It is required by Florida law that the qualified beneficiaries of irrevocable receive notice of any request for modification to the trust. Each beneficiary will have the opportunity to object to proposal modifications prior to the applicable deadline.
If you need to seek a judicial modification to an irrevocable trust, contact Bach, Jacobs, & Byrne at (941) 906-1231.
There can be many circumstances that require an irrevocable trust to be changed. The reasons that call for that depend on the purposes for which the trust was created. Grounds for judicial modification of an irrevocable trust include:
If you need to seek a judicial modification to an irrevocable trust, contact Bach, Jacobs, & Byrne at (941) 906-1231.
There may be required reports written by the curator to describe the actions taken while managing the estate. These must be submitted to the court. The reports allow for the court to monitor estate administration and ensure the duties of the curator are being fulfilled.
If reporting is required, the court may request:
Curators are often subject to court removal and surcharge if they fail to properly carry out their responsibilities or do not properly manage estate assets. These newer requirements strengthen accountability and provide additional protections for estates under curator management.
If you are seeking to administer an estate in Florida, contact Bach, Jacobs, & Byrne, P.A. at (941) 906-1231.
Recently enacted changes to Florida’s Probate Code effective July 1, 2026, alter the bond and court-reporting requirements due to the curator law. Now, a curator must post a reasonable bond unless the court determines that the bond requirement must be waived. The amount of the bond is set by the court based on responsibilities of the curator and circumstances of the estate. This bond requirement does not include banks and trust companies appointed as curators.
If you are seeking to administer an estate in Florida, contact Bach, Jacobs, & Byrne, P.A. at (941) 906-1231.
Effective July 1, 2026, Florida probate courts are allowed more flexibility when appointing curators. Curators are court-appointed fiduciaries who serve to temporarily protect or manage estate property during the time when no personal representative has been appointed. They may also manage estate property when the personal representative appointed cannot continue serving or must be replaced.
The new law empowers probate courts to:
These 2026 Florida probate law changes give the courts greater flexibility in protecting estates during the probate process, especially during times when immediate action is necessary or prior to a personal representative being appointed. This expansion in authority ensures the security of the estate assets during the progression of the administration of the estate.
If you are seeking to administer an estate in Florida, contact the attorneys at Bach, Jacobs, & Byrne, P.A. at (941) 906-1231.
Statewide Medicaid Managed Care (SMMC) is the program where most Medicaid recipients receive their Medicaid services.
There are two different parts that make up the SMMC program:
Medicaid recipients who qualify and become enrolled in MMA will receive all health care services (other than long-term care) from a managed care plan. Medicaid recipients who qualify and become enrolled in LTC will receive long-term care services from a Long-term Care managed care plan.
What does the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care program provide?
Medicaid members receive their health care services through a managed care plan. MMA plans cover services such as prescriptions, doctors’ visits and hospital stays.
All MMA plans offer the following health care services:
Medicaid applicants will receive a letter once you are approved for Medicaid informing them of the MMA plan the state has enrolled them with. Applicants are allowed to switch to an alternate plan in the first 120 days.
If you have specific questions regarding your Medicaid eligibility, the experienced elder law attorneys of Bach, Jacobs & Byrne, P.A. are here to assist you. Call us at (941)906-1231 to set up a consultation.
In Florida, the Medicaid program that helps pay for long-term care in an assisted living facility or at home is called the Long-Term Care Diversion Waiver. There is a waitlist for this program. In order to get on the waitlist, you will need to do the following:
The representative will collect some preliminary information and will schedule a time for the phone screening with the individual requiring assistance, primary caregiver ,or closest family member.
If you have specific questions regarding preserving your Medicaid eligibility, the experienced elder law attorneys of Bach, Jacobs & Byrne, P.A. are here to assist you. Call us at (941)906-1231 to set up a consultation.
The Activities of Daily Living are a series of basic activities performed by individuals on a daily basis which are necessary for independent living at home or in the community. There are multiple variations on the definition of the activities of daily living, but most organizations agree that there are 5 basic categories:
The IRS is warning taxpayers to be on the lookout for scams related the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, which can lead to tax-related fraud and identity theft. The IRS and its Criminal Investigation Division have seen a new wave of phishing schemes against taxpayers. Senior citizens are among the most vulnerable to these scams and should be especially careful during this time.
In its press release, the IRS reminded taxpayers that the IRS is never going to call you asking to verify or provide your financial information so you can get an economic impact payment or refund faster. Taxpayers should watch out for emails, text messages, websites, and social media attempts that appear to be from the IRS and request money or personal information. If you receive an email that appears to be coming from the IRS, do not open it or click on attachments or links. You should go to the IRS official website, www.IRS.gov for the most up-to-date information.
The IRS also provides the following items to keep in mind, in order to protect yourself and your loved ones:
Taxpayers who receive unsolicited emails, text messages, or social media attempts to gather information that appear to be from the IRS should forward it to [email protected].
Fred Jacobs is a Florida Board Certified Tax Lawyer and Sean Byrne is an elder law litigator. Contact Fred or Sean at Bach, Jacobs & Byrne, P.A. if you or a senior you know has been the target of elder exploitation or needs assistance with tax matters. Call (941) 906-1231 to schedule an appointment.
The recently enacted federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided for a direct payment of up to $1,200.00 to most taxpayers, including many residing in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Unfortunately, the Federal Trade Commission has received several reports of nursing home and assisted living facilities requiring their residents who are on Medicaid to sign over the stimulus funds to the facility. There have been reports of facilities claiming that because the resident is on Medicaid, the facility gets to keep their stimulus payment. This claim is not true.
According to the CARES Act, the stimulus payments are a tax credit. Under the Internal Revenue Code, tax credits do not affect eligibility for federal benefits programs, like Medicaid, and they are not counted as a resource that an individual must use to pay for those benefits.
Because most nursing homes and assisted living facilities are currently closed off to the public due to COVID-19, it can be more difficult to monitor your loved one’s finances. If you are managing a facility resident’s financial affairs (such as an agent under power of attorney) or your loved one lives in a nursing home or assisted living facility and you are not sure what happened to their stimulus payment, talk to the facility’s management.
If you find out that a Florida nursing home or assisted living facility has taken your loved one’s stimulus payment, you should report it to the Florida attorney general’s office immediately and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
If you have specific questions regarding your stimulus payment and preserving your Medicaid eligibility, the experienced elder law attorneys of Bach, Jacobs & Byrne, P.A. are here to assist you. Call us at (941)906-1231 to set up a consultation.
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