Jacksonville Beach Will Attorney

Beach Will Lawyer in Jacksonville, FL

Planning for your future is an essential part of life. From a legal standpoint, creating a will could be one of the most important steps you take to protect your legacy after you pass away. It is also a strong method to protect and support the family and friends you care about when you are no longer able to do it in person. Work with a Jacksonville Beach will attorney to get everything set into place and create a plan that reflects your personal and financial goals.

At the Law Office of Douglas A. Oberdorfer, P.A., we have over 20 years of experience helping individuals and families create comprehensive legal wills that meet their exact needs. Our team of Jacksonville Beach estate planning lawyers understands how important it is to protect your assets and provide for your loved ones. Our office at 432 East Monroe Street is very convenient to our Jacksonville Beach clients.

What Are the Important Things to Consider When Making a Will?

A will is a powerful estate planning tool, but only around 24% of Americans have one, as of 2025. When the time comes to make your will, there are many different factors to take into consideration. Each of these can help your wishes to be carried out as intended and leave your family with clear instructions.

Some important things to consider include:

Choosing an Executor

In the will-making process, an executor needs to be selected. This is someone who can take on full responsibility for managing your estate after you pass away. It’s an important role with significant responsibility, as they must handle everything from settling debts to distributing all remaining assets to your designated beneficiaries. These individuals should be trustworthy, highly organized, and capable of managing complicated legal and financial tasks.

Guardianship for Minors

Anyone who has minor children needs to use a will to name who they might want to take care of their kids when they’re gone. This individual will officially be appointed as a legal guardian if their parents pass away while they’re minors. In this role, your designated guardian would be responsible for your child’s education and health, and simply maintaining their overall well-being. This should be someone you trust and who shares similar parental values.

Asset Distribution

One of the top reasons why a will is created in the first place is to determine how assets should be distributed after death. This can include many different items, such as real estate properties, bank accounts, investments, and other personal belongings. When selecting who is to receive what items, it’s important to be as specific as possible. This can help avoid disputes among your family members when you can no longer clarify your intentions.

Debts and Taxes

Setting up a will is also necessary to help fulfill all outstanding debts and pay taxes. This can help remove that burden from being passed on to any existing family members. After your death, your estate is responsible for paying any debt left behind, like credit card payments and mortgages. Also, proper planning can help reduce the tax burden your family faces. For example, you could set up trusts to gift assets during your lifetime.

Legal Validity

All wills must meet a strict list of requirements to make them enforceable in the future. For example, the document must be signed by the Testator, who is the individual making the will. They must also have at least two individuals who witness the Testator signing the document, who don’t have any stake in the will.

Invalid Wills in Florida

Florida does not require any specific legal language or format in order for a will to be considered valid. Documents can be typed or handwritten, and they can use whatever language and structure a person wants. However, the state of Florida generally does not consider holographic wills or nuncupative wills to be legally valid.

Holographic wills are handwritten documents in the handwriting of the Testator. They are usually signed by the Testator, but no other witnesses. Some states honor holographic wills, but Florida does not. Nuncupative wills are verbal statements with no written record and are, therefore, not considered valid.

Discussing your will may sound stressful and anxiety-inducing, but it is all the more stressful to wonder if your will is legally valid. For your family’s well-being, it is vital to make sure that the document you have in place will hold up to legal scrutiny. To secure peace of mind, hire an estate planning lawyer who can help guide you through creating a properly drafted and legally sound will that can survive the test of time.

Limitations of Wills in Florida

Wills are a powerful legal tool, but they have limitations and should be thought of as only one part of a comprehensive estate plan. A will can give direction regarding where your assets should go after you pass away, but it does not protect your estate from probate or creditors, and the distribution of your assets becomes a public record, which jeopardizes privacy for your family members.

Probate is the process of distributing a deceased person’s assets. During probate, a deceased person’s assets are collected and used to pay outstanding debts before being distributed according to the will.

Trusts represent an estate planning strategy that can work very well in conjunction with a valid will. Rather than a document, a trust is a financial arrangement. You can transfer assets into a trust in order to protect them from probate and get them into the hands of your family members as quickly as possible. Some trusts also prevent your assets from being used to pay off creditors, and they keep the transfer of your property private.

A revocable trust is one that can be modified while you are still alive. You maintain legal control of the assets involved, and you can add or remove assets and beneficiaries at any time. Revocable trusts allow you to insulate assets from the probate process, but the included assets can still be leveraged to pay creditors upon your death.

An irrevocable trust allows you to transfer assets to the ownership of the trust immediately upon enacting it. The drawbacks to this are that you lose legal control of the assets as soon as they are transferred, and the trust is very difficult to modify, but the benefits are that assets in an irrevocable trust cannot be used to pay unsecured creditors, and they are generally safe from estate taxes.

If you have a trust, your will can direct any outstanding assets to be transferred to the trust upon your death. This is called a pour-over will. Sometimes, people create a trust, and they forget to transfer certain assets to it. A pour-over will can catch any assets you forgot to include in the trust and make sure they ultimately get added to it. Keep in mind that any assets not in the trust upon your death must go through probate before being transferred to the trust.

Jacksonville Beach Will FAQs

Q: How Much Should a Will Cost in Jacksonville Beach, FL?

A: There is no universal cost of creating a will in Florida, as each individual has unique needs that will either drive the price up or down. The complexity of an estate has the largest bearing on the final cost, as the longer an attorney needs to work on drafting terms and conditions, the more time and effort they can charge for. However, these upfront costs can have a large return on investment, because your will can be legally sound and reflect your desires.

Q: Does a Will in Florida Need to Be Notarized?

A: While no legal requirement says a will needs to be notarized to be valid in Florida, it is still a recommended practice. Having this in place can help speed up the probate process by eliminating the need for your witnesses to testify that the will is valid after you pass away. To avoid this, simply hire a notary to observe you and your witnesses signing the document. This extra step can save your family time in the future.

Q: What Happens if I Die Without a Will in Jacksonville Beach, FL?

A: If you pass away in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, before you have a chance to set up a will, your estate will be at the mercy of the state’s intestacy laws. The court will have full authority to decide who will inherit your assets. This is generally a benefit afforded to your closest living family members. If you don’t want a close family member inheriting specific assets of yours, hire a will attorney and make your beneficiary designations.

Q: Can I Change My Will After I Make It?

A: Yes, anyone has the ability to revisit an original will they made and make updates. This can be done by voiding the original will and creating a new one or simply adding legal amendments to the original document. Amendments are typically done when someone needs to make a minor change, like adding a new beneficiary or swapping their executor for someone else. Individuals making significant changes are typically encouraged to start an entirely new will.

Hire a Will Attorney – Contact the Law Office of Douglas A. Oberdorfer, P.A., Today

While the details of creating a new will can be overwhelming, no one is forced to go through the process alone. At the Law Office of Douglas A. Oberdorfer, P.A., we understand how intimidating the process can be. It prevents people from being as proactive about their estate planning as they would like. Contact us today to avoid putting it off any longer and secure peace of mind, knowing your assets can be protected in the future.