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Local Living
A community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland.
Local Living
Beyond the Will: Understanding Probate and Estate Protection with Attorney Tara David
Attorney Tara David discusses estate planning and probate, explaining why proper legal documents are essential for everyone, even 18-year-olds. She breaks down common misconceptions about wills, explains the costly and time-consuming probate process, and shares her approach to making legal services accessible and stress-free.
• Estate planning is necessary for everyone 18 and older, not just the wealthy
• A will does not avoid probate - it only provides legal directions
• Probate is a court-supervised process that typically takes 6-12 months and requires attorney fees
• "College packages" provide vital healthcare documents for young adults, allowing parents to help with medical decisions
• Estate planning includes documents for while you're living (power of attorney, healthcare directives)
• Tara offers flat-rate fees and in-person meetings to make legal planning accessible
• Services include free educational workshops and complimentary 15-minute consultations
Contact Attorney Tara David at 954-951-7274 or find her on Instagram and Facebook for information about upcoming workshops.
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast!
Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Welcome, welcome everyone to Local Living. We are a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, I am the publisher of the Living Magazines and I am also your host for today's episode. And with me I have Tara David, attorney at law. Tara, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Hi, thank you.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. We're excited to have you, so why don't we start out? Just tell our listeners what type of law do you practice?
Speaker 2:Sure. So I own a state law of Florida, which is a probate and estate planning law firm based in South Florida.
Speaker 1:And so tell us a little bit about your journey. First off, I'm going to go back. What made you decide to enter into this vertical of practicing law? How did you get interested in probate and things of that?
Speaker 2:nature. My journey kind of started from law being overwhelming to a lot of people. I think a lot of people are intimidated by the legal process, so I just really wanted to build a firm that seemed approachable and human, of course, and I also just wanted to help people in a time of need for probate, navigating that side of losing a loved one, things like that. And then estate planning, of course, is preparing for the future and really giving people peace of mind. This really helps them not feel intimidated. Or what's going to happen to me, if something happens to my mom, if something happens to me, who's going to take care of my kids? There's a lot of unanswered questions and I just wanted to help people figure out a way to plan better.
Speaker 1:So this is the type of thing and I'm speaking for myself here that a lot of us don't want to think about, don't want to deal with how old is. Is there an optimum age to start thinking about estate planning?
Speaker 2:there's really not. Anyone who is 18 and up needs some type of estate planning.
Speaker 1:Whether you're 18, 18, 18 and up, right, yes, I know it sounds young. I have an 18 year old. He hasn't graduated yet. Now does he need to start planning, or should he get a job first?
Speaker 2:No, he really does need to do something if he agrees to do something. But I do a lot of college bound children or adults, rather their health care documents and their powers of attorney, because when they turn 18, of course you're not going to be able to help them, you know, really with anything they're an adult. So without these special documents, you can't make medical decisions for them, you can't talk to the school if needed. There's a lot of things, even help with their taxes. There's things that you can help them with if they have these documents in place or, you know, god forbid, there's an accident. So I do think these little college packages are good for 18 year olds to consider and, of course, their parents.
Speaker 1:And so do you have any 18 year old clients yet? Or what's your youngest client? I got to ask 18.
Speaker 2:18.
Speaker 1:So you have an 18 year old client, so I will tell you I want my. It sounds like you are not erring, but you are certainly navigating on the side of caution and preparedness, and that is what I want my lawyer to do, because I don't normally live like that. So it's great that you're offering that to your clients. So any myths or misconceptions about what you do when people come into you and it's their first time thinking about any of this stuff, do they have something in their head already? That's not necessarily true or the way things are going to go now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say the biggest myth for all estate planning and probate attorneys that they hear is that a client has a will so they think they're covered. A will doesn't avoid probate and that's huge because most people don't know that they think they have a will, everything's set, but all it does is give legal directions. It's not going to help you basically get the assets to the right person. So that's one of the biggest myths. And then I would say, maybe secondary, is that estate planning is only for the wealthy. They may need a state plan, but even someone that may just own one house or even a few accounts, there is state planning involved. One of them would be something after they're gone to avoid probing.
Speaker 2:And then another huge part of estate planning is while you're living. Do we have health care documents needing someone to make your medical decisions in an emergency, of health care documents needing someone to make your medical decisions in an emergency, a power of attorney so someone can help you talk to FPL or sell your property if needed. So these are kind of the documents you need while you're living and maybe in an accident or unavailable or even have advanced dementia. These documents already in place avoid all the headaches already in place, avoid all the headaches.
Speaker 1:So we've got an estate plan which is basically how you're managing your assets when you're alive. Is that correct? Is that what an estate plan is?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So an estate plan is kind of like, I guess, when you go to a doctor and you get a checkup For me, you come into my office and we go through everything you own. We make sure that there's either beneficiaries on things or someone can help you in an emergency situation. Even if you own a house with a spouse, if you're in a coma and you need to refinance your house or sell your house, you can't do that without your spouse being able to sign off. So if you don't have these documents in place, it's crucial to get that done. And again, you come to me and we or any attorney, hopefully and we go through everything and make sure that your accounts are settled. Everything's kind of in place for either emergency or death.
Speaker 1:So I think most of our listeners have a pretty good idea what a will is, and we now know that. I guess, as you said, writing our will on a napkin Leaving in the desk drawer is probably not sufficient. But could you describe? Probate to us just a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so just kind of a brief summary of probate is a court supervised process. If the value of your estate is over $75,000, then we have to open what's called a formal estate. An attorney is required, so you have to pay an attorney. You have to open what's called a formal estate. An attorney is required, so you have to pay an attorney. You have to pay for filing fees. We have to publish notice in a newspaper for all the creditors to come forward. There's a 90 day hold on all the assets for this period and then generally you have to serve anyone that was in the will. They have to sign off on things. So it's very time consuming. I would say it's most likely going to be at least six months, probably more towards a year, to get it all finished. And the least of it is the time you have the headache of paperwork and dealing with banks and dealing with beneficiaries and then, of course, paying all these expenses and costs.
Speaker 1:And you can avoid a lot of that. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, so that's what I was talking about, that checkup. So we would go through everything and just the main goal is to avoid probate in estate planning.
Speaker 1:So I'm guessing you work a lot, but when you're not working Tara, I know you live down here in South Florida Tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you like to do when you're not working.
Speaker 2:Well, I love to travel and I am a mom, so I do have a lot of family ventures, mom groups, things like that, and I really do enjoy connecting with other local businesses, finding ways to give back to the community. I volunteer. I also do a lot of workshops that are free seminars. I write a little article in the newspaper. I try to basically be involved in the community. That's kind of my main focus and, of course, my children.
Speaker 1:So when you do a workshop, how do you let people know about the workshops? Do you do you advertise them or you just do it through a networking group, or how do you share that information? How could someone find out more about that?
Speaker 2:Definitely follow me on Instagram. That would be my biggest place where I would share those type of things. I try not to spam my contact list with all of these workshops, but definitely Instagram or Facebook social media would be the best place to find those, but definitely.
Speaker 1:Instagram or Facebook social media would be the best place to find those. And you know I want to go back because I am curious. Was there so, before you came, a lawyer? Was there a moment when you knew that you wanted to be a lawyer? Do?
Speaker 2:you remember when you made that decision? Um, I was very into justice, um when I was younger, you know, and things that are fair and unfair, and I really wanted to help people um with really with navigating the law. And I think it kind of like went off when I saw people and complaining about attorneys, even in when I was younger. Um, you know, a lot of them just take money and don't return your calls and I just wanted to really flip that on its head and be accessible and be present and get back to people and and just kind of hold their hand a little bit. Through that, those challenges.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a really fresh approach, and so can you. Before we go, can you let our listeners know something that about your business that they they might not have gotten from what we talked about so far?
Speaker 2:I would say for estate planning I do offer everything flat rate, flat fees, so that makes it more accessible for people. I told you about the educational workshops and you know my main thing is just making it as stress free as possible. I also do most of my meetings in person if the person chooses to do that. I really just don't want it to be a virtual type of situation. So they're welcome to come to my office, and a lot of attorneys at this time aren't doing that, so I feel that gives more of a personal touch to estate planning and probate.
Speaker 1:And you have offices in Boca or Parkland. Where are your? Offices located Tara.
Speaker 2:So I have an office in Boca Raton, one in Lighthouse Point, which is East Broward County, and then I have one out West of Broward County which is 441 in Hillsborough. It's Coconut Creek technically.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what's the best way for our listeners to reach you? Should they go on a website? Should they just give you a call, or how can they get a hold of you, tara?
Speaker 2:Yes, they can definitely call me. You can find me online and my contact us link on our website, and you can also schedule a complimentary 15 minute call by calling 954-951-7274.
Speaker 1:Real quick. You know I'm going to flat rate. So they come in, they need for an estate plan. So they'll have a 15 minute conversation. You'll get an idea of what they might need and what their assets might be, and then at that time you give them a flat rate for whatever service they want you to provide. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's rare that I can just quote it in a 15-minute call. So what we would do is have an in-person meeting or a longer estate planning meeting after that, and what I do is I charge AP, but I basically credit the person towards their services if they do want to retain me, and at that meeting they would already have their intake form pretty much filled out and we'd go through all of those assets I was talking about.
Speaker 1:That's great, Tara. I want to thank you very much for joining us today on Local Living.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Once again, everyone. That's Tara David, attorney at law. She didn't bring it up, but she was named, I believe, to the 2021 list of rising stars for young lawyers in the state of Florida. And once again, I am David Conway, publisher of the Living Magazines and your host for Local Living. We will see you next time.