Estate Planning

July 18, 2012

How to Avoid Probate in Florida

Thumbnail image for last-will-and-testament-document-with-gavel-and-pen-58750624.jpg With a little careful planning, you may be able to avoid the probate question all together. Avoiding probate saves money and greatly reduces the strain placed on your family by time in court. A meeting with an estate-planning attorney can help you figure out how to structure your estate so that probate is not necessary, no matter how large the value of the estate. The following is a list of estate-planning tools that can help you avoid having to go through the probate process. Be careful replying on some of these because they may expose you to unnecessary risk of loss of the assets due to litigation. If you are interested in protecting assets and avoiding probate contact us to discuss your specific needs.

1. Living Trusts: Living trusts (also called an “inter vivos” trust) is a trust that is created while you are alive, rather than one created upon your death. Living trusts are great vehicles to avoid the lengthy and expensive probate process.

2. Joint Ownership: If you own property jointly with someone else, and this ownership includes the “right of survivorship,” then the surviving owner automatically owns the property when the other owner dies. An asset that is owned by two or more people in joint tenancy is not required to go through probate.

July 16, 2012

Should I receive regular payments from a Trust as a Beneficiary?

by David M. Goldman

Beneficiaries or people who think they are beneficiaries of trusts often ask up if they should receive regular payments or distributions from a trust. As with most legal issues the answers “depends on the circumstances and what the documents state”.

Without reviewing your trust to determine if it is a revocable trust, revocable trust that has become irrevocable, or an irrevocable trust as well who the beneficiaries it is difficult to tell whether you are entitled to anything.

Sometimes people think they are beneficiaries when they are contingent beneficiaries and have no rights until a triggering event occurs. Often that is the death of the person who created the trust or their spouse.

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:

July 10, 2012

Should you make a gift in 2012 and avoid Gift Tax on $5.12 Million

by David M. Goldman

December 31 the 5 Million Dollar gift tax exemption is set to expire and revert back to 1 Million dollars. This is separate from the $13,000 annual gift exclusion. There is a relatively small percentage of the population that this can make a difference for. Even for those who could take advantage of it, many are not so eager to give away the money just to reduce their future estate tax bill. Many older people feel that they will not have enough to live on if they give away the funds.

The deadline for making such a gift is rapidly approaching as it can take several weeks to prepare document to deal with the issues correctly.

There are ways of making the gifts so that exposure to creditors is limited. Some ways of making the gift are in the form of cash, in trust, as part of a business, or a combination of the above.

July 6, 2012

Frequent estate-planning mistakes in Jacksonville.

by David M. Goldman

Thumbnail image for pigbank.jpg While there are many mistakes people can make while planning their estates, a recent column on Forbes.com, lists some of the errors most frequently encountered.

1. Not having a Florida Estate Plan

Not having a will or trust means that at your death the distribution of your assets will be dictated by the inheritance laws of the state where you were domiciled, likely Florida. These “intestacy laws” leave a percentage of assets to various members of your family. While there’s a small chance that the laws will accomplish what you wanted, that’s unlikely. Your will applies to the disposition of your “probate assets,” those things that are not following a beneficiary designation. Non-probate assets will pass by operation of law or contract. For example, whoever the beneficiary designation was when you originally began your 401(k) or IRA will override either your will or the laws of intestacy. This could easily lead to distribution of your assets to people you may not anticipate.

July 5, 2012

How does a Florida living will work?

by David M. Goldman

In Florida a living will can contain an advance medical directive. A living will is a statement of your wishes for the kind of life-sustaining medical intervention you want, or don’t want, in the event that you become terminally ill and unable to communicate. A living will is typically used by people to identify the point at which they no longer desire certain types of life-prolonging medical treatment. The Advanced medical directive can also lay out an individual’s desire for continuation of treatment in the even that the individual is unable to communicate their desires or but is not in one of the predefined terminal medical states that they have already communicated their desires in relation to medical care.

Living wills are very important legal documents with legal power. Assuming the proper procedure has been followed, a patient’s wishes are taken very seriously, and a living will is one of the best ways to have a say in your medical care when you can’t express yourself otherwise.

Once your living will has been drafted, make sure it’s signed and on file with your Florida estate planning attorney. You should also provide a copy to:

July 1, 2012

Florida Wills Must Be in Writing

by Patricia Davis

Although your parents have for years been telling you (and anyone else who will listen) that they are leaving their home to you, if they don’t put their words in writing, you WILL NOT get their home upon their death. In Florida, Wills Must Be in Writing, the Florida Statutes are clear about this. If someone dies and has not left a writing evidencing wishes as to how his/her belongings are to be distributed, then the estate is distributed according to the Intestacy statute.

In the Florida case In Estate of Corbin v. Sherman, the First District Court of Appeal considered a written will which contained the following language,”I give, bequeath and devise all of my estate of whatsoever kind and nature to Betty Sherman to dispose of as she has been instructed to do by me”.

The Court concluded that the language in this clause, “clearly attempts to devise the decedent’s property to Ms. Sherman for Sherman to distribute according to oral instructions from the decedent.” As Florida does not recognize oral wills, the court likewise, invalidated this Will.

June 5, 2012

Planning for Pets who are Part of Your Family: Can a Pet Trust help?

by David M. Goldman

Is your pet a member of your family? If so, you will want to read this article. Do you know what would happen to your pet if something happened to you? Many pet owners have not considered the fate of their pet. After all your pet state laws have not created provisions for you pets to the same extent as they have for your children. Pets in Florida and most states are considered personal property and are dealt with as such.

If you become disabled or die, who will take care of your pets, who will pay for their food, shelter, doctor bills? Who will receive them? Do you want the same person who receives your other personal property to get your pet?

These are some of the issues that pet owners should deal with to create plans for the case where your pet survives you and your spouse.

May 23, 2012

Florida Appellate Court Adds New Requirement for Trust Contestants

by David M. Goldman

The Fourth District Court of Appeals recently handed down a decision which may impose new requirements on probate plaintiffs who are challenging trusts. In Pasquale, Jr. v. Loving, et. al., the Court held that if a person is contesting a trust, the contestant must also contest the will if the trust is incorporated by reference into the will.

The plaintiffs filed a complaint with the probate court challenging trust documents that accompanied a last will and testament. The complaint did not address the last will and testament directly. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint because the defendant’s argued that the plaintiff’s complaint did not attack the will, which was required since the trust was incorporated into the last will by reference. “In other words, the Defendants argued that even if the Plaintiffs were somehow successful in overturning the Trust instruments, the Will would still govern per its incorporation of the overturned Trust into the Will.” The probate court agreed with the defendant’s and dismissed the probate suit with prejudice.

The Fourth District Court of Appeals reversed the probate court’s ruling, even though the language of the appeal suggested that the Court agreed with the defendant’s reasoning. The Court held that a trust contestant is required to challenge the will if the trust is incorporated into the will by reference, but when the Court analyzed the facts of this case, it held that the complaint could be construed as challenging the will even though the precise language is missing.

April 27, 2012

Florida Nursing Home Penalty Divisor Update 2012 by DCF

by David M. Goldman

It has been many years since the regional divisor has been updated. For the last several years the penalty period was calculated using an outdated nursing home cost of $5000. As of now, the divisor has been raised from $5000 to $6880 in Florida (Florida Administrative Code)

What does this mean? If one does property planning, they can give away $6880 and only have a 1 month penalty. This becomes important when doing planning for individuals who have nursing home exposure.

This will significantly increase the amount of money most people could save by doing elder law planning in Florida. As you age it is important to consider both Florida Estate Planning and elder law when structuring your plan.