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ESTATE PLANNING PROBATE/TRUST ADMINISTRATION
ADVANCED TAX PLANNING
LEGACY IN THE MAKING — ESTATE PLANNING—
A CONVERSATION WITH MATTHEW UNZICKER, ESQ., LL.M., OF BERLIN PATTEN EBLING
SRQ MAGAZINE BRANDED CONTENT PROGRAM | DECEMBER 2024 | INTERVIEWED AND COMPILED BY BARBIE HEIT
LET’S START BY SHARING A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
MATTHEW UNZICKER I was born and raised in the Manatee County area and went to law school in Miami. I then did an extra year of schooling to get my LLM, which is a masters degree after law school in taxation. A lot of people don’t know that estate planning and taxes go hand in hand and so it was a very good extra degree for me to get and I use that pretty much every day.
WHAT DOES AGING GRACEFULLY MEAN TO YOU?
UNZICKER Maintaining dignity and respect for the most part are the cornerstones of aging gracefully. It’s important to have documents to help with that in the unfortunate event you’re unable to communicate what it is that you want both during your lifetime and at your passing.
CAN YOU SPEAK ABOUT HOW PROPER PROACTIVE ESTATE PLANNING ALLOWS PEOPLE TO MAINTAIN THAT DIGNITY AND THAT CONTROL OVER THEIR ASSETS AND THEIR HEALTHCARE DECISIONS?
UNZICKER I will give you the common example with people who don’t have documents and they have too many cooks in the
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANT
Matthew Unzicker, Esq., LL.M., Berlin
Patten Ebling is an estate planning and probate a orney from Bradenton, Florida. Admi ed to the Florida Bar in 2019, Ma has since focused on estate planning, probate/trust administration, and advanced tax planning. Ma is dedicated to the service of his clients, creating personalized plans to ensure clients and their loved ones are prepared and protected for any major life event. He is actively involved in the legal community, serving as treasurer for the Manatee County Young Lawyers Division and being a member of the Manatee County Bar Association and Estate Planning Council.
kitchen, so to speak–where family members say “I know mom wants this or no, mom wants that.” Unfortunately that can create rifts in the family when the focus should really be on the loved one who needs the care and attention during that time when they’re aging. By having documents in place, you take a lot of that o the table. Unfortunately, you can’t write out human nature, but for the most part, having your wishes and your documents in order just makes it a lot easier for the family, which I think is a very big part of maintaining dignity and respect. Having your wishes in place maintains those important pieces when you are unable to advocate for yourself anymore. A lot of the nightmare stories you hear about happen with families dealing with parents who can’t make their own decisions and they don’t have documents and everybody thinks they know what’s best for that loved one. Even though it’s coming from a great place, it might cause a lot more stress, heartache and potentially loss of fi nancial resources by not having those in place and making it a clear road map for the family about what’s supposed to happen both during life and of course after passing.
THOSE DOCUMENTS YOU’RE REFERRING TO, ARE THEY TYPICALLY
TRUSTS AND WILLS? UNZICKER During lifetime, there are a few. We have a generalized estate planning packet that I think most people should consider having. I break them up into two categories–the living documents and what we call testamentary documents which are the ones that apply after your passing. The living documents, just to put them in plain English, deal with healthcare decisions during the person’s life and potentially near end of life, like removing life prolonging procedures such as artificial hydration, sustenance
and breathing tubes. And then you have fi nancial decisions, which is more the work of a power of attorney. One thing I help clients decide is who would be appropriate to make medical decisions and that might not always be the same person that’s appropriate to make fi nancial decisions. Then when somebody ultimately does pass away, the living documents are no longer applicable. Then you have the testamentary documents like a will and or a trust. There are some other estate planning vehicles that are available, but those are the most common that you hear about—a last will and testament and a trust.
WHEN DO YOU ADVISE YOUR CLIENTS TO CREATE THESE DOCUMENTS AND HOW OFTEN DO YOU RECOMMEND THAT THEY UPDATE THEM?
UNZICKER There is no time like the present. I think everybody should have them truthfully as soon as you reach the age of majority because that’s when you can start making decisions for yourself. When you’re younger, I would say picking them up every three to five years or at major life events, like buying a home, getting a new job, getting married, kids, grandkids, that type of event. As people age, you should check them more frequently to make sure that they coincide with what it is that you want again, both during your lifetime and ultimately when you pass away.
LOTS OF FOLKS MOVE TO FLORIDA FROM OUT OF STATE AND THEY COME WITH WILLS IN HAND. ARE THOSE WILLS STILL VALID FROM OTHER STATES OR DO THEY NEED TO BE UPDATED AND COINCIDE WITH FLORIDA LAW?
UNZICKER Not just for the testamentary documents like the will, but actually for all estate planning documents, Florida
has what’s called the full faith and credit clause where we honor documents that were properly executed in the state that the person was a resident of at the time that they did them. That being said, I always suggest that when people move to another state, whether that’s coming to Florida or leaving Florida to another state, to talk with an estate planning attorney in that state to review them and make sure there aren’t any provisions that need to be updated that coincide with that specific state. One of the things that we do as an estate planning practice is we don’t charge a review fee for that. When clients do come in from out of state–and a large area of our practice is real estate–they buy property and then they ask, “Do you guys know an estate planning attorney that might be able to help us?” We have so many real estate attorneys that handle a large number of transactions, we get this question almost daily. Oftentimes when clients move here and just want to make sure that there’s nothing Florida specific they need to add. I tell them that and say, “These are perfectly e ective here and you don’t need to update them right now.” A lot of clients appreciate that honesty in not pushing them to update documents simply because we can charge them to do that.
COULD YOU ADDRESS HOW THESE ESTATE PLANS CAN PREVENT CONFLICTS AND EASE THE BURDEN ON LOVED ONES DURING EMOTIONAL TIMES? UNZICKER Florida has a framework to execute documents that are very strict as far as the capacity to execute those. As an attorney, one of the fi rst questions we always ask is this: is the client capable of making these decisions? Of course I’m
not a doctor, but I think we do a pretty good job of providing that level of protection, number one for the client. Number two is when you properly execute them. You have an o cial document that states your wishes and it’s a very di cult burden to overcome saying, well, that’s not what mom or dad wanted. When you have it on the four pages of a document, it’s very di cult to dispute that. I think that gives a lot of clients a peace of mind that when loved ones hear one thing, but then they see it, I think it sets in a little bit that this is really what they wanted. That quells a lot of the concerns, knowing they made that decision on their own and I think that really lends to aging gracefully because that maintains the respect and maybe even if they lose that independence down the road, they were independent when they made that decision. Those wishes are honored and I think a lot of people appreciate that. Not to mention one other benefit is just when a client signs with me, I don’t stop being their attorney. If something does happen to them and the kids reach out and say, mom’s in the hospital or dad’s going into hospice, I’m there to help the family too. That’s one of the good things about having a younger estate planning attorney–I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. Clients appreciate that as added representation just beyond signing the documents. I’m helping the family when it’s most needed.
WHEN IT COMES TO THE POSSIBILITY OF MOVING INTO A LIFE PLAN COMMUNITY, WHEN DO YOU START TALKING WITH YOUR CLIENTS ABOUT THAT TRANSITION?
UNZICKER When we talk about the living documents, the ones that are applicable during life-
time, one of the topics I always discuss is the need to apply for things like Medicaid through the state or if you needed to apply for an assisted living, long-term care, whether that’s in home or at a facility, there are applications that you have to apply for and potentially fi nancial disclosures that you have to make to see whether you qualify or not. In our documents, this is under the power of attorney. There is a provision that allows the agent, the person in charge, to fi le those applications for the person’s benefit. It is important, especially here in Florida, that as you age, you have somebody with the ability to simply fi le those applications and get you into a facility if you were unable to do that yourself and decide how to pay for it. A lot of that discussion comes up at the very front end because that’s all during lifetime. The items that are applicable during a lifetime are actually what takes a little bit more decision making on who’s going to be in charge of that and what it looks like from a fi nancial standpoint. Again, that just leads me to being transparent with the people you name in these roles. For people with kids, it’s a lot more straightforward. With people who don’t have kids or loved ones in the area, we work a lot with a couple of the professional services that provide healthcare and power of attorney services. They take on the responsibility of applying and vetting the facilities and meeting with clients. Some people actually appreciate that even when they have kids because they don’t have to put that burden on their children. People have a lot of options that they don’t know about. We sometimes use a service called Secure Aging in Bradenton. They provide that service for clients to help them transition.
WHAT IS SOME ADVICE YOU HAVE TO HELP FAMILIES AVOID STRESS IN DISCUSSING ESTATE PLANNING? UNZICKER If you’re naming your kids in your documents, there is something to be said of just being transparent. Even if it’s something as simple as saying, “Matt’s my attorney, here’s his business card. If something happens to me, call him and he’ll know what to do.” My grandparents were very private with their estate planning documents and I don’t even think my dad knew if my grandparents had a will because they were just very private. When they ultimately passed away, he had to go through this whole process of fi nding out where the bank accounts were and other important details. That just creates a lot of stress and heartache during a time when you should be grieving and honoring the loved one. I think being clear with the people in your life is a really good benefit to your estate plan. That’s not legal advice, that’s really personal advice to people. Again, I’ll also say that there is no time like the present. Everybody says, “I’ve been meaning to do that” but getting something simple in place, even if it’s something that’s going to change down the road, it’s good to have even with just the most basics in place. A lot of times I hear, “I don’t have a whole lot of stu .” Even sitting down with me and talking about what your options are, whether it’s a lot or a little, that’s relative. Protecting that is important to everybody regardless of fi nancial status. That’s one of the reasons we do not charge a consultation fee for clients. I think it’s fair for them to meet us as the attorneys and let us explain what it is that we provide and if they decide to go in a di erent direction, no harm, no foul. SRQ
