Articles Posted in Living Trust / Revocable Trust

It is a common mistake many people make to believe that only the rich and wealthy need to implement a Florida Revocable Trust as a component of their Florida Estate Planning. Often after taking into account your home, bank accounts, cars, brokerage accounts, jewelry, collectibles, and life insurance policy most individuals will see their estate is much larger than they believed. Without proper utilization of Florida Estate Planning tools such as a Florida Revocable Trust, this amount can be subject to high costs associated with the Florida Probate process and potentially federal estate taxes or death taxes. While there are no Federal or Florida estate taxes in 2010, the annual exclusion is expected to drop in 2011. Many believe we could see only a 1 million dollar exclusion in 2011.

There can be many advantages of using a Florida Revocable Trust for you estate planning needs rather than a Florida Will. First, privacy is an advantage offered by a living trust but not a will because after death wills are publicly recorded and copies may be viewed or purchased. A second advantage is that a Florida Will often requires the expense and delay of Florida Probate. With the attorney fees, executor fees, and tax consequences involved with probate, thousands of dollars could be saved with a living trust.

A third advantage is control and to some extent the protection from creditors with the money and assets given to beneficiaries. Often your beneficiaries creditors are not be able to satisfy their debts from your trust funds when the trust is properly setup and managed. However, if the money were given outright in a Florida Will, creditors are be free to collect their debts with those funds. Another advantage worth noting is efficiency with which assets are distributed. Probate proceedings usually take between 6 months and 24 months. Throughout these proceedings the assets are usually tied up and cannot be enjoyed by the beneficiary.

A valid Florida Living Trust or Florida Revocable Trust includes three typical positions that most individuals can occupy.

Each Trust should have a grantor, trustee and beneficiary at the time the Florida Revocable Trust is created. The grantor, sometimes called the settlor, is the person who originally sets up the trust and usually supplies the initial trust property. A trustee is the manager of the trust, but does not receive any benefits of the trust (as the trustee). The Trustee has a responsibility and duty to take care of the trust assets for the beneficiary. The original beneficiary is typically the grantor, but a trust must also designate a beneficiary who is different than the grantor in the event of the grantor’s death. This beneficiary is also the person who will receive the benefit of the trust and receives the benefits of the trust after the death of the grantor.

Although there are three different positions, one person can serve in more than one capacity. However, there should be some separation of the legal title and equitable title. This can be done by having more than one beneficiary or more than one trustee. Otherwise, the trust purpose of holding property for the benefit of another would be defeated. As long as there are at least two people named in the Florida Trust, a separation of legal and equitable title has occurred.

In many cultures it is important to parents that their children marry into their religion. Orthodox Jews often disinherit their children and will even stop speaking to them if they marry outside the Jewish religion. While public policy will not permit a provision in a Florida Will or Florida Revocable Trust or prevent a person from getting married, it is ok to withhold a inheritance from a child or relative if they marry outside the religion. This type of provision needs to be written carefully so that it does not violate Florida state law or public policy.

If the provision is written incorrectly it will be stricken from the Florida Will or Florida Revocable Trust.

If you want to provide provisions in your Florida Estate Planning Documents to encourage certain behaviors, you should contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your desires and help you create a plan to achieve your desired result.

Florida Revocable Trust’s as well as those created in other states often have language that provides for the health, education, maintenance, and support of our spouses and children. Recently I was reading an article written by a CA Estate Planning Lawyer and firearms instructor on providing firearms training as an option within the definition of education. David R. Duringer wrote an article entitled Does the Definition of Education in Your Revocable Trust Allow for Firearms Training? and while it is a short article and only deals with firearms education, it got me thinking about other types of education and training that may be important to your beneficiaries or family tradition that you may want to include in your traditional revocable trust. Obviously this is something that would make sense to provide for in a NFA Gun Trust or a firearms trust designed specifically for firearms. In David’s article he goes on to state

Such training can provide your children with the comfort of skill at arms so they can protect themselves and their own children, and furthermore, passes on American values necessary to preserve political independence of families in our society. Other benefits of such training can include increased personal responsibility and lower juvenile delinquency rates.

You may even want to go further with an incentive trust provision actually requiring this training, possibly with achievement standards.

Whether your passion is firearms, golf, tennis, a musical instrument, or anything else its important to discuss this with your Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to draft documents that reflect your goals and help achieve your families desires.

Most people would not believe that a family pet needs to be subjected to the Florida Probate process, but Florida Law defines animals as personal property and as such are subject to probate just like other personal property. Fortunately we can create provisions in our Florida Revocable Trust to deal with our animals or at least to own them so that they are not subjected to probate. If you want to provide for more than an easy transfer of the ownership of the animals, you might consider pet trust provisions to allow for the care of the animal in the event they survive you.

Next time you talk with your Florida Estate Planning Lawyer ask them about your pet and how they will be dealt with if you were to die.