together. I then draft the documents myself and send them to you to read, with the reasoning explained in plain language, and we change what needs changing before anything is signed.
Which documents can be signed remotely in Florida?
Florida permits remote online notarization, and a Florida will can be signed electronically with an online notary and witnesses on the same audio-video session. Remote signing is not unlimited: the limits catch people who assume it is. The table below sets out what changes by document. I tell you which documents can be signed remotely in your situation before anything is scheduled.
| Document | Remote signing and what to know |
|---|---|
| Last will and testament | Remotely? Yes, electronically, with an online notary and witnesses on the same session. The same Florida formalities apply: a signature at the end and two witnesses who sign in your presence and in each other’s. |
| Revocable living trust | Remotely? Yes, on the same basis as a will. A Florida resident’s revocable trust that disposes of property at death must be signed with the formalities of a will. |
| Durable power of attorney | Remotely? Yes, for general authority. Under section 709.2202(6), a power of attorney signed by someone domiciled in Florida at the time of signing, whose witnesses were not physically present, cannot grant the specially listed powers: creating, amending or revoking a trust, making gifts, creating or changing survivorship rights, changing beneficiary designations, waiving a joint and survivor annuity or retirement survivor benefit, and disclaiming property. If you need those powers, the witnesses must be in the room. |
| Designation of health care surrogate and living will | Remotely? Discussed with you. These documents have their own witness rules, and I confirm the arrangement for your situation. |
| Screening before remote witnessing | Applies to: a will, a revocable trust that disposes of property at death, a health care advance directive, an agreement or waiver of spousal rights under sections 732.701 or 732.702, or a power of attorney authorizing the transactions listed in section 709.2208, when signed with remote witnesses. Remotely? Only if the screening allows it. Under section 117.285(5), when fewer than two witnesses are physically present, you must be asked whether you are under the influence of a drug or alcohol that impairs your decision-making, whether a physical or mental condition or long-term disability impairs your daily activities, and whether you need help with daily care. A “yes” to any of them means the document can be witnessed only by people physically present. A vulnerable adult cannot have these documents witnessed remotely at all. |
Where capacity may later be questioned, where a family member has been applying pressure, or where the plan is complex enough that I want the signing handled with the witnesses physically present, I will tell you plainly. When a document needs witnesses physically present, that is arranged as part of the engagement at no extra charge. It is included in every fee on this page. My online estate planning page covers remote signing in more depth.
How long does it take?
There is no one-size timetable. We talk about when you need the documents signed, and we work around your schedule and any deadline you are facing.
Who keeps the signed documents?
For documents signed on paper, you keep all of the signed originals, and I keep a copy on file. For an electronic will, I serve as the qualified custodian of the electronic record. Give copies of the power of attorney and the health care surrogate designation to the people named in them, and keep your living will where your family can find it: a hospital cannot follow wishes nobody can produce.
What should you gather before the appointment?
Less than you might think. What documents you need for estate planning is my job to work out; yours is to be ready to say who you trust and what worries you. You do not need to make every final choice before we speak, and you do not need any of this perfectly organized.
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The people you want to name, with a backup for each: personal representative, agent under the power of attorney, health care surrogate, guardian for minor children, trustee, and the person you would nominate as your pre need guardian | These are the most important decisions in the plan, and the ones only you can make |
| Any existing will, trust or power of attorney, including documents signed in New York, New Jersey or another state | Shows what still works in Florida and what does not |
| A rough list of what you own: your home, any other property, bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, a business | Decides whether a will, a package or a trust fits |
| How each item is held: your name alone, joint, or with a beneficiary named | Most assets pass by titling or beneficiary designation, not by the will |
| A marital agreement, if you have one | Affects a spouse’s rights under Florida law |
| Your company’s governing documents, if you own a business | They may control what happens to the business whatever your will says |
Keep sensitive details for the questionnaire, not the public web form.
Comparing estate planning lawyers in Palm Beach County
Search for an estate planning lawyer in Boca Raton, an estate lawyer in West Palm Beach or a trust attorney in Palm Beach and you will find directories, large firms with Palm Beach offices, small local firms and non-lawyer services side by side. Here is how I would compare them, including me.
What is the difference between an estate planner and an estate attorney?
An estate attorney and an estate lawyer are describing the same work; no Florida licensing distinction sits behind these labels. “Estate planner” is different: it does not necessarily mean a lawyer at all. Financial advisors, insurance agents and document preparation services all use it. A document preparer who drafts your will or trust is practicing law without a license, and cannot advise you on homestead, the elective share or whether the person you named can serve. Ask one question and the ambiguity disappears: are you a member of The Florida Bar, and what is your bar number? Mine is 107002.
How a solo practice compares to firms with more lawyers
Here the same attorney handles every stage of your plan: you explain your family once, to the person who writes the documents, and when you call in three years to change something you reach the same person. That is a difference in structure, not a claim about talent. At estate planning firms with several lawyers, a matter is often divided among people: one lawyer may take the first meeting, another may draft, staff may assemble the signing packet, and a different attorney may cover the signing.
To be fair about the trade-off: larger Palm Beach County firms offer bench depth, specialists down the hall and coverage when someone is away, and for a very large estate with a complex federal tax structure that depth is worth having. I also handle estate litigation, including will and trust contests, so the documents I draft are written by someone who has seen documents tested in court.
What are the most common estate planning mistakes?
The ones I see most often in Florida plans are not exotic:
- A will that leaves the house somewhere homestead does not allow it to go.
- A personal representative who lives out of state and is not a relative the statute allows.
- A power of attorney from a website form that does not list the specially enumerated powers, so it fails exactly when a trust or gift is needed.
- A revocable trust that was signed and never funded.
- A young child named directly on a life insurance policy or retirement account.
- Beneficiary designations that no longer match the plan the documents describe.
- A plan written in another state and never reviewed after the move.
How do you find a good estate planning lawyer?
Whether you are interviewing a will lawyer in Boca Raton or an estate planning lawyer in West Palm Beach, ask these questions of any lawyer you are comparing, including me.
- Who actually drafts the documents, and how much time will I have with that person?
- Will you advise me on my beneficiary designations and how my home is held, or only draft documents?
- Is the fee quoted before the work starts, and what does it include?
- For a trust: how will it be funded, and who does each step? Ask this of any living trust attorney in Boca Raton or elsewhere.
- What is your answer on homestead? If a Florida lawyer does not raise it when you own a home, keep looking.
- Which of my documents can be signed remotely, and which should not be?
- Are you a member of The Florida Bar, and what is your bar number?
Request a Palm Beach County planning consultation
To talk with a Palm Beach County estate planning attorney about your plan, call (305) 224-6811 or use the contact form to arrange the free first call.
If you only need a deed for one property, start with the Palm Beach County lady bird deed service instead. If you live in Broward County, my page for an estate planning attorney in Fort Lauderdale covers the same work from the office closest to you.
I also speak Spanish.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have an office in Palm Beach County?
No. My offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and I serve Palm Beach County clients remotely: consultations by phone and email, an emailed intake questionnaire, and signing arranged for each document in the way Florida law allows.
What is included in a Palm Beach County estate planning package?
The core estate planning package is $1,500 for one person: a will, a durable power of attorney, a designation of health care surrogate, a living will and a preneed guardian designation. A revocable trust is not included: a revocable living trust plan is a separate engagement, starting at $2,500, plus $575 per deed when Florida real estate is moved into the trust, plus any documentary stamp tax above the minimum. Married couples do not share one set of documents; each spouse signs his or her own, and the couple’s plan is quoted individually with a discount.
Is my New York or New Jersey will still valid in Florida?
Usually. Under section 732.502(2), Florida Statutes, an out-of-state will is valid in Florida if you signed it before you moved, it was validly signed under the law of the state where it was signed, and it is not a handwritten, unwitnessed will. Valid is not the same as workable, as the moving section explains.
Do I need a new power of attorney after moving to Florida?
A power of attorney signed in New York or New Jersey is valid in Florida if it was properly signed under that state’s law when you signed it. Even so, I generally recommend signing a Florida power of attorney after you move, for the reason given in the moving section: a Florida bank may ask for a lawyer’s opinion first, at your expense.
Can you coordinate my plan with a lady bird deed?
Yes. A lady bird deed passes one property at death without probate; a will and incapacity documents cover everything else and the years before death. The deed is a separate $675 service. The package is $1,500 for one person. I draft them so that they agree.
Does a Florida will need to be notarized?
Not to be valid. It needs your signature at the end and two witnesses who sign in your presence and in each other’s. A self-proving affidavit, which does need a notary, lets the will be admitted to probate without tracking down the witnesses later, and a will should not be signed without one.
Can my adult child help set this up for me?
Your son or daughter can help: make the call, gather documents and arrange the signing. You are the client. I confirm your wishes with you directly, and you decide who may be on the calls and who receives information.
How long does probate take in Palm Beach County?
That depends on the estate and the kind of administration, and it is a probate question rather than a planning one. My Palm Beach County probate lawyer page covers it. A plan built around a funded trust, beneficiary designations or a lady bird deed can keep much of an estate out of probate altogether.
For the statewide picture, see my Florida estate planning attorney page.
Last updated: September 25, 2026.
Written and reviewed by Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., attorney, Florida Bar No. 107002.
This page is general information about Florida law and does not constitute legal advice for any particular situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.