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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…
An unofficial tribute to David Letterman’s top 10 lists, and my feeble attempt at humor. Top 5 Reasons To Not Plan Your Estate 3% of everything I own sounds like a fair fee to pay a lawyer. I really want my family to understand the intricacies of probate law. Rather than have one lawyer plan…
The Florida Statutes regarding Powers of Attorney were amended as of October of last year. While Powers of Attorney executed prior to this change remain in effect, there is a concern about the manner in which financial institutions will continue to honor older Powers of Attorney. By law third parties are required to accept these older Powers of Attorney,…
The estate tax may have been repealed in 2010, but the gift tax is still in full effect. The gift tax works in conjunction with the estate tax to limit wealth transfer between non-spouses. To understand how that affects you, let’s review how the gift tax works. With certain exceptions, everyone has an annual exclusion…
In 2011, the Estate Tax is due to return with a 1 million dollar exemption (unified credit) and top tax rate of 55%. Without planning, this exemption is the same for both individuals and married couples. The following illustration explains how. Married couples have an unlimited marital deduction to pass assets between each other1. Although…
As with most legal questions, the answer is maybe. Life insurance does pass income tax free, but it is still subject to estate tax. “But the estate tax has been repealed,” you say. That’s true, but only for 2010. The tax relief act that repealed the estate tax sunsets at the end of 2010, and…
In 2002 Florida enacted a provision that trusts could be created for the care of a pet. It has since been amended with the adoption of the Unified Trust Code, but remains in force. Prior to the enactment of this statute, pets could only be left to someone like any other property, but no assets…
For most property, the state in which you reside has jurisdiction over that property, and it will be administered according to the laws of that state. However, real property falls under the laws of the state in which it is located. This means that real property must be administered in the state in which it…
2011 Is Just Around the Corner 2011 seems like a long way away. Heck, 2008 isn’t even two months old. But if you’re looking at it from an estate tax point of view, 2011 is just around the corner. Failure to plan ahead could result in more of your money going to the government instead…