When reviewing your Florida Estate Plan be sure that your will does not conflict with other actions you have taken to avoid probate. Assets that have joint ownership, payable on death designations or beneficiaries will not pass to the beneficiaries names in your Florida Estate Planning Documents. Often a person’s…
Articles Posted in Living Trust / Revocable Trust
IRA Beneficiaries – Know the Rules
As Baby boomers retire and move to Florida or other states, one of the jobs of an Estate Planning Lawyer is to review the Beneficiaries on IRA and other types of accounts. Denice Glerach a lawyer in Naperville wrote an article discussing this problem and suggesting some solutions for IRA’s…
Beware of Trust Mills
Randall Armour of the Santa Clarita Valley Signal wrote an article discussing Trust Mills and gives some advice on how to spot a trust mill and several problems associated with them. 1. Trust mills often prepare documents after the client has filled out a simple check-the-box-type questionnaire. Little or no…
Living Trust Mills Winding Up In Some States
Although there are no current verdicts against Florida Companies, many states have taken action against living Trust Scams / Trust Mills / and Elder Law Planning Seminars. Michael Bonasera of Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP and author of the The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog wrote an article titled Living…
Supreme Court Limits Deductions on Trusts
The Supreme Court upheld the limits on income tax deductions for a trustsor estate. The Court ruled against the Knight family (they created Pepperidge Farm). The Court said trusts ordinarily may not deduct the full cost of investment advice on their income tax returns. These expenses are only deductible when…
Leaving IRA Money to a Minor
Fox Business has an article on A New and Smart Way to Leave Your IRA to a Minor where they discuss the importance of reviewing beneficiaries on all acounts including insurance, annuities, and retirement plans. They discuss leaving a percentage of the account rather than a dollar amount as this…
Who Will Inherit Your IRA?
Vanguard recently sent their clients a notice that they would no longer allow their clients to name different beneficiaries for multiple IRA accounts and would be changing the beneficiaries to whomever was named last. If you have a Florida Estate Plan that uses POD or beneficiary designations, this could significantly…
NFA Trust used to Purchase NFA Firearms
If you live in a Jacksonville or another city in Florida where the Chief law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) will not or easily sign a Form 4, there are several solutions. Title II Firearms (sold by Class 3 SOT dealers) include suppressors, , short barrel rifles, machine guns, and other destructive…
Avoiding Accidental Disinheritance with Florida Estate Planning
Accidental disinheritance is a growing problem. It’s a problem, in part, because there are too many death-disposition instruments now that dispositions are slipping through the cracks to the wrong people. Paul Rabalais wrote about this on Your Louisiana Estate Planning Blog where he describes some of the more common ways…
Florida Estate Planning and the Importance of Beneficiary Desinations
Often the first thing that comes to mind with Florida Estate Planning is a Florida will or Florida living trust. Although these are valuable documents they do not have any effect on the distribution of many assets. We recommend that our Jacksonville residents make sure their beneficiary designations are updated…