Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

In my previous life, I had a license to build Apple Clones. It is for this reason that I have been watching the actions of a Florida Company, Psystar, Inc. They have been installing Apple, Inc.'s most recent operating system on generic computers and selling them to the public as "Apple Clones". Apple's software license states that its software can only be installed on computers which were preinstalled with a previous version of Apple's operating system. Apple started including this provision when it switched from version 7.6 to the 8.0 version. An even that effectively ended cloning back in the late 1990's.

At that time my company PowerTools also purchased retail copies of the current operating system and installed them on our Apple Clone Computers. That is we installed version 8.0 of the Operating System on our Apple Clones which were licensed for version 7.6 of the Macintosh OS. Unline Psystar, PowerTools' clone had a legal version of the Macintosh OS preinstalled. Because of this Apple "allegedly" went to our supplier and had our OEM agreement terminated.

This is why I have been so interested in what Psystar has been doing. It appears to be a clear violation of the Macintosh operating system license.

It will be interesting to see Psystar's explanation of why they believe they can use the Mac OS in violation of the licensing agreement.

The Gray Blog first reported news of the suit against Pystar.

Posted by David M. Goldman | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Business Law

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In Florida as with most states, Estate Planning is something that needs to be addressed when one has major changes in their life. This includes divorce and separation.

You only have to think about your spouse or ex-spouse getting all of your assets if you should die to realize the importance of addressing the issue.

In the last year I have seen a number of families who have been adversely affected because of a lack of planning. Several couples were separated for many years when one died and the estranged spouse received a significant portion of the estate. In Florida, even if you change you will to disinherit your spouse, the spouse is entitled to an elective share of your estate. This is equal to 30 percent of your entire estate. If you are divorced in theory, go ahead and file the paperwork to make it official.

When you get a divorce, be sure to change payable of death designations on your retirement accounts, life insurance, bank accounts.

Be sure to revoke any guarantees associated with credit established in both of your names. Change the way property is owned, even if you plan on selling it soon.

The 401(k)s is also a non-probate assets also, but be careful because ERISA, a federal law, protects a surviving spouse. I have seen children loose their parents life insurance because their parent never finalized the divorce and made changes when they separated from their spouse decades ago. If you are getting a divorce be sure that proper paperwork to change the designations is made part of the divorce or separation agreement.

Unless your Florida Divorce Lawyer is also a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer, it is best to have a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Contact and work with your Florida Divorce Attorney.

Posted by David M. Goldman | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Beneficiary , Elective Share , Estate Planning , Family Allowance , Life Insurance Trust , Probate , Wills

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What happens if you are in the middle of a partition to divide or sell property and one of the owners dies?

The pending action is has no force and effect on the ownership. What doest this mean? If you own property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship and you want to partition the property but die in the middle of the court action, the other joint tenant will own the entire property.

A recent 1st DCA case Mercurio v. Headrick, WL 2434193 (Fla. 1st DCA Jun 18, 2008) has the expected outcome that all attorney's learn in their first year property course. In addition many other states have reached similar opinions but Florida had not seen this issue before. The Florida Probate Litigation Blog has an in depth article on this case.

What should you do if you find yourself in this situation? You should convey your property to break the joint tenancy with right of survivorship prior to bringing the action. The benefit in doing this is that should you die during the action, your heirs or family will not loose the entire value of the property.

To learn how to do this properly in Florida Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

Posted by David M. Goldman | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Beneficiary , Estate Planning , Probate

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Google Health just began offering personal health records on the Web. They are joining WebMD, Microsoft, and Revolution Health.

These services are designed to help consumers manage their health care and medical spending records.

Google record allows users to send personal information to some clinics or to pull records from the clinic into the Google personal file. One clinic that has begun working with Google is the Cleveland Clinic.

As of the launch, more than two dozen companies announced a partnership with Google Health. Some of the companies include Walgreens, CVS, the American Heart Association, Quest Diagnostics, Beth Israel, Deaconess Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic.

If you plan to subscribe to a service like this make sure you deal with it in your Durable and Medical Powers of Attorney so that the benefit from these services is not lost by your subsequent incapacity.

To discuss how to integrate these services into your Florida Estate planning documents Contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer.

Posted by David M. Goldman | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Digital Asset Trust , Durable Power of Attorney , Estate Planning , Health Care Surrogate , Living Will

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