Reviews

My family’s experience dealing with Lance Ragland located at 5750 Canton Cove, Winter Springs, FL has proven to be extremely distressing. I am definitely not recommending him. In my opinion, he took advantage of my father and wrote the trust to benefit him (Mr. Ragland) as the trustee This is more of a cautious tool to tell you what to do when having a trust/will written up by an attorney. These trusts are hard to understand for the layman. I am hoping to educate people before you have a trust written by Mr. Ragland or any other attorney. 1. Get the original copy of the trust and will- do not let the attorney hold the original! 2. Make sure every page of the trust is initialed- so no changes can be made. 3. Do not under any circumstances give the attorney full authority to hire or fire any representatives of the grantor (i.e. accountants or financial advisors). Unless the trustee can prove they are not preforming their duties as a fiduciary. 4. Do not let any assets be liquidated and transferred into the attorney's name as trustee, have them divided by the financial intuitions, because once it is in the trustee’s name it can be very difficult to get it back. 5. Do not allow any language, which gives the attorney the right to charge anything over what is agreed upon in the trust (i.e. Florida statues). 6. Do give the beneficiary the right to get a full accounting of the estate, and statements upon death and statements upon being divided. 7. Know now exactly what the trustee fees are and get it in writing, do not allow for any additional charges without a written authorization by the benefices. My father thought he was signing a trust, which paid Lance Ragland 1% of the trust, but Mr. Ragland actually charged us 1% plus twice that in Florida statues, but never gave us a scope of legal work to be preformed, or a price list or hourly rate. We still have no proof of any legal work that needed to be done. His job was just to disburse the assets. He dragged out the closing of the trust to charge us for additional months when the trust could have been closed within a year. If the attorney is going to do AGREED upon legal work when dispersing the assets of the estate, get a retainer, a scope of work, and a price list. DONT LET WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR FAMILY HAPPEN TO YOU!!! NEVER NEVER MAKE THE ATTORNEY THE TRUSTEE (Lance Ragland in this case, never informed my father about the amount of money he would take from my fathers estate, and from his children. My dad came from nothing, he worked his entire life and put money away, so his children would have an easier time in their life then he did. He never would have expected that so much of his assets would end up being taken by Mr. Ragland because of legalese, which my father did not understand. My father originally had a bank as the trustee, we wish he never was convinced by Mr. Ragland to change the trustee to him. My father thought he was paying him 1% of the estate, but Mr. Ragland is trying to take 3 times more. AGAIN, DONT LET WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR FAMILY HAPPEN TO YOU!!! NEVER NEVER MAKE THE ATTORNEY THE TRUSTEE .....

Very patient and knowledgeable. Handled my mother's estate planning.

I would like to thank Attorney Ragland as well as the Help Kids Play Sports for sponsoring my son to play football with the Sanford Youth Association. I am forever grateful and appreciative, may you be blessed for your acts of kindness. Continue to do great things and may favor overflow your Firm is my prayer...thanks again Kateria Barfield ;)