John B. Conner has written a Law Review article in the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal titled “DIGITAL LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE ISSUE OF PLANNING FOR A PERSON’S DIGITAL ASSETS AFTER DEATH” The article starts off discussing issues of digital assets and estate planning by defining digital assets…
The Florida Slayer Statute bars a murderer from profiting off the victim’s assets. The victim’s assets which are subject to a Florida Probate pass as if the murderer had predeceased the victim and other jointly held assets are severed so that the victim and murder each owned 50%. One problem…
A Florida Asset Protection Lawyer is of most use when you do not have any potential liabilities. When you have a known creditor, you have to be concerned with fraudulent conveyances and fraudulent transfers. Generally if you participate in a fraudulent conveyance or transfer the court can undo a transaction…
Sometimes clients who are in a divorce are ordered to split up assets. Some of these assets can have large penalties when surrendered. Once such example is an annuity. Often annuities have surrender charges and can also have tax penalties when they are held within an IRA. You might have…
Often in an attempt to avoid a relatively small probate fee, individuals can create huge penalty periods and taxable issues for themselves. Take for instance, a woman in New York who, two years before applying for Medicaid, transferred money from her account to an account with a co-owner. Transferring individually…
The eligibility requirements for Medicaid have changed for Florida as of 1/1/2012. There were changed in the income criteria, maximum amount of assets, and maximum equity in your homestead property. Florida Medicaid Income Limits as of 1/1/2012. The Applicant’s income limits have increased from $2022/ month to $2094/month. If the…
While many of you may be thinking that fewer Florida Probate cases will involve federal estate tax returns in 2011, the opposite is actually true. It seems with the new $5 Million estate tax exemption that most estates will not need to file a tax return. What most people do…
I recently updated the Free Florida Probate Handbook to deal with many of the changes from this year’s legislature. If you have a previous copy or would like an undated version please let us know by requesting on this page.
Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (DAPT) have become the latest rage in estate planning and asset protection. We have generally found that there are better ways of protecting assets from creditors by using traditional estate planning that has case-law history. In a recent US bankruptcy case, a DAPT was invalidated and…
I recently had a client inquiry with us regarding the transfer of real property which was upside down or had negative equity. Typically when one transfers property of value to another to avoid a creditor’s reach, the creditor can seek to have the transaction reversed under the theory of a…