Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

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

Florida Medicaid Asset Limits as of 1/1/2012.

For an individual who is not married, the Applicant can only have $2000 in countable assets. This number is unchanged from 2011.

For an Applicant who is married, their Spouse's Asset limits have increased from $109,560 in 2011 to $113,640 as of 1/1/2012.

If you have more than the maximum assets, we can talk about how to convert countable assets to exempt assets, spend the money appropriately or plan for gifting, loans, or Medicaid compliant Annunites to allow you to qualify even if you have signifiantly more assets than the maximum.

Florida Medicaid Homestead Equity Limits as of 1/1/2012.

An Applicant for Florida Medicaid can have $525K in homestead equity. This value has increased from the $506K which was allowable in 2011. If your home has more than the maximum value of equity, there are ways to reduce the amount of equity to allow you to qualify for Florida Medicaid.

if you or a family memeber will be looking for Florida Medicaid Benefits, you should consult with a Florida Medicaid Lawyer before you apply for coverage to protect excess income or assets and allow you to qualify properly. Many of these techniques can still be used even if the family member is already in a nursing home.

As you or your family members age, it is important to review your Florida Estate Planning Documents with somone who is familiar with Elder law and estate planning because many of the techiniques used for estate planning can cause problems when applying for Florida Medicaid Benefits

While many of you may be thinking that fewer Florida Probate cases will involve federal estate tax returns in 2011, the opposite is actually true. It seems with the new $5 Million estate tax exemption that most estates will not need to file a tax return. What most people do not realize is that by failing to file an estate tax return in 2010 (Form 706) the spouse of a decedent will lose the portability of the unused portion of the estate tax exemption that is available to the surviving spouse. Form 706 was just released by the IRS and if you know someone who passed away in 2011, you should have them ask their CPA or Tax Attorney about the benefits of filing a Form 706 and the risks and potential tax liabilities if one is not filed.

I recently updated the Free Florida Probate Handbook to deal with many of the changes from this year's legislature. If you have a preivous copy or would like an undated verstion please let us know by requesting on this page.

Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (DAPT) have become the latest rage in estate planning and asset protection. We have generally found that there are better ways of protecting assets from creditors by using traditional estate planning that has case-law history.

In a recent US bankruptcy case, a DAPT was invalidated and the 10-year bankruptcy statute of limitations in regards to trusts was upheld. This was an Alaskan case using an Alaskan DAPT but similar results should be expected in other jurisdictions.

If you are interested in Florida Asset Protection or Asset Protection in Jacksonville, contact a Florida Asset Protection Lawyer to discuss your circumstances and options that are available to help protect your assets from creditors or increase the ability to negotiate with creditors.

I recently had a client inquiry with us regarding the transfer of real property which was upside down or had negative equity. Typically when one transfers property of value to another to avoid a creditor's reach, the creditor can seek to have the transaction reversed under the theory of a fraudulent transfer.

Florida statute 726.102 seems to define assets which are subject to this to only include those which have a value on the date of transfer. If the property had a negative equity, it would appear that a future increase in value would not subject the property to the fraudulent transfer statutes. Given this a property transferred when there was no equity in the property should be protected if the property's value later increased. There does not appear to be any case-law that is directly on topic and of course there is no guarantee that this would protect the asset. If you are trying to structure your assets for protection from creditors you should talk with a Jacksonville Asset Protection Lawyer to review your circumstances and what options you have.

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.

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.

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.

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 numberous 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.

While the IPUG: Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust defies the logic of most estate planners, it has been designed using common law, trust law, and tax law to provide Asset Protection, taxing at a personal level, the ability to control the income and principal, stepped up basis and even can even help in nursing home qualification or Medicaid eligibility.

If you would like to find out how you can upgrade your standard revocable trust or create a new Florida Asset Protection Trust, contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer that is knowledgeable about the Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust and how to structure it to accomplish your goals.

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 basicically 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 cofused 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.

Often Medicare will not even provide coverage for the full 100 days. For the coverage to continue there must be improvement, otherwise Medicarel cut you off. Many diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's have no known cure today, rehabilitation is not possible so Medicare will not provide coverage for a nursing home.

While Florida Medicaid is paid for by both federal and state funds it is run or administered by the state of Florida. This means that you cannot look to what happens in other states to decide what will work in Florida. Florida makes its own rules and adopts part of the federal guidlnes but gets to determine how it is implemented.

Short synopsis of the difference between Medicare and Medicaid

Medicare

Health insurance for seniors age 65+
Federally controlled, uniform application across the country
Pays for up to 100 days of nursing home care
Pays for primary hospital care and related medically necessary services
Must have contributed to Medicare system to be eligible and generally be over age 65

Medicaid

Needs-based health care program
Controlled state by state, which created different regulations in each state of application
Pays for long-term care
Pays for medications
Must meet income and asset limits to be eligible and be over 65, disabled, or blind

If you or a loved one need help qualifing for Medicaid or a Nursing home coverage ask a Jacksonville Medicaid Planning Lawyer how and IPUG trust may help you save assets and qualify early for Medicaid assistance.

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,
(2) the control-only version, and
(3) the third-party version.

In the income-only version, the grantor of the trust gives up the rights to the assets he or she puts in the trust -- these assets are only available to the beneficiaries. However, the grantor retains the rights to any income the trust accumulates. One downside to this version of the trust is that creditors also have access to this profit, though they do not have access to the any other assets within the trust.

The control-only version of the trust gives the grantor full control over all assets and all income of the trust. Creditors cannot reach any of the assets therein, and the grantor can distribute the assets to anyone he or she chooses -- the only exception being the actual grantor.

Finally, the third-party version is where grantors create the trust for the benefit of a third party. Usually, this involves adult children creating the trust for their parents for their parents' lifetime. This version is primarily used when parents have already transfered assets to children but are affraid or concerned that if they need them, they might not have access to the asset. This version is created and the parents are named as the beneficiaries of the trust. Further, assets within the trust are protected from the children's creditors and are not affected by divorce.

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 beneficaries with a full step-up in basis and allow the grantor to control the funds.

With the increase in the estate tax exemption to $5 million the iPug™ will be usable by more than 99.5% of Americans.

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 ...
• Social Networking Sites - Facebook, Linked In, Google +, Twitter, MySpace ...
• Online Storage Accounts, iCloud, Carbonite, Drop Box, mac.com ...
• Financial Accounts - Bank accounts, Stock Accounts, Home Loans, Student Loans ...
• Photo Storage Accounts - Kodak, Flicker
• Personal or Company Websites and Blogs
• Online Businesses Accounts - Amazon, Walmart.com, Go Daddy.com, other online merchants.
• Auction Sites - Ebay
• Music and Application Accounts - iTunes, Amazon, Android ...
• Virtual Property - Second life, World of Warcraft, other role-playing identities
• Payment services - PayPal

Some of the major issues in dealing with Digital Assets we must first determine if we are dealing with a license or a property right. By definition, most licenses expire upon death so the right to asset does not exist when you die. Next you must determine how you will deal with these assets upon your death or prior to your death to preserve access, right of use, limit risks to users for damaging the estate for improper use, and transfer the assets. There are attempts to deal with these issues with software alone, a will, a trust, software and a will, and software with a trust.

One of the problems in dealing with these issues with software alone is that their may be no legal right for the person to access the items and the software may be in conflict with other legal documents like a will or trust.

The next major problem occurs with a legal document only. These can be broken down into two areas. First, the legal document may have no effect on an asset. IE a Will cannot generally transfer a license as it does not exist upon death. Next, the individual is unlikely to keep the legal documents up to date with instructions on how to access the account. In addition, the individuals are unlikely to update passwords as they change. The trend is to require monthly updates to the more secure sites.

What seems to be the best solution: A DAP Trust with integrated software that allows you to update and create beneficiary designations within the trust on the Fly.

If you have a Florida Estate Plan that does not address your digital life or would like to create a DAP Trust for your Digital Assets, Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who is familiar with Digital Asset Protection.

Over the past several years the Apple Law Firm 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 Apple Law Firm PLLC iPhone Application.

Our main Website is for the Apple Law Firm PLLC

The Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog covers a variety of topics focusing on Asset Protection, Estate Planning, Elder Law, Guardianship, and Probate

The NFA Gun Trust Lawyers Blog covers unique issues involved with estate planning, the purchase, possession, use, and transfer of firearms including those regulated by the National Firearms Act. Helps provide guidance on a National level through a network of over 150 lawyers in 43 states.

The Jacksonville Criminal Defense Lawyers Blog covers issues related to criminal defense, case-law updates, and legislative changes as they relate to protecting your rights from restrictions by the State of Florida dealing with your freedom.

The Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog covers issues in Florida and around the country that help homeowners protect their home which is often their single biggest purchase. While we write on topics that have relevance to the entire state, our practice area focuses on the counties surrounding Duval or the City of Jacksonville and its surrounding area.

The Jacksonville DIvorce Attorney Blog covers topics relating to your family life, marriage, divorce, child custody, support and guardianship. Many of the articles help our clients to understand what can happen in these very emotional times and how slight differences in the circumstances can make a significant difference.

The Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer Blog covers issues relating to injury and compensation for the negligence of others. This is our newest blog and will be launching in the next few weeks.

The Jacksonville Bankruptcy Lawyers Blog covers topics related to bankruptcy and specific circumstances that may allow one to qualify for certain exemptions and benefits afforded under the Federal bankruptcy Code.

We hope you enjoy our postings and take the time to visit some of out other blogs that cover different Florida legal issues as over 50,000 people a month do. If you have a question regarding one of these area or something involving a legal issues in Florida, please Contact us and one of the lawyers in that practice area will respond.

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.