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In preparing your estate planning documents, we will need the following information. Executor/Successor Trustee – The person or people who will be in charge of enforcing your wishes either through a Will or Trust. For a Successor Trustee, it is possible they will manage assets in your Trust for your benefit if you become incapacitated….
Many Americans are against the so-called death tax (estate tax) as an unfair tax. But the reality is more than 99% of Americans benefit from the estate tax. If you are married and own less than $11 million worth of assets, or are single and own less than $5 1/2 million in assets*, you or…
As of 2016, the following Estate and Gift tax exemptions are in effect: Estate Tax Exemption – $11,580,000 (U.S. Citizens and Residents) Annual Gift Tax Exemption – $15,000 (U.S. Citizens and Residents) Gifts Between Spouses – Unlimited (U.S. Citizens only) Nonresident Alien Estate Tax Exemption – $60,000 (may be subject to foreign treaty) Gifts to Non-Citizen…
The simple answer is no. Trusts by themselves do not avoid probate, but they make probate avoidance possible. Think of the trust agreement as a box. Anything put in the box does not require court administration (probate) to pass to the beneficiaries. This is known as funding the trust and is one of the most…
It is generally recommended that your estate plan be reviewed every 3 to 5 years. Additionally, it should be reviewed prior to or following any major life event. Some examples of life events requiring review of your estate plan are as follows: Marriage – Marriage can have a drastic effect on your estate plan. A…
Asset Protection – Our assets are always at risk. Whether it’s through unknown creditors, accident, divorce, or acts of God; there will always be risks. However, this risk can be minimized through proper planning. On this page you’ll find various strategies to limit an individual or couple’s exposure to creditors. Homestead – Homestead property is only…
Intestacy occurs when someone dies without a will. In this instance, the individual’s property will be distributed according to state law. Also, if the person had minor children and did not prepare a designation of preneed guardian for his or her children, choice of a guardian will also be according to state law. The laws…
Couples getting married need to be aware of how marriage immediately changes property rights for both individuals. Intestacy When someone dies without a will, their estate is intestate. Without a will, the courts must rely on the laws of intestacy to determine how the individual’s assets are divided. Application of these laws changes immediately upon…
If you are getting divorced, or are already divorced, you need to be aware of how the dissolution of your marriage affects your estate plan. It is important to understand that you already have an estate plan. Either you have a will or a trust, or what the State of Florida provides which could include…
You’ve chosen a wonderful state in which to live. We certainly love it; however, any time you change your residence to a new state, there are changes that need to be made. Wills and other estate planning documents are state specific. They are controlled by the state in which you have your primary residence. If…
It has long been established in Florida that when a marriage is dissolved (divorce, dissolution or annulment), the ex-spouses are treated as having died before each other. This prevents divorced couples from inheriting from each other’s assets. Unfortunately this treatment did not extend to third party agreements such as life insurance, IRAs or death beneficiary…
Few groups have more need of estate planning than parents. Without a plan, parents will have no say to whom their children go in the event the unthinkable happens. Furthermore, parents will have no say in who manages their children’s inheritance. Finally, any assets or money left for the children will become freely available to…
Livings Wills in Sarasota Of all the documents included in an estate plan, perhaps none is as important as your living will. Unless you are a judge, this is probably the only life and death document you will ever sign. Despite its importance, very few people understand how it actually works. This is understandable, as…
When an individual dies in Florida or while owning real property in Florida, probate is the procedure used to transfer his or her assets to the proper heirs. Some assets pass automatically or outside of probate based on their character or how they were titled. There are different types of probate administration, including a full…
One of the most important benefits to parents in estate planning is it allows them to name who their children would go to if they were to pass away. Who will be Appointed Without a proper designation, the court will have no guidance from the parents in naming a guardian. After the parents, the court…
With proper planning, guardianship for adults is, for the most part, avoidable. The purpose of guardianship is to allow a third person to act on behalf of an individual that has lost the ability to manage some or all of their rights. While guardianship has a noble purpose, it is rarely the best choice. Incapacity…
Advance Directives are documents that allow you to name others to exercise your rights if you are ever temporarily or permanently disabled or incapacitated. They allow you to remain in control of your life. If you have not made these designations, the courts will do it for you if you lose capacity. Advance directives include:…
As a wills and trusts attorney, I feel a strong obligation to keep my conversations lite. The topics of my practice are such that the conversations are necessarily serious, so I often try to counteract that with humor and banality. However, sometimes we are faced with reality in such a way that it is evident…
Congress worked through the Holidays to avert the looming fiscal cliff. The result was the American Taxpayer Relief Act (“ATRA” for short). The impact on Estate & Gift Taxes was a permanent increase in the lifetime exemption to 5 million dollars. Furthermore, the exemption is indexed for inflation, so the effective exemption for 2013 is…
As Yogi Berra once said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.” Just like the end of 2010, the tax relief act is due to sunset at the end of this year. What is known as the “fiscal cliff.” This will mean a drop in the estate tax exemption for U.S. Citizens and Residents from 5 million…