Asset Protection

September 9, 2011

Protecting the Family Vacation Home

Florida asset protection for homestead- House.jpg Often families have vacation property that has been owned for may years or generations. It would be virtually impossible for most children to acquire or maintain these types of properties in today’s market.

We often use business entities or trusts to hold title to the property and other assets to help provide for the management and expense of owning and operating a vacation home. When the property is going to be inherited by more than one child or family. An operating agreement or trust agreement can provide rules for handling allocation of time, and expenses among the children and their families.

If you have a family beech or lake home or a ski lodge you may want to talk with a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer about how to protect the property from your creditors, the creditors of your children, and disputes between your children regarding the use and expense sharing of the home in the future.

September 9, 2011

TBE Bank Accounts and Asset Protection

by David M. Goldman

When protecting one’s assets in Forida a Florida Asset Protection Lawyer will often look at the stying of accounts and other personal property.

There are situations when having a Bank account in the name of a husband and wife as tenants by the entireties can offer additional protection from creditors. In Florida if you open joint bank account or certificate of deposit (CD) and the joint owners are the husband and wife, the account will have the benefits of a tenants by the entireties account. The statute seems to allow for husband AND wife as well as husband OR wife and does not indicate any issues as to when or how the account was opened or if a spouse was added at a later time. Florida Statute 655.29(1) is very limited and does not establish TBE status on other types of accounts or personal property that you may own. It is important to review the way in which you hold title to your personal property to make sure you will be afforded creditor protection.

655.29(1) Unless otherwise expressly provided in a contract, agreement, or signature card executed in connection with the opening or maintenance of an account, including a certificate of deposit, a deposit account in the names of two or more persons shall be presumed to have been intended by such persons to provide that, upon the death of any one of them, all rights, title, interest, and claim in, to, and in respect of such deposit account, less all proper setoffs and charges in favor of the institution, vest in the surviving person or persons. Any deposit or account made in the name of two persons who are husband and wife shall be considered a tenancy by the entirety unless otherwise specified in writing.

August 26, 2011

Protecting Assets From a Florida Divorce using an IPUG Trust

by David M. Goldman

In Florida, all marital assets are subject to equitable distribution. If you leave assets to your children in a revocable trust, they can also be at risk to equitable distribution depending on the circumstances and how they are used. If you create an Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust (IPUG) and leave assets to your children in their own IPUG they will remain separate property and are only subject to alimony and child support as a last resort. Generally these assets will be protected as separate property in the case of a divorce which occurs in around 50% of all marriages.

To discuss how an IPUG trust can protect assets from your creditors and those of your beneficiaries, contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your circumstances and goals.

August 17, 2011

Revocable Living Trusts: Are they now obsolete?

by David M. Goldman

Currently the Revocable Living Trust is the most popular type of trust for estate planning. With the current estate tax exemption at 5 Million dollars, many have begun to ask if there is a need for such a trust. More over the Revocable Living Trust provides no asset protection.

Currently 99.7% of the US population has less than 5 Million in Assets. While a Revocable Living Trust can offer privacy, probate avoidance, easier management of one’s assets, and numerous other benefits, it does not offer any asset protection. Many people really want an irrevocable trust, but do not want the consequences of the traditional irrevocable trust. While there are many types of irrevocable trusts, most either cause a loss of control over the assets by the grantor, loose the stepped up basis, or cause the trust to pay taxes at the highest tax rate with as little as $11,000 in earnings.

There are variations of the irrevocable trust that can solve one or more of these issues, but there is only one type of Irrevocable Trust that has the flexibility of a revocable trust, provides asset protection from the creditors of the creators as well as the beneficiaries, allows the income to be taxed at personal rates, and provides for stepped up basis upon the death of the creator.

August 16, 2011

What is the Difference Between Medicare and Medicaid in Florida?

by David M. Goldman

They sound similar. Unfortunately many people do not understand the differences between the two. Most people think Medicare will “care” for them forever but, that is simply not the case.

While Medicare and Medicaid sound similar, they are very different government programs. Medicare provides healthcare benefits for the over 65, blind, and disabled; while Medicaid provides medical benefits for the impoverished.

Medicare is a basically public health insurance for those age 65 and older. Medicare does not pay for long-term care! It will cover some rehabilitation and this is often confused with long-term care.. If a senior citizen has Medicare and is hospitalized for a stay of at least three days, and is then admitted into a skilled nursing facility, Medicare may pay – for a while. But once those Medicare benefits hit 100 consecutive days or the patient stops improving the coverage is over.

August 15, 2011

Florida IPUG Trust Lawyer and the Birth of the Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust

by David M. Goldman

Asset protection is one of the most important planning tools for America’s aging population, especially in our current tumultuous economy. One new tool in protecting your assets is the Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust — AKA, the iPug™.

iPug™ trusts are not based on any state statute, but are instead grounded in century-old and well established common law. This means more stability in courts and more peace of mind for those who opt to use an iPug™ trust. In fact, the iPug™ is beneficial for nearly all Americans. This is because the iPug™ is taxed as a grantor trust, meaning the taxes are passed through to the grantor — the trust itself is not individually taxed. This is beneficial for anyone with assets valued at less than $5 million — i.e., over 99% of Americans.

There are three types of iPug™ trusts:

(1) the income-only version,

August 14, 2011

What is an IPUG Trust?

by David M. Goldman

While most people feel they have to be super rich to use Asset Protection trusts an IPUG™ Trust is a Self-Settled Asset Protection Trust for that makes sense for regular people and offers Medicaid compliance that works in all states. It protects client assets from creditors, predators and nursing homes, while permitting the grantor to be trustee and have customized access.

The iPug™ Trust was created by utilizing universal, fundamental trust and common law principles dating back to the statute of uses and are not reliant or dependent upon state or federal specific asset protection laws. “In essence, the iPug™ Trust is an Irrevocable Grantor Trust for income and estate tax purposes.

Why is this important to most Americans? The IPUG™ Trust not only provides advantageous tax benefits but it also provides asset protection. Most Irrevocable trusts do not provide the beneficiaries with a full step-up in basis and allow the grantor to control the funds.

July 28, 2011

DAP Trust: Dealing with your Digital / Online Rights and Propert Correctly.

by David M. Goldman

Today there is a big hole in most estate plans. Most estate plans do not deal with the property and licence rights that almost all Americans have accumulated with their online lives.

What online assets should be concerned with?

Email Accounts – Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Comcast, AOL …

July 25, 2011

Other Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer Blogs and related Sites

by David M. Goldman

Over the past several years the Law Office of David M. Goldman PLLC has expanded into several additional practice areas. As these practice areas grown we have been adding staff and creating more informational blogs to help consumers and our clients understand some of the common legal issues. May of our current readers do not realize that we cover these additional practice areas so I wanted to take a moment to update you with them:

For those of you who use an iPhone, we are trying to make some of the information and resources available through our new

Law Office of David M. Goldman PLLC iPhone Application.

July 18, 2011

Taking Advantage of the Florida Housing Market with a LLC

by David M. Goldman

By now, it is impossible to not know of the terrible housing market within the state of Florida with all the news of foreclosure and the like. There are many people that are in a are underwater in terms of home values. However, there are also some people taking advantage of the current housing market. These people are entrepreneurs looking to buy properties on short sale or at foreclosure auctions.

These entrepreneurs are working out of their own homes and likely seeing some profits through renting the newly acquired properties. Only some of these entrepreneurs are fully taking advantage of the asset protection options available to them. One of the main advantages is forming a multiple member limited liability company or LLC in Florida. It is reasonable that one entrepreneur would own about three properties. The entrepreneur could have each property owned by a separate LLC so as to minimize his risk of liability if an accident were to happen to a tenant in one of the properties. In that case, that tenant would likely be able to access the assets of that one LLC instead of all of them.

In order to provide yourself with this advantage and to realize other benefits that may apply to your situation, you should contact a Jacksonville Business Formation lawyer to assist you in setting up a Florida LLC. Take advantage of the Florida housing market today by setting up a LLC by calling 904-685-1200 to talk to an Florida Asset Protection Lawyer . Also, you can find more information on LLC’s and other asset protection vehicles online by clicking on the areas under the “Business Formation Practice Area” section of the webpage hyperlinked to in this sentence.