What Does an Estate Planning Attorney Do?

Most people have a vague sense that estate planning is important—and an even vaguer sense that an attorney is probably involved somewhere. But what does an estate planning attorney actually do, day to day, for a real family in Miami? The answer matters, because understanding it is what separates people who have a plan that works from people who have a stack of documents that fall apart when it counts.

More Than Just Writing a Will

The short version: an estate planning attorney helps you decide what happens to your assets, your healthcare, and the people who depend on you—if you pass away or become incapacitated—and then puts legally binding documents in place to make sure those decisions are respected.

The longer version is more interesting.

A will is often the first thing people think of, and yes, drafting a Last Will and Testament is part of the job. Under Florida Statute § 732.502, a will must meet specific execution requirements to be valid—it needs to be in writing, signed by the person making it, and witnessed by two people. An attorney makes sure those requirements are met so the document holds up in court. But a will is just one piece of a much larger picture.

Building a Plan Around Your Actual Life

A good estate planning attorney starts with questions, not documents. Who are your beneficiaries? Do you have minor children? Are you blended family? Do you own real estate? Do you have a business? Are you concerned about nursing home costs down the road? Are you a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident, or something in between—a detail that matters a great deal in a city like Miami, where a significant portion of residents were born outside the United States.

The answers to those questions shape everything. A family in Coral Gables with a vacation property in the Keys has a different set of needs than a young couple renting an apartment in Wynwood who just had their first child. Estate planning isn't a product off a shelf. It's a strategy built around a specific person's life.

From there, the attorney drafts and executes the documents that bring that strategy to life.

The Documents an Estate Planning Attorney Prepares

Wills. A will tells the courts who inherits your assets and, critically, names a guardian for any minor children. In Florida, dying without a will—called dying "intestate"—means the state's intestacy laws under Florida Statute § 732.101 decide how your estate is distributed. Those laws don't know your family. They follow a formula.

Revocable Living Trusts. A trust holds your assets during your lifetime and passes them directly to your beneficiaries when you die—without going through probate court. Probate in Miami-Dade County can take anywhere from six months to well over a year, and it's public record. Anyone can look up what you owned and who got it. A properly funded trust avoids that entirely. The attorney drafts the trust document, and just as importantly, helps you understand how to fund it—meaning how to retitle your accounts and property so they're actually owned by the trust.

Durable Power of Attorney. This document names someone to handle your financial affairs if you become unable to do so yourself. Without it, your family may have to petition a court just to access your bank account to pay your bills while you're in the hospital.

Healthcare Surrogate Designation. Florida law uses this specific term for the document that names someone to make medical decisions on your behalf. Your attorney makes sure this document complies with Florida Statute § 765.202 and actually reflects who you want speaking for you.

Living Will. A living will—separate from your regular will—records your wishes about end-of-life care. Do you want to be kept on life support if there's no reasonable expectation of recovery? Do you want artificial nutrition? This document removes an impossible burden from your family at an already devastating moment.

Ladybird Deeds. Florida is one of only five states that recognize this type of deed, officially called an Enhanced Life Estate Deed. It allows you to pass your home directly to a beneficiary at death, outside of probate, while keeping full control during your lifetime. It also has important implications for Medicaid planning—an area where an estate planning attorney's work directly intersects with long-term care strategy.

Navigating Florida-Specific Rules

Florida has some quirks that make local expertise genuinely important—not just a selling point.

The homestead laws are one example. Florida offers strong protections for your primary residence against creditors, but those same laws restrict who you can leave your home to. If you're married, you generally cannot leave your homestead to anyone other than your spouse without their written consent, even if your will says otherwise. This catches people off guard, especially in blended families where someone wants to leave a Coral Gables home to children from a prior marriage.

Beneficiary designations are another. Your retirement accounts and life insurance policies pass directly to whoever is named—regardless of what your will says. An estate planning attorney reviews these designations as part of the planning process, because an outdated form naming an ex-spouse can override years of careful planning.

Florida also has no state estate tax, and the federal exemption currently sits at $15 million per person for 2026. For most Miami families, federal estate tax isn't the primary concern—but for high-net-worth clients in neighborhoods like Brickell or Fisher Island, the attorney may work alongside financial advisors to address it.

What an Estate Planning Attorney Does NOT Do

This is worth saying plainly: an estate planning attorney is not a financial advisor. They don't manage your investments or tell you where to put your money. They also don't practice family law or litigation—if a dispute arises after someone dies, that's a different area of law entirely.

What they do is make sure the legal framework around your life and your assets is airtight, so that when something happens—and something always eventually does—your family isn't left guessing, fighting, or waiting on a court.

When Should You See One?

The honest answer is: sooner than you think. Estate planning attorneys aren't just for people at the end of their lives. A power of attorney and a healthcare surrogate designation are most important for emergencies—the kind that happen to people in their thirties and forties just as much as in their seventies.

If you own anything. If anyone depends on you. If you have a preference about what happens to you if you're in an accident and can't speak for yourself. Those are the conditions that make an estate plan necessary, and they apply to most adults.

Starting is simpler than most people expect. It usually begins with a conversation about where you are, what you own, and what you want. An estate planning attorney's job is to take that conversation and turn it into a plan that actually works—one that holds up under Florida law, reflects your real wishes, and gives your family clarity instead of chaos.