New Legal Standards for Florida Powers of Attorney
A comprehensive Florida estate plan takes into account all aspects of a client's financial life and important choices of how to distribute assets after a person passes on. Just as important, estate planning lawyers help clients designate key decision makers to carry out their wishes, including future guardians for children and executors.
Florida laws also provide for the appointment of trusted individuals to fulfill certain responsibilities during a person's life, such as running a business during a planned absence or making health-care decisions during an incapacitating illness. Several important changes to Florida's Power of Attorney Act that took effect in October have important implications for future designations and may inspire those with existing plans in place to review their estate plans:
- New execution requirements: In addition to the principal's signature, a power of attorney must be signed by two witnesses and acknowledged before a notary public.
- Springing powers of attorney, which only go into effect upon a determination of legal incapacity, can no longer be created. Previously executed powers that have not yet been exercised will require an affidavit from the principal's personal physician before legal effect can be granted.
- If multiple agents are designated, each will have independent power to act as authorized by the power of attorney (the law previously required concurrence among agents).
- Gifting powers are now limited to the principal's annual federal gift tax exclusion amount, unless otherwise specified.
Florida's new Power of Attorney Act also brought a variety of changes to the duties of agents. A Florida probate attorney can help clients understand their full range of estate planning options and keep legal strategies in line with expectations as the law and financial circumstances change.
