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Estate Planning


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Estate Planning In Boca Raton In Partnership With Your Attorney

Estate planning in Boca Raton coordinated with your estate attorney across beneficiary review, intergenerational wealth transfer, legacy planning, and charitable giving. Built for South Florida families who want their documents to match the plan.

Schedule A Consultation Call (561) 210-7339

Fiduciary CFP® Attorney-Coordinated Beneficiary Audits South Florida

WHY CLIENTS CHOOSE US

The estate documents are only useful if the rest of your accounts agree with them.

Beneficiary audits, top to bottom

Most estate problems come from outdated beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities, not from the will. We audit every account against the plan.

Coordinated with your attorney

We aren't estate attorneys, and we don't draft the documents. We work with yours (or refer to one) to make sure the financial assets and the legal documents tell the same story.

Intergenerational planning

How money moves to the next generation, on what schedule, with what protections, and what they should and shouldn't know now.

Charitable strategy

For clients who want philanthropy to be part of the legacy. DAFs, charitable trusts, QCDs from IRAs. See the page →

Trust planning, in scope

Revocable living trusts coordinated with your attorney. We don't set up Delaware or Utah asset-protection trusts. See trust planning →

Reviewed annually

Documents go out of date. Beneficiaries change. Tax laws change. The estate plan gets reviewed every year as part of the broader planning relationship.

Where estate planning usually goes wrong.

The most common estate planning failure mode isn't a bad will. It's a perfectly good will that doesn't match the beneficiary designations on the IRA, the 401(k), the life insurance, and the annuity. Those designations override the will. Most clients haven't looked at them in five to ten years.

The work we do is mostly the unglamorous version of estate planning. Pulling every account, looking at every beneficiary, making sure the trustee provisions actually match what the trust document says, and confirming that the people who are supposed to know about the plan know about it.

OUR APPROACH

How Estate Planning works at Intercoastal.

Three things that shape how we deliver estate planning for South Florida clients.

1 Coordinated, not siloed

Estate Planning doesn't sit alone. The investment plan, the tax plan, and the estate plan reference each other. We coordinate all three so decisions match.

2 Personal, not templated

No off-the-shelf model portfolios or boilerplate plans. The recommendations match your specific income, tax bracket, family situation, and timeline.

3 Ongoing, not transactional

We meet on a quarterly cadence to adjust the plan as your life and the tax code change. The relationship is long-term by design.

What we cover.

Beneficiary review and coordination

  • Every retirement account: IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, pensions.
  • Every life insurance policy.
  • Every annuity.
  • Joint vs single titling on taxable brokerage accounts.
  • Transfer-on-death (TOD) and payable-on-death (POD) designations.
  • Coordination with the will and any revocable trust.

Trust planning (revocable, in coordination with attorney)

  • For clients who need a revocable living trust as part of the estate plan, we coordinate with your estate attorney on what the trust says, who the trustees are, and how the accounts get titled or how beneficiaries get set up to flow into it. We don't draft the trust documents. We also don't set up Delaware Statutory Trusts, Utah asset-protection trusts, or offshore structures. 

Intergenerational wealth transfer

  • Annual gifting strategy within the IRS exclusion limits.
  • 529 plan funding for grandchildren's education. See 529 Plan →
  • Direct payment of tuition or medical expenses (outside the gift exclusion).
  • Lifetime gifting against the estate tax exemption (currently elevated, scheduled to drop).
  • Coordination with retirement account beneficiary designations.

Charitable planning

  • Donor-advised funds (DAFs).
  • Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs) and Charitable Lead Trusts (CLTs), where the situation warrants and in coordination with an attorney.
  • Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) from IRAs for clients over 70.5.
  • Donating appreciated securities instead of cash. 

Inheritance planning (for both sides)

  • For clients planning what to leave: structuring the inheritance, communicating the plan, and preparing the next generation.
  • For clients receiving an inheritance: stepped-up basis, the 10-year rule on inherited IRAs, and the planning that has to happen in the first year. 

RELATED ESTATE SERVICES

Common areas within estate planning.

Most estate planning clients also work through one or more of these as part of the broader plan.

Trust Planning

Revocable living trusts coordinated with your estate attorney. Beth handles revocable trusts only, not asset-protection structures.

See trust planning →

Charitable Giving Strategies

DAFs, charitable trusts, QCDs from IRAs, and donating appreciated securities.

See charitable-giving strategies

Inheritance Planning

For clients receiving an inheritance. Stepped-up basis, IRA inheritance rules, and the planning that has to happen first.

See inheritance planning →

Who This Is For

Estate planning matters at specific life stages.

The clients who benefit most:

Pre-Retirees Widows (Replanning) Divorced Women (Updating) Inheritors Business Owners with Succession Executives with Concentrated Wealth

What we won't pretend to do.

Contact Us Today

We aren't estate attorneys. We don't draft wills, trusts, healthcare directives, or powers of attorney. We'll tell you when you need an attorney involved (which is usually), and we'll refer you to one if you don't have one. The work we do is the coordination between the legal documents and the financial accounts.

RELATED READING

More From The Estate & Inheritance Blog

Posts our planning team has put together on this topic.

Image for Trends in Charitable Giving

Trends in Charitable Giving

Some people may want a more advanced gifting strategy that can maximize their gift and generate potential tax benefits.

Image for Problems with Probate

Problems with Probate

Probate can be a completely public process, or it can be managed to include as little information as possible.

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QUESTIONS, ANSWERED
Common questions about Estate Planning

  • No. We aren't estate attorneys. We work with your estate attorney (or refer you to one) to make sure the financial accounts and the legal documents are saying the same thing. The work we do is the coordination part: beneficiary audits, account titling, retirement account inheritance planning, charitable giving structure, and ongoing review.
  • Maybe. The most common reason to set up a revocable living trust in Florida is to avoid probate, manage incapacity, or coordinate complicated beneficiary situations. Many smaller estates do fine with a will plus proper beneficiary designations and account titling. The right answer depends on the size of the estate, whether you own property in multiple states, and your family structure. Your attorney makes the call; we help you decide whether the conversation is worth having.
  • Annually for the financial pieces (beneficiary designations, account titling, asset levels relative to the documents). Less often for the legal documents themselves, unless there's been a major life event: marriage, divorce, birth, death, a real change in net worth, move to a different state, or change in the estate tax exemption.
  • A will controls what happens to assets that pass through your estate (taxable brokerage accounts, real estate, personal property). Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities go to whoever is named on those accounts, regardless of what the will says. This is the most common source of estate planning mistakes. The will might say one thing, and the actual money goes somewhere else.
  • Yes. Charitable strategy ranges from simple bequests in the will, to donor-advised funds funded during your lifetime, to more complex tools like Charitable Remainder Trusts. The right approach depends on your tax situation, the size of the gift, and what you want the legacy to accomplish. See the charitable giving page →
  • Since the SECURE Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit a retirement account have 10 years to draw it down. The strategy around how to spread those withdrawals across the 10 years, especially in the years where the recipient's tax bracket is lower, is meaningful tax planning. We work with inheritors to map this out. See the inheritance page →

FIND US

Two offices, one team.

Boca Raton (Home Office)

1200 North Federal Highway, Suite 300

Boca Raton, FL 33432

(561) 210-7339

Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM ET

Plantation

7901 SW 6th Court, Suite 320

Plantation, FL 33324

(954) 809-3553

Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM ET

Serving

South Florida cities and neighborhoods

Palm Beach County

Boca Raton Highland Beach Delray Beach Boynton Beach West Palm Beach Palm Beach Palm Beach Gardens

Broward County

Plantation Fort Lauderdale Coral Springs Weston Cooper City Parkland

Ready to talk about Estate Planning?

The first meeting is a conversation, not a sales pitch. We'll talk about where you are, what you're working through, and whether Intercoastal is the right fit. In person in Boca Raton or Plantation, or by video from anywhere.

Schedule A Consultation