Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

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.

Does the term " Florida Estate Planning" evoke thoughts of the very rich standing by their Bentleys in front of their massive estates? Maybe the term should simply be Planning, because no matter who you are or how much you own, Everyone needs "Estate" Planning

Everyone has a Florida Estate, no matter how large or small. One's estate is simply the possessions or property you have acquired, inherited, and worked for during your life. There are generally three types of property that comprise one's estate, these are:

Real Property - Your home, land, houses or other structures on land;

Tangible Personal Property - Property other than real estate that has a value due to its physical existence, such as motor vehicles, boats, furniture, antiques . . . and;

Intangible Personal Property - Property that you cannot touch, but that has a value due to the legal rights you hold. Examples include stock certificates, promissory notes, copyrights, patents and other "intellectual" property.

Everyone has an estate, but most people have not planned what happens to their estate in the future. Estate planning is the process where you decide and put in writing what you want to happen to your estate in the future, and to whom you want your estate to pass once you have passed. Estate planning is easy, contact a Jacksonville Beach Estate Planning Attorney to schedule a consult and discuss the ways you can "Estate Plan". Whether you prepare a Will, establish a Trust, or have other legal documents prepared, estate planning puts in writing how you want your real, tangible and intangible property distributed upon your death.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), was adopted by Congress in 1996. On December 20, 2011 the the federal law banning openly gay people from serving in the military is repealed.

The President, Defense Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman signed and submitted a one-page certification to Congress that the military is ready to implement the repeal of DADT.

Nearly two million troops have received training in preparation for the repeal of DADT. The Department of Defense stated that sexual orientation is a personal and private matter and that all service members should be treated with dignity and respect. The Defense Undersecretary reported that there will be "zero tolerance for harassment, violence or discrimination of any kind."

Eligibility benefits remain the same as far as service-members being able to choose their beneficiary for benefits, however the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) still prohibits the extension of many military benefits to same-sex couples, including health care and allowances for housing and transportation.

As a Mayport Estate Planning Attorney, I recommend that Mayport gay and lesbian service members consult with an attorney to learn the various ways that legal documents will protect them and their families. Same-sex couples currently lack many federal government protections afforded to heterosexual couples. The best way to provide for your same-sex partner is to draft Florida estate planning and other documents, such as your will, a trust, health care surrogate, power of attorney, and other similar documents.

Florida law does not provide for your same-sex partner, no matter how long you have been together. As a Florida gay and lesbian member of the armed forces who serves our county, serve yourself as well. Continue to protect the U.S.A and begin to protect yourself and your same-sex partner.

REASONS TO HAVE YOUR FLORIDA WILL PREPARED:

IT'S YOUR WAY: You decide who inherits from you. If you die without a Florida Will the Florida's intestacy statute directs how your property and assets are divided and distributed.

Florida intestacy laws DO NOT provide for non-family members. Unless you draft a Florida Will, your partner will not inherit from you.

YOUR CHILDREN: If you have minor children, you nominate who is to become their legal guardian (the guardian you choose will still have to be approved by the judge). However, your nomination will by duly noted by the court and receive priority if qualified.

YOUR NON-BIOLOGICAL CHILDREN: In order for your child to inherit from a non-legal or non-biological parent, that parent must prepare a will in Florida.

LEAVING TO CHARITY: You can give money or personal property to the charities of your choice; the state will not distribute your property to charity.

BELOVED PETS: You can provide for the continued care of your pet after you are gone.

FAMILY SQUABBLES: Reduce the risk of dissension by providing clear directions as to how you want your property distributed. (Ask us how a Florida Trust may reduce the risk further)

PARTNER BURDEN: If you pass away without a will, you leave a burdensome job to your Partner, Spouse or other Close Personal Friend. They are already mourning your death, don't make this time more difficult as they settle your personal affairs.

FAMILY DISSENT: If your family has been non-supportive and disapproving of your same-sex relationship, preparing a valid will is important in the event of a will contest. A penalty clause for a will contest is unenforceable in Florida.

To learn about having your will prepared, or how a Florida revocable trust might benefit you, as well as how other legal documents will protect you, your partner and family contact me, a Jacksonville Beaches Estate Planning Attorney and let's sit down and talk.

In order for a person to attempt to reform a trust, that person must "have standing." This designation refers to a person who has an interest in the trust. This person can be a trustee, beneficiary, or a trustee and beneficiary. A settlor, the creator of the trust, gets to pick who will be designated in the other positions. While the settlor is still alive, he or she generally serves as trustee for that trust, and names a successor trustee to step in when he or she dies or becomes incapacitated.

The "interested parties" all have the power individually to petition a court to reform the trust. There are multiple reasons for trying to reform a trust, but which ever reason the interested party chooses as a basis for the reformation, the result must comply with both the current law and the original settlor's intent.

The settlor's intent is usually the trickiest to prove in court. If you have found yourself in a position where you believe a trust that you are involved in needs to be reformed, you should contact either a Florida Trust attorney to correctly set up your trust, or a Florida Trust Contests attorney who specializes in the aspects of litigation.

If you are a married person in the State of Florida and have not created a Florida Will or Florida Revocable Trust you should fully understand what will happen to your assets when you die.

Previously in Florida, if a husband or wife passed away with only children belonging to the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse would receive the first $60,000 of the decedents probate estate, while the rest was split equally between the surviving spouse and the children or their heirs.

Governor Scott signed the Florida Law on June 21st. The new Florida Law gives everything to the surveying spouse (where one has passed away without a will and is survived only by a spouse and children of that marriage).

The reasoning for this rests behind the thought that the surviving spouse will "take care" of his or her own natural children and so there is no need to split anything beyond $60,000.

The new law does not change what happens when the decedent had children from outside the marriage. If someone with a mixed family dies without a Florida Will, 50% of the estate goes to the surviving spouse with the other 50% automatically divided among the decedent's children or a deceased child's descendants.

On a positive note, married couples typically want their surviving spouse to receive 100% of the deceased's estate. However, if you would like to have a say in how your estate is divested, some action is necessary on your part.

One major concern with this is that as we age, the old law provided a mechanism to give assets to the kids without subjecting them to claims of nursing homes and medicaid eligibility of the surviving spouse. Now if you die without a will and your surviving spouse needs nursing home coverage, it may be more difficult to qualify given that there is a $2000 cap on the amount of assets a single person can have in Florida.

To Discuss your situation or speak with someone about your options Contact A Jacksonville Estate Planning Attorney by email or call anEstate Planning Lawyer in Jacksonville at 904-685-1200 to schedule a free consultation to discuss your options in dividing your estate the way you see fit.

Suppose your parents set up a tax planning Florida Revocable Trust with the assets being held for the kids in trust. Under the terms of the trust, the trustee is to distribute net income and principle as the trustee determines is necessary for education and support in reasonable comfort. If one of the kids is on Medicaid, many states will determine that they are ineligible for Medicaid because of the availability of funds, even if the trustee does not distribute them. It is important to create trusts with the proper language to deal with special needs and not make them ineligible for Medicaid. If you would like to review your situation or have a child with special needs you should contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your situation and goals.

Jacksonville Beach Residents, Atlantic Beach residents, erase your fear. Apple Law Firm has Estate Planning & Family Law Attorneys who focus on areas of law as it relates to the gay and lesbian community. Our beach doors are open.

Schedule a consult at our new beach office, located at 6th Avenue, Jacksonville Beach, with one of our Jacksonville Beach Estate Planning Attorneys who focuses on LGBT legal issues, to discuss the necessary legal documents in planning for your future, as well as the future of your domestic partner, children, and family.

Sad but true, the death of a grantor, trustor, or settlor of a trust fund may reign in the terror and unabashed greed of many trustees.

The Florida Trust Code provides that a Trustee of an irrevocable trust is required to keep beneficiaries of the trust fund informed about the trust and its administration. <a href="http://www.jacksonvillelawyer.pro/lawyer-attorney-1335101.html" target=new>Florida Revocable Trusts</a> become irrevocable upon the death of one or all of the grantors.  Florida Statutes also dictate that the trustee make available to all beneficiaries certain accountings which will among other things:

• Show all cash and property transactions and all significant transactions affecting administration during the accounting period, including compensation paid to the Trustee; and

• Reflect the allocation of receipts, disbursements, accruals, or allowances between income and principal when the allocation affects the interest of any beneficiary of the trust.

If you are a Qualified Beneficiary of a Florida Trust and believe you are not receiving the information you are entitled to from a Trustee, contact a Jacksonville Beach Trust Attorney who can discuss with you several options on how you can remedy your situation.

We have all experienced the disdain of families when they don't like the partners we choose in life. When you are a Florida gay man or lesbian living with a same-sex partner, simply being with a same-sex partner is all that is needed to gain the wrath of one's family.

If you are gay, with a disapproving family, it is time to consult with a St. Augustine Estate Planning Attorney. There are no inheritance rights provided in Florida for a same-sex couple. Therefore, it is important to consult with a legal professional as to the options for providing for your life-partner.

An effective legal document is a Revocable Living Trust. A revocable living trust allows you to manage your assets during your life and distribute the remaining assets per your wishes after your death. You maintain control over the trust and can modify or terminate the trust during your lifetime, as long as you are competent to do so.

The benefit of a trust is that is is designed to avoid the probate process. A trust is much more difficult to contest or challenge (vs. a will). Your trust takes effect once you have established and funded it, and if you become disabled or die, your partner (or whoever you name as successor trustee) makes a smooth and easy transfer into the role as trustee of the trust.

It is still advisable to have a Will Attorney prepare your will in addition to the trust. A "pour over" will is designed to pass any property that is titled in your name only or that does not name a beneficiary, to automatically pass to the trust, thereby eliminating the need for the probate process.

When you have a blended family or children from different marriages it is very important to have estate planning that deals with the various possibilities. All to often the standard will or generic documents can produce undesired results.

Take for example a Husband and Wife who each have children from a prior marriage. Husband and wife each want to support each other in the even they pre-decease each other. The problem is created when the Husband dies first, and leaves everything to the wife. Now the wife dies and leave everything to her children, essentially disinheriting the husband's children.

There are several ways a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer can address these issues and achieve the desired results of the husband and wife.

Recently the 3rd DCA in the Florida case of Lorenzo v. Medina ruled that the anti-lapse statute must be strictly construed and that gifts to in-laws are not saved and lapse unlike a gift to a close family member.

This means a gift to a sister-in-law who predeceases the testator is not honored while a gift to a predeceased sister would go to her children. If you are involved with trying to save assets for the families of non-relatives you should talk with a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer how simple changes to your Florida Will or Florida Revocable Trust can ensure that your intentions are carried out.

When creating Florida Estate Planning Lawyer it is important to remember that once you create the documents your job is not done.

If you create a Florida Revocable Trust it is important to fund the trust or it will not provide one of the typical benefits of avoiding a Florida Probate. There are several ways of funding the trust and you should discuss these with your Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to see what makes the most sense for you and your family.

In addition, another common mistake is forgetting to make proper beneficiary designations on life insurance or retirement accounts. This is also something that needs to be carefully considered and implemented with the advise of your CPA and Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

Forgetting to make proper beneficiary designations on assets can subject your estate and beneficiaries to unnecessary taxes, expenses, and delays in the transfer of the assets. If you have a 401(k) you may consider moving the asset to an IRA for additional flexibility. This is something you should discuss with your financial planner as IRA distributions to a non-spouse can usually be spread over the lifetime of the oldest beneficiary instead of having to be taken within a year of your death. (Thanks to Jeff Goldstein a Financial Planner with New England Financial in Atlanta GA who is also licensed in Florida for making this recommendation).

If you have recently moved to Jacksonville or Florida and would like a complimentary review of your estate plan and your circumstances contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your options.

Over the past summer, Alaska has become one of a few states to allow pre-validation of a will. The state legislature also took the law a step farther and allowed trusts to be validated by the grantor before they pass away. In order to explain the new process it is essential to know how most states operate in the probate process. In Florida, if a beneficiary wishes to contest a will, the document must first be submitted to probate. The probate court will not allow probate proceedings to proceed unless the testator is deceased which eliminates the crucial witness of the document, the testator. For this reason, Florida subjects wills and trusts to a number of formalities in order to be deemed valid.

In their effort to reduce will challenges, the Alaska law allows the testator to accurately express their intentions before they die rather than allowing the process to occur afterward. The process first starts by notifying all interested parties and serving them with a copy of the will or trust. The parties then have a specific deadline for filing a challenge to the document, usually 3 to 4 months, before they permanently lose the chance to contest the will. If there is a challenge, the testator will be there to confirm the validity of the document. Since a court can verify duress, undue influence, and capacity while the testator is testifying, the judge can make a final ruling on the authenticity of the will or trust.

Although Florida has not adopted any law of this kind, Alaska allows non-residents to take advantage of their laws. However, a will must be probated in the decedent's state of residence so it is doubtful a Florida court will give any significance to an pre-validated Alaska will. On the other hand, trusts are separate legal entities from their creator so pre-validating this document may prove critical in probate proceedings. A Florida Estate Planning Lawyer offer assistance to your estate plan and answer any further questions concerning wills and trust documents.

In a recent article by Kelly Greene of the Wall Street Journal, she explains methods in which individuals can protect their retirement accounts. Over an individual's lifetime an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) can accrue hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars. There is a high possibility that these retirement accounts will have significant assets left in them when you pass away. One of the main goals of Florida Estate Planning is to make certain your hard earned money is spent according to your final wishes. In order to control how quickly your children or heirs can spend their inheritance, most individuals are led to trust documents.

In a ruling last year, a Florida State Court found that inherited IRAs are not protected from creditors in civil court cases, with the exception of bankruptcy proceedings. Consequently, it is advisable to create an IRA trust where the account holder can name one or more trusts as the retirement account beneficiary instead of leaving the IRA outright to an heir where it could be subject to the claims of their creditors. Not only do you control how your retirement account is spent, but also with this type of Florida Estate Planning you can receive tax-free growth on the funds. Forming an IRA Trust is a complicated process therefore if you require any assistance contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.