Estate planning on both a financial and health care level is imperative to avoid or deter governmental interference with your personal plan of care. With this in mind, CareSource encourages all individuals to execute advance directives. Be sure to choose wisely when appointing your Attorney in Fact, Trustee or Health Care Surrogate and discuss with them your personal beliefs and wishes.

Health Care Surrogate
In this day and age of modern medicine, life spans have increased dramatically. Unfortunately, many people have never delegated medical decisions to another person in the event they can no longer speak for themselves. It is imperative every one of us discuss with our loved ones our wishes and desires, so we can live our lives to the fullest, but not beyond. Sometimes an independent third party is the best choice for making these difficult decisions.

If that is your choice, CareSource will serve as your Healthcare Surrogate. Our Executive Director will meet with you as often as is necessary to assure we are properly informed as to your beliefs and wishes when making health care decisions. The individual's wishes will be carefully documented and safeguarded in the event a choice or determination needs to be made.

Assessment of Legal or Testamentary Capacity
Mental Capacity is defined in the Florida Statutes as the ability to manage at least some of the property or to meet at least some of the essential health and safety requirements. Testamentary capacity is the ability to make or change a Last Will & Testament.

Should there be a question as to an individual's level of capacity, CareSource can easily visit the individual and make a complete evaluation of the individual's capacity level. Most assessments take 1-3 hours. Occasionally, it is necessary that an additional visit be made on another day to verify the person's capacity level, since oftentimes abilities vary from day to day, or even hour to hour. Should legal testimony be necessary, we are well-versed in court proceedings and comfortable testifying under oath.

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Guardianship
Guardianship is a drastic, restrictive and sometimes unavoidable legal intervention. If an individual is legally incapacitated, has no alternate advance directives and is non-compliant with the necessary assistance to provide for their well-being, then guardianship may be the only alternative. We offer both direct guardianship services as well as support services for family guardians. For more information on Guardianships click here.

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Corporate Fiduciary/Trusteeships
A Trust is a legal entity that provides for the custody and management of assets for the benefit of an individual(s). It generally directs how the assets are used. There are many different types of Trusts; Revocable (can be changed), Irrevocable (cannot be changed), Special Needs and Income Trusts, to name a few. CareSource has served as the Trustee or Successor Trustee in several of these circumstances.