Asset Protection

September 4, 2012

Who Ownes your Itunes Account? and Bruce Willis

Last week there were several articles which brought light to many that our online identities are just licenses which will expire upon out death. While this concept is new to some, most lawyers understand this. Unfortunately there appear to be some who do not understand that we are dealing with licenses which expire upon death, because they are recommending that their clients deal with these assets using a traditional will. While they understand that a will only deals with assets that exist after death, they probably do not understand that your iTunes , Amazon , Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter accounts are licenses, which if owned individually, will not survive the death of the creator.

A Trust or Business entity can survive death! They are fictitious entities which are created by state statutes which do not have to dissolve upon death. A trust generally has provisions for beneficiaries unlike a business entity.

Last weekend the Wall Street Journal and several other publications ran articles on Who inherits your iTunes account?

August 10, 2012

FACEBOOK FOUNDERS USE GRATS TO AVOID EXCESSIVE TAXATION; YOU CAN TOO

by David M. Goldman

News sources recently revealed that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — as well as other Facebook top brass–use Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts ( GRAT or GRATS) to protect their assets and investments from excessive taxation. A Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (more commonly called GRATs) is a perfectly legal–and very efficient–way to protect and pass significant assets from one person to another without incurring an exorbitantly high tax bill.

GRATs differ from certain other asset protection trusts in that they offer a good vehicle for wealthy investors who put money in start-ups, while other trusts may not. But it’s not only wealthy startup investors who may find GRATs useful. GRATs are an excellent way to shift wealth to others at little or no tax cost and with minimal legal and economic risk. As such, they can be the perfect tool for business owners, professional investors, and many others. Setting up a GRAT allows the investor/grantor to give assets over to the trust for a pre-determined number of years. During this time the assets appreciate and the grantor receives annual payments adding up to the asset’s original value plus a return based on a fixed interest rate determined by the Internal Revenue Service. At the end of the trust term the assets (at their new value) are transferred to the beneficiary named in the trust with none of the usual gift or estate tax on the appreciation.

This makes GRATs sound like the perfect (and perfectly simple) tool, but nothing is perfectly simple. The pre-determined lifetime of your GRAT will depend on your individual circumstances, as well as the tax laws at the time, so you’ll want to make sure you have the help of an experienced and knowledgeable attorney helping you design your trust. Contact our office for more information.

July 26, 2012

Can Life Insurance be subject to Creditors in Florida?

by David M. Goldman

While traditionally in Florida the proceeds from a life insurance police are exempt from the claims of a creditor, what happens if the beneficiary designations fail or the proceeds are directed back to an individuals probate estate or revocable trust?

In a recent Florida case, life insurance benefits were directed to the descendants revocable trust upon his death. This could have only happened intentionally unless a revocable trust was the owner and the beneficiary designation failed because it was improper or the beneficiary died before the grantor of the trust.

When the grantor of the trust died, the trusts instructions told the successor trustee to pay the settlor’s death obligations. Even if such language was not in the decedent’s revocable trust, they are presumed under Florida Law.

July 11, 2012

Elder Law Update: States That Could Make Children Pay for Dad’s Care

by David M. Goldman

Unpdaid long-term care bills are increasing and becoming more of a problem in many states. All 50 States have statutes that obligate adults to care for children or other family members; if your parent lives in one of 29 states, you could be held responsible for your parents unpaid long-term care bills. What? How could this be? are the typical reactions to many living in these unfortunate states.

Katherine Pearson at Penn State Law School has written a paper on Fillal Support Laws and the enforcement Practices for laws requiring adult children to pay for indigent parents.

Her abstract states:

April 19, 2012

Law Review Article on Digital Assets & Estate Planning

by David M. Goldman

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 and then discussing issues in estate planning created by digital assets.

It goes on to talk about how websites are dealing with digital assets and privacy acts as the relate to deceased users with social networking, web-based email, blogs and other online content.

April 11, 2012

Slayer Statute and Asset Protection in Probate

by David M. Goldman

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 with the slayer statute is that the effect of the statute does not take place until there is either a criminal or civil conviction. It is possible to make changes to the ownership of the assets prior to a court determination that the slayer statute applies. While there are some safeguards in place to prevent those with knowledge from profiting from these types of transfers, there appears to be certain situations where one could protect the assets prior to such a determination. I have not seen any case-law where this has been challenged and do not know what the outcome would be but like with many asset protection techniques, it can put someone in a better position to negotiate if there are any funds or asset left.

One recent case in South Florida involved a beneficiary of a trust. This individual adopted his girlfriend so that she would be a legal beneficiary of the trust. While it does not appear that these asset would have been subject to a slayer statute claim, it is the type of planning that we are referring to and can create the desired results through creative planning.

April 5, 2012

Florida Asset Protection Update

by David M. Goldman

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 within 4 years of its occurrence.

A Fraudulent Transfer occurs when you transfer an asset to put it outside the reach of a creditor.

A Fraudulent Conveyance occurs when you transfer an asset for less than full value and this causes harm to a potential creditor.

March 28, 2012

Effects of Splitting Anniuty can be Harsh!

by David M. Goldman

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 a high yielding annuity that has a 10% surrender charge as well as a 10% additional tax penalty for removing funds early.

If your incremental income is taxed at 35% and you had to pay a 10 % penalty and 10% surrender charge, you could lose over 50% of the assets value to taxes and penalties. In addition, it may be hard to achieve the returns that many older higher yielding annuities are earning.

If you find yourself in such a situation, you may want to see if you can swap assets so that you can keep the annuity but pay the other party their share of its value without the penalty and tax consequences.

March 5, 2012

Attempt to Avoid Probate Earns Medicaid Applicant Penalty Period

by David M. Goldman

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 owned funds to an account with joint tenants is a common way to avoid a Florida Probate.

While her estate planning attorney seems to have given the advice, he was not aware of the problems that estate planning techniques to avoid probate can have on Medicaid eligibility.

Not only can transfers like this have problems for the individual making the transfer, but they can also create problems for the beneficiary or the new co-owner who will now have additional assets in their name, that may disqualify them from government benefits like Medicaid.

November 30, 2011

2012 Florida Mediaid Eligibility Requirements

by David M. Goldman

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 applicant for Medicaid has income in excess of $2094, they may use a Qualified Income Trust or Miller Trust to help the applicant qualify for Florida Medicaid Benefits under the Medicaid Asset Test.