Monique Lavender Greenberg: Why a Will Is Not Enough to Protect Your Family

By Daniel Gouw

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Monique Lavender Greenberg is a Florida Bar Board Certified specialist in Wills, Trusts, and Estates and the founder of Lavender Greenberg PLLC in Coral Gables, Florida. She focuses her practice on sophisticated estate planning for high-net-worth individuals, business owners, and families with complex domestic and international asset structures.

Known for her strategic and highly customized approach, Monique designs estate plans that prioritize probate avoidance, tax efficiency, asset protection, and long-term wealth preservation across generations. Her dual experience in planning and litigation—including probate, trust administration, guardianship, and fiduciary disputes—provides clients with a distinct advantage in anticipating and mitigating future conflict.

Monique is a frequent national speaker on advanced estate planning topics and serves as a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Court Mediator, handling trust, probate, and guardianship disputes.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Discover why having a will still means your family could end up in probate court — and what you actually need to avoid it.
Learn the critical difference between a revocable trust and an irrevocable trust, and which one is right for your situation.
Uncover why DIY wills and AI-generated estate planning documents often end up costing families far more in legal fees than hiring a professional from the start.
Find out what guardianship really means — not just for your minor children, but for you if you ever lose capacity to make your own decisions.
Explore the hidden dangers of Lady Bird deeds and transfer-on-death designations, and when a revocable trust offers stronger protection for your family.
Get smart first steps you can take right now to organize your assets before meeting with an estate planning attorney.
Learn why intentional planning matters more than ever for blended families — and how the wrong plan can destroy family relationships after you're gone.
Hear a real-life case where a forged will nearly robbed a family of everything — and how the right attorney made all the difference.
Discover what peace of mind truly looks like when your estate plan is done right and your family is fully protected.

In this episode…

Most people believe that having a will means their family is fully protected — but what if that single document is leaving the people you love completely exposed? Estate planning attorney Monique Lavender Greenberg breaks down one of the most dangerous misconceptions in the legal world: that a will is enough. What really happens to your assets, your children, and your legacy when you don't have the right plan in place?

The probate process — a costly, public, court-directed ordeal that most families stumble into simply because they didn't know there was a better way. She reveals the hidden risks of DIY wills and AI-generated documents, shares real cases of will forgeries that nearly robbed families of everything, and explains why the plan you think is protecting your family may actually be setting them up for conflict, delays, and financial loss. Could the documents you have right now be doing more harm than good?

In this episode of Verdict Signal, host Daniel Gouw interviews Monique Lavender Greenberg, founding attorney of Lavender Greenberg PLLC in Coral Gables, Florida, and a Florida Bar Board Certified Wills, Trusts, and Estates Attorney with an LL.M. in Estate Planning from the University of Miami School of Law. Monique shares her journey from debating politicians to becoming one of Florida's most trusted estate planning attorneys, covering everything from revocable and irrevocable trusts to guardianship, blended family planning, and the future of estate law in an AI-driven world. Tune in to learn how to make informed choices that truly protect what you build.