Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

Whether you live in Florida, New York, California or any state and are the owner of a Toyota car, truck, or SUV, your Toyota Automobile may have just dropped in value. We all know there will be many Class Action Lawsuits against Toyota. Here is one class action that you may not have considered. Even if Toyota fixes the problems and no one is injured from a defect in your Toyota car, the recent bombardment of news has caused your automobile to decrease in value. You may ask, why is this on a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer's website? What if you are the PR of an estate that owns a Toyota vehicle, a trustee of a trust that owns a vehicle, or the guardian of someone who owns a Toyota car subject to the recall? You may have a duty to investigate what claims of action you might have to avoid liability. Remember that by failing to investigate a claim or pursue one, you may be violating your fiduciary duty.

The good news that whether to pursue these types of claims is a simple one as they are almost always done on a contingency basis. If you have a potential claim you might want to contact Florida Toyota Class Action Lawyer Mike Ossi at (904) 399-0606 to talk about a claim.

Given that there is not estate tax this year, individuals with assets that are exposed to large capital gains upon the death of the first or both spouses have begun to look at using an Alaska Community Property Trust to help reduce the tax liability that occurs when the first spouse dies. If you live in a state like Florida or one where there is not community property, you might want to contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer or Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss how using this technique could benefit you.

If you think its time to review your Florida Will or Florida Estate Planning Documents contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer or Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer to review your documents before you begin to melt.

The Trials and Heirs blog\ recently had an article about how to avoid exploitation of the elderly by a family member. They recommend

1 Getting Expert advise who knows the ins and outs of estate planning. I would also recommend using a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who is familiar with Florida Elder Law.
2. Be careful of Joint accounts as they can take the money or create ineligibility for nursing home coverage.
3. Consider "Springing" Powers of Attorney or as we call them contingent Durable Powers of Attorney as they only give powers once you are incapacitated.
4. Choosing Wisely which may mean not choosing a family member or the oldest child because of emotional reasons.
5. Having Checks and Balances by using more than one person to make decisions and to avoid fights.
6. Selecting someone to monitor your accounts. This person can be a trusted advisor and should have the ability to question and stop inappropriate actions.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working part-time and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one.

David Goldman of Apple Law Firm, Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog, and NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog became a member of the Estate Planning Professionals network (EPPN) of the NRA. The next EPPN event will be held in conjunction with the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina in May 2010.

As a member of the EPPN, David can modify wills and trusts with language that can be added to Florida Wills and Trusts to make bequests to the national Rifle Association or any of the NRA charities or endowments.

Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer: What does Florida Divorce Law have to do with Florida Estate Planning? We often find that Estate planning is needed most around the time of a Divorce in Florida. We now have a Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer on staff to help deal with the unique issues of Jacksonville Child Support, Jacksonville Child Custody, and Jacksonville Family law.

These issues often arise around the time of Florida Estate Planning or in conjunction with a Florida Probate.

If you have questions concerning Florida Estate Planning contact one of our Florida Estate Planning Lawyer or Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer to discuss your situation.

We will begin to cover topics related to Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust Administration and Florida Foreclosure Defense in relation to Florida Family law from a Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer's prospective.

Today I received a card from another Florida Estate Planning Lawyer. I found that the creator of the card has several cartoons on estate planning. Some of them are very funny and worth looking at.

The IRS recently announced that the gift tax annual exclusion will remain unchanged in 2010 at $13,000

The yearly amount of the exclusion is based on the Consumer Price Index and has increased from $10,000 in 1997 to $13,000 in 2009 and 2010. As long as your gifts to an individual are less than the exclusion amount, there is no gift tax return that is required to be filed and no gift taxes are due. Each spouse gets an exclusion so a married couple can actually gift $26000 to each individual without creating a tax liability or necessity for reporting.

With proper gift planning a family can transfer a significant amount of money to their children and grandchildren. Take a family who has 3 kids, each married and each with 2 grandchildren.
This creates 3 kids + 3 spouses + 6 Grandchildren. A gift of $13,000 to each by each parent could remove 312,000 a year from your estate. Do this for 10 years and you could remove over 3.1 Million dollars. Given that the current tax rate is 45%, this could save $1.4 Million in estate taxes.

There are other ways of reducing your estate taxes and you should discuss your objectives and goals with a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer or Florida Asset Protection Lawyer who will review your individual circumstances and make recommendations based on them.

Remember that gifting is not for everyone and as you get older and your chance of needing Medicaid increased, gifting can disqualify you from certain government benefits. If there are issues or concerns you should discuss them with your Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

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.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 225-200 in favor of H.R. 4154. The bill will make the 2009 Estate Tax Level Permanent.

Currently (for 2009) the estate tax exemption is $3.5 million and the maximum tax rate on estates is 45%. The Bill referred to as the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009, would permanently extend this estate tax exemption amount and tax rate.

The Bill still needs the Senate and President's approval.

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.

One of the benefits of using a Florida Revocable Trust is that the contents of the trust can remain private. Remember that if you or your heirs provide copies to others you may loose this advantage. This is exactly what happened with Farrah Fawcett's Revocable Trust. RadarOnline.com obtained a copy of Farrah Fawcett's Living trust and has posted it.

a) All art work has been left to the University of Texas at Austin.
b) All other personal items have been left to her nephew, Greg Walls.
c) $100,000 has been left outright to ex-boyfriend Gregory Lawrence Lott.
d) $4,500,000 has been left in a lifetime trust for the benefit of Fawcett's son, Redmond. Producer Richard Francis is named the Trustee of this trust.
e) $500,000 has also been left outright to Greg Walls.
f) $500,000 has been left in a lifetime trust for the benefit of Fawcett's father, James Fawcett.
g) The balance of Fawcett's estate has been left to The Farrah Fawcett Foundation, a private foundation founded by Fawcett in 2007 that is dedicated to funding cancer research.

All of these proceeds will avoid probate and the costs associated with them. There are many benefits to a Florida Revocable Trust. If you are thinking of creating a Florida Revocable Trust contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your goals and objectives.

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

Posted In: Estate Planning , Revocable Trust , Trusts - Charitable

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Will Contest Clauses are generally included to prevent children or beneficiaries from attempting to dispute their portion of an estate. In some states they are valid and many others like Florida they are not valid by statute.

Given that a No Contest Clause in a Will is invalid in a Florida Probate case, should they be used in Florida? If your will is contested and the end result under the state statute may be the same, it may provide any benefit to include the no contest language.

Today people move quite often and may have assets in other states that do recognize Will Contest clauses. Given that one of these situations may enable a no contest clause to be enforced, it might be a good idea to include them in your Florida Estate Planning Documents.

Under the Florida Trust Code a Florida Revocable Trust is not able to have a contest clause, unless the right to revoke the trust terminated prior to October 1, 1993.

While its not possible to have a no contest clause in a Florida Revocable Trust, Florida does allow a trust to specify the laws of another state to be used in interpreting and administering the trust. So in effect, by drafting your trust correctly, you can have a no contest clause.

There are several ways to accomplish the desired results from a no contest clause in a will or trust. To discuss your specific issues and how one might benefit you, contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer or Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer

Under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfers Act (UFTA) whether a transfer is considered fraudulent boils down to two basic issues.

1) Actual Intent 2) Insolvency and Transfer for less than full value

The intent of the transfer is whether it was done to avoid payment or reach of a potential creditor that existed at the time the transfer took place. It is possible to have an intent other than to avoid the creditor's reach that is not fraudulent. Often people want to transfer assets to others for little or not value, this is a problem because of the second issue.

Generally there is a 4 year look back on transfers under the UFTA. A well prepared Florida Estate Planning can deal with many of the issues involved with Florida Asset Protection to help protect you and your families future.

Many of my Jacksonville Estate Planning clients ask me when and how often they should review their Florida Estate Plan. I like to recommend that people take a look at their situation on a yearly basis and if they notice any of the following, they should make an appointment with their Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

1. Change or contemplation of change in Marital status;
2. Death of spouse;
3. You or your spouses' health changes;
4. Death or change in the health or marital status of a trustee, executor, guardian, or beneficiary;
5. If you change your residence or move to another state;
6.. Change in or anticipation of the number of children or grandchildren whether by blood or adoption. Consider step-children also;
7. Any disabilities, health issues, or significant factors on lifestyle of children or grandchildren;
8. If you buy, sell, or contemplate buying or selling a business.
9. Upon the discovery of a hereditary issue that will or might affect you in the future; or
10. Change in tax law or its been more than two years since you reviewed your plan with your attorney.

American Family Prepaid Legal Corporation and Heritage Marketing, their officers and employees have been bared from the practice of law for in over 3800 acts by participating in an illegal Trust Mill.

The firms sent direct mail ads to Ohio residents over the age of 65containing exaggerated claims regarding the costs and complications of disposing of their assets through a will. Then those that responded were targeted with high-pressure in-home presentations in which American Family’s non-attorney sales representatives provided them with legal advice including inflated “estimates” of the costs of probating their estates and the purported savings the customer would realize by purchasing American Family’s standardized living trust document – regardless of the size or composition of that individual’s estate or his/her existing estate planning documents.

We see these all the time and its important to remember that not everyone needs a trust nor is a trust the best solution for everyone. Its important to discuss you specific circumstances and objectives with an Jacksonville Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to determine what is the best procedure for you and your family.

As the use of genetic material becomes more accepted, the issue of what and how to deal with it has begun to be an important part of estate and trust planning and administration. Not only could this change distributions or dilute inheritance, but without guidelines or requirements for the disposition of genetic materials, there could be a conflict between the legal requirements of a trustee and what is ethically permissible as well as legal at the time of your death. The Wills, Trust & Estate Professors Blog has an article that references Jerry Coopers's article on Trust Administrators Tool-Up for Custody and Care of Client's Genetic Property.

If you are a resident of the state of Florida, you may create a will in another state. You do not have to create a Florida Will or execute a Florida Will within the state of Florida.

There are some areas of a will that even if executed in another state may not be valid in Florida. For example many states do not have the same restrictions on who can be a guardian or the formalities required to execute a will. Most wills, other than with a holographic will, that are validly executed in another state will be valid in Florida.

Florida requires that holographic wills be executed with the same formality as another will and does not recognize the exceptions for a handwritten will that some other states do.

In a Florida Will you must name a relative or resident of Florida to be a guardian for a minor child.

If you would like a Florida Will created for you or would like your Florida Will updated or reviewed please contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

A Florida Will provides instructions on how to distribute your assets upon your death. Many people believe that if they do not have a Florida Will their assets will be taken by the state. This is not true. Florida has a default will for all individuals built into the the Florida Statutes. If you die without a will, your assets will be distributed to your spouse and children, and then your parents, siblings, nieces and nephews as proscribed by Florida Law. For more information on this request our Florida Probate Handbook for free. If you want to be able to specify who will receive your assets and not depend on the state's view, you must have a Florida Will.

There are some issues that are not discussed in the statutes. Who will take care of my children? What will happen with my body? Only a Florida Will will prevent the State of Florida from making these decisions. If you have minor children you should have a will to determine who will be the guardian of the children in the event of your death.

There are many times when its a good idea to update your will which include if you purchase or sell real property, if your marital status changes, if your financial condition changes significantly, and if you have children or grandchildren you would like to recognize in the event of your death.

Today we find that online and software services have scared many people about the price of using a lawyer to prepare a Florida Will. They state that you could spend thousands of dollars to prepare a will with an attorney and that theirs is just as good. While its possible that you could prepare a Florida Will that does exactly what you want, the problem is that you only die once, so you do not know what the effects of your desires will be. By talking with a lawyer who have prepared many wills and dealt with the effects of them you get the benefit of experience that you will never obtain. Most wills that are prepared by an attorney are very reasonable when you consider the potential for problems that can arise when you write your own will. For illustrative purposes, we typically charge $200 to prepare a will and discuss your options and the potential risks for the choices you will make.

If you would like to discuss preparing a Florida Will you should contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer or a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer

Florida Special Needs Trust Lawyers & Florida Supplemental Needs Trust Attorneys.

Florida Families who have disabled children had a greater need for a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to prepare for the possibility that they do not outlive their children. When people have disabilities or special needs, its important to parents to provide for their welfare while you are alive. There are also significant advantages to creating a Florida Special Needs Trust or a Testamentary Special Needs Trust.

When assets are left to an individual with special needs in a normal trust or outright, it could disqualify the individual from government benefits as well as require that any remaining assets be paid to the government for reimbursement of services provided during the individual's life.

By using a SNT or Florida Special Needs Trust one can usually choose a remainder beneficiary, that is who will receive any funds that are not used by the individual with the disability during their life.

In addition, without a Florida will with a valid guardian clause, the state will determine if your child ends up in foster care or who will be the guardian over your child.

Contact aFlorida Trust Lawyer to discuss how a Florida Trust Lawyer can help you and your family.

This morning I woke up ready to leave on a trip to NY with my family. We had had this trip planned for several months and my wife and I like to travel a lot. As I got out of bed, something happened and I fell and hit my head on our new tile floor. Within seconds there was blood everywhere and I became disoriented. After spending more than 12 hours in the hospital, and after having been treated by one of the nicest Jacksonville Plastic Surgeons's that I have met, I began to think about how many estate planners take their own advice and have documents that are up to date and trusts that are funded.

I first became concerned with my Florida Estate Plan when I was going to London for an extended time and there had recently been some bombings in London. My wife refused to go, or let me go, if our plans were not set in writing prior to our departure.

Today as I sit in the hospital, I am thinking that If I did not have plans and my injury would have been more serious, it may have been more difficult for my wife to speak on my behalf. What if I have had a heart attack, stroke, or just been unconscious as a result of my fall and injury.

In the end, none of these documents was necessary, but it was comforting to know that they were in place if they were needed. While the emergency room did ask if they existed, they did not ask for a copy, nor would it have been easy to produce a copy upon admittance. The next thing I will do is keep a copy of them on my iPhone, and my wife's iPhone in case they are needed.

It just goes to show you that you never know when you might need Florida Estate Planning Documents. While my documents are up to date, I know most people do not have up to date Florida Estate Planning Documents. At the Apple Law Firm, we practice what we preach because each of ourselves place our family in harms way daily when we drive, walk down the street or get out of bed. If you would like a free review of your Estate Planning Documents under Florida law, let me know and I would be happy to make sure your documents are up to date and you understand what your options and obligations are.

One of the best benefits of a good estate plan is avoiding Florida Probate. To learn what is involved with a Florida probate request the Free Florida Probate Handbook

Jacksonville Probate Lawyer, David Goldman has put together a Florida Probate Handbook that is being offered free to readers and visitors of his websites. If you would like a copy, visit the Free Florida Probate Handbook web page, fill out the form, and one will be sent to you within 24 hours by email.

In the handbook, you will:

•Learn about four types of Florida Probate.
•Learn about what is involved in opening a Florida Probate.
•Learn about the responsibilities of being a Personal Representative or administering a Florida Probate.
•Learn why a lawyer is required in most Florida Probates.
•Learn the steps involved in a Florida Probate.
•What type of Florida Probate do I need?
•Am I responsible for the bills of the Estate?
•Can I object to claims of creditors?
•Do I need an attorney to help me?
•How can I get a copy of a Florida Will?
•What are the penalties for not filing the Will within 10 days of death?
•If there was a trust, what happens to it, whom must I notify, and what needs to be filed with the court?

Florida Estate Planning Documents can be lost during a hurricane or tropical storm. Just when a Florida Will, Power of Attorney, or Florida Living Will, Designation of Health care Surrogate & HIPAA release.

You should protect your original signed documents by keeping them in with in waterproof container and if possible off the floor or at a bank in a safety deposit box A scanned copy of these documents should be keep with your and made available at an off site storage facility like Google or any free document storage provider.

If you home is damaged and is inside a Florida Revocable Trust you may have to provide an original copy of the trust to the insurance company.

As the storm season approaches, it may be a good idea to update your Florida Estate Planning Documents with any changes in your family or financial circumstances so that your documents are up to date with your intentions and your capabilities.

Jacksonville Probate Lawyer, David Goldman has put together a Florida Probate Handbook that is being offered free to readers and visitors of his websites. If you would like a copy, visit the Free Florida Probate Handbook web page, fill out the form, and one will be sent to you within 24 hours by email.

Florida Estate Planning for professional athletes is very different than with a traditional client. Most clients accumulate wealth over a long period and have advisers in place to manage their wealth. Financial advisers are typically managing their wealth in an effort to protect it from substantial loss and the lawyers deal with methods of distributing the assets upon incapacity or death.

Most athletes accumulate their wealth in just a few years and need to have it last their entire life. They may not have the control or discipline to use a traditional revocable trust and in some cases irrevocable trusts may provide for stability and security that would be at risk otherwise.

If you are a professional athlete and looking at ways of doing Florida Estate Planning and would like to speak with a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer about methods of providing for the many years after your professional career Contact Us for a free consultation regarding Florida Estate Planning and Florida Asset Protection.

In Florida, A personal representative shall be entitled to a commission payable from the estate assets without court order as compensation for ordinary services. The commission shall be based on the compensable value of the estate, which is the inventory value of the probate estate assets and the income earned by the estate during administration.

(a) At the rate of 3 percent for the first $1 million.
(b) At the rate of 2.5 percent for all above $1 million and not exceeding $5 million.
(c) At the rate of 2 percent for all above $5 million and not exceeding $10 million.
(d) At the rate of 1.5 percent for all above $10 million.

(a) The sale of real or personal property.
(b) The conduct of litigation on behalf of or against the estate.
(c) Involvement in proceedings for the adjustment or payment of any taxes.
(d) The carrying on of the decedent's business.
(e) Dealing with protected homestead.
(f) Any other special services which may be necessary for the personal representative to perform.

If the personal representative is a member of The Florida Bar and has rendered legal services in connection with the administration of the estate, then in addition to a fee as personal representative, there also shall be allowed a fee for the legal services rendered.

Upon petition of any interested person, the court may increase or decrease the compensation for ordinary services of the personal representative or award compensation for extraordinary services if the facts and circumstances of the particular administration warrant. In determining reasonable compensation, the court shall consider all of the following factors, giving weight to each as it determines to be appropriate:

(a) The promptness, efficiency, and skill with which the administration was handled by the personal representative;
(b) The responsibilities assumed by and the potential liabilities of the personal representative;
(c) The nature and value of the assets that are affected by the decedent's death;
(d) The benefits or detriments resulting to the estate or interested persons from the personal representative's services;
(e) The complexity or simplicity of the administration and the novelty of the issues presented;
(f) The personal representative's participation in tax planning for the estate and the estate's beneficiaries and in tax return preparation, review, or approval;
(g) The nature of the probate, nonprobate, and exempt assets, the expenses of administration, the liabilities of the decedent, and the compensation paid to other professionals and fiduciaries;
(h) Any delay in payment of the compensation after the services were furnished; and
(i) Any other relevant factors.

If you own a car, then you know it requires regular servicing in order to perform well and be reliable. More than likely, your car came with a recommended schedule for service, based on how many miles it has been driven. After a certain number of miles, you need to change the oil, replace the brake pads, rotate the tires, and so on.

If you have a newer car, you probably have an irritating dash light that comes on when it's time for service and stays on until the mechanic resets it. Either way, whether you pay attention to the odometer or rely on that dash light, it's pretty easy to know when it's time to service your car. And if you keep driving it without servicing it, it's a sure bet your car will let you down.

Like your car, your estate plan needs "servicing" if it is going to perform the way you want when you need it. Your estate plan is a snapshot of you, your family, your assets and the tax laws in effect at the time it was created. All of these change over time, and so should your plan. It is unreasonable to expect the simple will written when you were a newlywed to be effective now that you have a growing family, or now that you are divorced from your spouse, or now that you are retired and have an ever-increasing swarm of grandchildren! Over the course of your lifetime, your estate plan will need check-ups, maintenance, tweaking, maybe even replacing.

So, how do you know when it's time to give your estate plan a check-up? Well, instead of having mileage checkpoints, your estate plan has event checkpoints. Generally, any change in your personal, family, financial or health situation, or a change in the tax laws, could prompt a change in your estate plan. Use the list at the end of this newsletter to guide you.

It's a good idea to review your estate plan every year. Set aside a specific time every year (your birthday, anniversary, family gathering) to review it. Keep these events in mind each time you read through your documents. If you think a change may be in order, don't write on your actual document; contact your attorney. Most changes can be handled by a simple amendment that is attached to your current will or trust.

Planning Tip: Like your car, your estate plan needs regular "servicing." Set aside a specific time every year (your birthday, anniversary, family gathering) to review it. Become familiar with it. Keep it current so it will perform the way you want when you need it.

What Do You Do with Your Estate Plan?
Think for a few moments about what would happen if you became incapacitated or died today. Would your spouse, family and successor trustees know what to do?

Continue reading "When Is It Time to "Service" Your Estate Plan?" »

Is a Florida Probate required if the decedent had a living trust?
Most people do not transfer all of their assets into a Florida Revocable Trust prior to their death. If their home, or other personal property was not transferred into the trust prior to their death, a Florida Probate may still be required to properly dispose of the remaining assets. Often bank accounts, IRA's, land, business interests, or other assets are not transferred property.

The probate will typically take the remaining assets and follow the instructions of the Florida Will to distribute them. If the will directs the assets to a trust it is called a Pour-over will.

What happens if the Florida Will directs the assets to a non-existent trust. Unless the Florida Will contemplates this, the assets will be transferred by the residuary clause in the will or in the case that this does not exist, they will transfer under the Florida intestate statutes or as if there was no will.

If you are looking to find out about Florida Beneficiary rights, or how property should be transferred in a Florida Probate Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

Forbes.com has an article on 10 issues dealing with Estate planning and items you should check within your own plan.. Forbes even includes a calculator that will tell you where your assets will go if you die without a will.

Matthew Gardner an Estate Planning Lawyer who writes the Iowa Estate Plan Blog has an article on a child conceived after death and how his state and Social Security treats this child as not being an heir of the decedent. The Iowa Probate Code and many states specify that in order to qualify as an "heir" under Iowa law, you must have been conceived prior to the death of the biological parent. You can see with recent medical advancements, this with become more of an issue as time goes on.

If you have a potential for future heirs after your death, you may consider the jurisdiction of your trust or estate to avoid or permit additional children to share in your estate.

Update:
Jacksonville Probate Lawyer, David Goldman has put together a Florida Probate Handbook that is being offered free to readers and visitors of his websites. If you would like a copy, visit the Free Florida Probate Handbook web page, fill out the form, and one will be sent to you within 24 hours by email.

Attorney Kevin W Davidson of the Green Bay Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning Blog wrote an article on the pitfalls of Do it yourself asset protection where he talks about some of the problems with trying to protect your own assets.

Over the last 6 months the number of inquiries for asset protection have significantly increased. Unfortunately most of these people did not take action when they had significant assets without potential liabilities, but are only now beginning to consider it as the liabilities become a certainty. While there are things that can be done at this stage to protect, reduce the risk of loss, or increase the ability to negotiate one's debts, it is always best to address these issues prior to problems arising.

If you would like to discuss Florida Asset Protection you should Contact a Florida Asset Protection Lawyer.

A few months ago the IRS announced a voluntary disclosure program for undeclared foreign accounts. This six months program closes on September 23, 2009. For qualifying taxpayers who come forward and report their undisclosed foreign bank accounts and pay back taxes for six years plus interest and some penalty, the IRS agrees not to bring criminal charges or assess the 75% fraud penalty. What most are not resporting is that the IRS will require disclosure of all who had knowledge of the program and are likily to require you to be a witness in cases against those professionals who had knowledge or helped in the tax avoidance schemas.

On June 30, 2008 a federal court authorized the IRS to serve a "John Doe" civil summons on UBS, demanding the names of approximately U.S. clients who hold off-shore bank accounts. On February 18, 2009, UBS entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the Department of Justice and agreed to pay $780 million to the U.S. and to disclose the names of between 250-300 of its U.S. clients who had maintained secret accounts at UBS. Now the IRS has sued to enforce the earlier John Doe summons seeking the disclosures of the owners of about 52,000 UBS Swiss accounts. It is estimated that these accounts hold some $17.9 billion in assets. The 52,000 accounts are just at one bank in one country. No one knows how many other accounts in other jurisdictions and financial institutions are unreported.

In addition, UBS has notified many of its U.S. clients that their secret bank accounts will be terminated. Closing the accounts is going to put the account holders in a tight spot. They have two choices: 1) transfer the money to banks in other "bank secrecy" jurisdictions which would create a paper trail discoverable by the IRS, or 2) repatriate the funds to the U.S and come clean with the IRS.

It is not illegal to have a foreign bank account in a bank secrecy jurisdiction (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Nevis, Anguilla, Panama, the Cayman Islands, or others). What is illegal is failing to disclose the accounts and failing to report the income and pay income tax. In addition to disclosing the existence of the accounts on your 1040 and reporting the income, Foreign Bank Account Reports ("FBARs") must be filed by any U.S. taxpayer who has signatory or other authority over a foreign account or accounts that have a combined value of more than $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.

For taxpayers who "come clean" under the voluntary disclosure program, they will have to 1) pay back taxes due on the undisclosed assets for the last six years; 2) pay interest on the back taxes; and 3) pay a 20% accuracy penalty or a 25% delinquency penalty for each tax year at issue.

These penalties are high, but much lower than previous penalties. IRS will not pursue charges of criminal tax evasion against taxpayers who voluntarily disclose their offshore assets under this new policy (as long at they comply with disclosure requirements).

The IRS will not pursue other penalties against participating taxpayers, such as the fraud penalty of 75% of the unpaid tax or the statutory penalty for willful failure to file an FBAR, which is the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the foreign account balance. Both of these penalties apply annually to undisclosed accounts and assets during the relevant tax years.

Since a taxpayer's name may be discovered by the enforcement of the "John Doe" summons against UBS or in Congressional Hearings, it would be prudent for affected taxpayers to begin the process of determining whether the voluntary disclosure policy is available and appropriate for their particular circumstances. As IRS Commissioner Shulman forewarned, "having the IRS find you could mean a much heavier price than coming forward on your own."

Voluntary disclosure is not a guarantee of no criminal prosecution. Experts recommend that the taxpayer's attorney contact the local IRS district office. Without disclosing the taxpayer's name, the attorney should explain the facts and circumstances to the IRS to determine if the IRS will agree not to prosecute. This disclosure should only be done with a high-level IRS official or counsel.

Taxpayers with offshore noncompliance should take advantage of the amnesty and come forward. The situation is going to get worse, not better.

While in Florida a lawyer is not required to create a valid deed like a ladybird deed or Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed it may be a good idea to have a lawyer or attorney review these specific document because of their propensity for errors and the bad or unexpected outcome that would occur with an invalid or incorrect Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed.
1. A lawyer can check to make sure that the deeds are executed with the formality required under Florida Statutes.

2. That an Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed is the best method of accomplishing your goals. With property with larger mortgages, a deed of this type may not be the best or most affordable method for transferring the property upon the death of the owners because of the mortgage taxes in Florida.

3. In addition, some of the forms and Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deeds that I have seen do not properly deal with the property upon death and title companies have been known to require a probate before they will issue a new title policy. This can cost the family thousands of dollars on a homestead and up to 3 percent of the value of the home on non-homestead properties.

4. Prevent a portion of the property from lapsing, Florida's anti-lapse statute deals with devises by will and in trusts but would not protect an interest in a property that was given to an individual who predeceased the grantor of the deed. Because a Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed is a contingent gift, it is possible that the remainder interest would be directed back to the estate of the grantor in a case were the contingent remainder beneficiary of the deed was to predecease the grantor.

5. The most important reason to use a lawyer with a Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed deals with the circumstances surrounding the use of this type of deed. Often when a lawyer prepares these deeds they the process will cause them to evaluate the other financial, estate planning, elder law, and Medicaid planning that are found when these deeds are used. Paying a lawyer who is familiar with these issues to prepare your deed is a good way to have your personal circumstances and issues evaluated at the same time.

If you would like more information on a Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed you should Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who is familiar with these issues.

Florida Asset Protection Attorneys can help structure the ownership of assets to protect from liabilities and creditors. Often individuals own a bulk of their assets individually or in a Florida Revocable Trust, or in a corporation. The assets and businesses held in these entities can be subject to the claims of creditors if a judgment is obtained against the individual. In touch economic times like these it is more important than ever to protect your assets from the claims of creditors. You should discuss your assets and potential liabilities with a Florida Asset Protection Lawyer who also knows about Florida Estate Planning to make sure they are protected to the extent possible from claims that could cause you to lose the assets or income you have worked hard to create.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on Deciding if Your Kid is Trust-Worthy where they discuss using trust like a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer would use to protect your families assets.

Part of the article is devoted to helping you determine if your child or your children are the best ones to manage your finances or Florida Revocable Trust in the even you become incapacitated or die. These are areas you should discuss your your Florida Estate Planning Lawyer in an effort to determine how best to structure a Florida Revocable Trust.

When you own Florida property as Tenants in Common, each owner has a right to enter and use the entire property. Often one owner wants to sell their interest while another may not. This can lead to an action for partition where a court will order the property to be sold.

If the owners have an agreement that binds them and the future owners of the property from using a partition to break up or sell the property, the property will and owners will be protected from loosing their rights to use and access the property.

One additional advantage is that these agreements often reduce the value of one's interest in the property because of the restriction on the ability to partition the property.

If you have Florida property that you would like to protect from being broken up or to reduce the value of you should contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer by Email

Recently we ran across a situation where an individual in Puerto Rico died with a Florida Will . PR has some unique laws dealing with property and who will receive it under Puerto Rico's laws that can make a Florida Will or will created in another state invalid or ineffective for transferring property. If you live in PR or have property in PR you should have a lawyer in PR review your estate planning documents to make sure your intentions are carried out.

Today it was announced that deposits at FDIC-insured institutions are now insured up to at least $250,000 per depositor through December 31, 2013. On January 1, 2014, the standard insurance amount will return to $100,000 per depositor for all account categories except for IRAs and certain other retirement accounts which will remain at $250,000 per depositor. (This supersedes the October 3, 2008 changes.)

All lawyers who took estate planning in law school learned about the possibility of an 80 year-old woman giving birth to a child. This mental exercise is just one of the unusual circumstances a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer might deal with in the drafting of Florida Estate Planning Documents.

Matthew Curtiss, a Connecticut Estate Planning Lawyer who writes the Connecticut Estate Planning, Probate and Fishing Blog, recently posted a link to a 70 year old woman giving birth. While 70 is not 80, it looks like the hypothetical 80 year-old giving birth could one day be a reality.

In Jacksonville and around Florida we are often asked about the differences between a Florida Will and a Florida Revocable Trust. Although each persons circumstances are unique, generally the following factors tend to determine which is better in relation to disability and death in relation to the cost of a Florida Probate or avoiding Probate in Florida.

A Will tends to be the best tool if these issues fit your circumstances:

Limited cash flow
Limited assets, including life insurance

A Trust tends to be the best tool if these issues fit your circumstances:

Older clients
Large qualified retirement plans (IRA, 401k, 403b, etc.)
High cost / difficulty death probate state
Simple, outright disposition of assets at death
More sophisticated disposition of assets at death
Privacy issues
Possible or probable mental disability
Desire to make everything as easy and inexpensive as possible for heirs
Out-of-state real estate or timeshares
Complicated disposition issues
Out-of-state executors, trustees or guardians
Tax planning
Protection of inheritance for spouse, children and grandchildren
Planning for couples on second or subsequent marriage
Medicaid planning or qualification issues
Planning for beneficiaries with “special needs”

To find out which is best for your particular situation Contact a lawyer in Florida who is familiar with Florida Probate and Florida Estate Planning

Estate planning can help deal with the proper use and distribution of your assets upon a disability or your death. Below are several of the advantages of using a Florida Revocable Trust for Disability and Death Planning.

DISABILITY PLANNING

No probate, so everything remains private.
You decide the criteria for your disability and you pick those who will determine whether that criteria have been met.
You decide how your want your health care needs handled and you decide who will take on those duties.
You decide how you want your assets handled and you decide who will take on those duties.

DEATH PLANNING

No probate, so everything remains private.
By making your trust the centerpiece of your estate plan, you assure that distributions to your loved ones are exactly as you had planned.
You leave your assets to loved ones with certain protections. Unfortunate catastrophic illness expenses, divorces, accidents caused by your loved ones, or creditor problems will not cause the assets you leave your loved ones exposed to depletion as those issues are resolved.
By what you say in your trust (and by example), you leave your values to the next generation.
You achieve maximum federal estate, gift, and income tax savings.

To discuss how a properly drafted and implemented Florida Revocable Trust can help protect you in the case of disability or death, Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

In Florida all sorts of clerks, customer service people, insurance sales people, brokers, account managers, and other employees of financial institutions give customers advice about how to title accounts and name beneficiaries. In an effort to avoid probate, these seemingly harmless changes can cause many problems with estate plans.

Most new account forms at financial institutions ask you to name a beneficiary. This does not have to be completed and sometimes you are better off to leave it blank than to fill in a name or attempt to name a proper beneficiary.

Often when filling out beneficiary designations people do not understand how a share of the assets will be treated if that person predeceases them. Will the share go to their descendants or to other named beneficiaries and is that what was intended.

Other problem can happen when there are future children born who were not contemplated at the time the account was created or if all of the beneficiaries do not agree.

There are good ways of avoid Florida Probate , and it can often be dealt with through proper beneficiary designations, use of a will, or use of a Florida Revocable Trust.

Often a Florida Revocable Trust or Florida Will can simplify the need to change designations in the event of changes in your life such as a divorce, marriage, or birth or death of a family member. With a Florida Revocable Trust or Florida Will you can simply modify one document and it will take care of all of the accounts that are under it. Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to make changes when a spouse becomes incapacitated.

If you would like to review your Florida Estate Planning you should Contact an attorney familiar with Florida Estate Planning

Update:
Jacksonville Probate Lawyer, David Goldman has put together a Florida Probate Handbook that is being offered free to readers and visitors of his websites. If you would like a copy, visit the Free Florida Probate Handbook web page, fill out the form, and one will be sent to you within 24 hours by email.

Recently we have begun seeing more cases involving agents who abuse their power of attorney in order to benefit themselves.

Most people do not realize that once they have become an agent for an individual, their duty is to act in the best interest of the individual and not for their own benefit. Sometimes agents make gifts to themselves or change the way bank or stock accounts are title so that the become the beneficiary upon the death of the individual. These actions are violations of the agents fiduciary duty and self dealing. Often what is done interferes with someone's right to an expectancy as a beneficiary or owner of an account.

In addition to creating liability to the beneficiary or the decedent's estate, in Florida such actions can also create criminal liability under Florida's Elder Abuse Statutes. If you have been accused of actions like these it is important to coordinate your defense with a Jacksonville Criminal Defense Lawyer who is familiar with Florida Abuse of the Elderly.

It is important to file a caveat or lis pendens as soon as possible to prevent the assets from being transferred to those who are without notice of these potential claims. Filing a caveat can make sure you receive notice prior to a will being admitted and a personal representative being appointed by the Florida Probate court.

If you believe your inheritance has been adversely affected by the actions of an agent acting under a durable power of attorney please Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss an action against the agent or the estate.

Today a client of mine in Mexico contacted me about the transfer of their membership interest in an LLC upon their death. He had recently been told he had the "Pig Flu" or Swine Flu as we call it in the United States. Hopefully his case is not bad and he will make a full recovery.

His question was simple and perhaps the answer may help others so I am writing about it. He wanted to know whether his membership interest would become his business partners upon his death. Generally a business interest will transfer upon death by a will or trust and not have a payable on death designation. While it would be possible to create a payable on death designation on a small business interest it is not very common. As a result I suggested that the simplest way to deal with the transfer of his interest upon his death would be to do so with a will or other estate planning documents.

Every year people unexpectedly die from regular cases of the flu or other illnesses. Many individuals make changes to their estate planning documents when there are significant changes in their life such as a birth, death, child, move, major financial change. Perhaps the Swine Flu should be a wake up call for the majority of Americans who have no estate planning documents. With out Florida Estate Planning Documents the state of Florida will decide who receives your assets and who would raise your minor children. To review your Florida Estate Planning Documents Contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer

There are many times to update a Florida Will. Most updates are centered around significant life events like a wedding, divorce, new child, death in the family, or even moving to a new state.

Two of the most important things to change in a will are the designations for guardians of minor children and the beneficiaries of your estate or heirs. While Florida law provides that an ex spouse will not be an heir under a will that was created prior to the divorce, the law is not so kind when it comes to assets that do not pass through the probate system such as life insurance or retirement accounts.

All to often Florida Estate Planning Lawyers see cases of Florida Probate where a 401K or other contractual asset was never updated after a divorce. Because these assets are often designed to replace income that is lost, an improper designation can create a financial hardship for the decedent's family.

With the recent drop in home values, the stock market, and retirement accounts, it is more important than ever to review your beneficiary designations and how funds will be distributed under your Florida Will.

If you have selected a friend of the family to be a guardian of your minor child, the state of Florida requires that a non-relative be a Florida resident. This is a major reason to update your will when you move to Florida.

If you have gone through a life changing event in the past few years and have not updated your Florida Estate Planning Documents you should Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

Helmsey's estate made 53 charitable grants this week. Most of the money was given to hospitals and for medical research. Only 1 Million was given to 10 animal and dog charities equally. These donations came after a New York judge ruled that the trustees for the Helmsley Charitable trust has the sole authority to decide which charities would benefit from the trust.

David A. Atraus, a Nevada Estate Planning Lawyer, has published a book titled Faith-Based Estate Planning: Our Values and Valuables. The book was written after contacting hundreds of religious clergy throughout the nation, and took him several years to write.

Upon a first glance, I was very impressed. The book covers Estate Planning issues like living trusts, wills, medical directives, long-term care insurance and life insurance on many religions including Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity (10 denominations and branches), and 12 more religions from Roman Catholic to Judaism to Zoroastrianism.

It looks very comprehensive and I expect to write more on the book in the future.

Back in 2006 and 2007 I wrote several articles on Digital Assets and Estate Planning. Now that we are in 2009, there is even more need for Digital Asset protection in your Florida Estate Planning Documents.

Digital assets are those that expire upon your death and are often associated with Email and website accounts. Most of these accounts are not actual property. They are licenses and these licenses generally expire upon your death. A new company Legacy Locker is attempting to solve this problem through a web based tool that stores account login and passwords and purports to transfer this information to the designated beneficiary upon your death or incapacity.

While their software is a good idea it has some issues in that it does not resolve the fact that the license expires upon the death of the person who creates it. One solution to this problem is to create the accounts in the name of a trust of business so that when you die, the entity that owns the license is still in existence. There are other companies that do similar things such as DeathSwitch.com

My previous articles on this topic include:

Speaking (or Emailing) from the Grave
Florida Estate Planning & Digital Assets
Digital Property After Death
Florida Estate Planning: Paperless Records Leave Heirs in the Dark

The Palm Beach Post.com has an article which describes a recent trend in Annuities in which scammers sell and churn an insurance policy sold as an annuity in which there are very high surrender fees and limited access to the money for 10 or more years. These policies are being sold to 85 year old individuals as investments when they cannot touch the money for more than 10 years and have very high surrender fees if they do.

Most reputable annuity policies, they say, allow access to the money after just 90 days and require no more than a 5 percent surrender fee, and nothing after five years.

Senate Bill 2520 and House Bill 141 seek to protect Floridians who are 65 and over from annuity scam artists by easing access to the assets and decreasing excessive withdrawal payments. The legislation says that "senior consumers diagnosed as having a terminal illness that will result in death within two years after the diagnosis" could "withdraw all purchase payments from an annuity contract prior to the expiration of the surrender charge period without penalty."

Recently we have begun seeing a trend in these types of annuities being marketed towards lawyers, doctors and other professionals as "safe investments" Given the high commission paid and the tendency of the agents to churn the assets into other annuities, it would be nice if this bill would do something to protect others from these life insurance investments.

While Florida generally recognizes wills created in another state that were valid at the time they were created, it is often a good idea to have your will reviewed by a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer when you move to Florida.

One problem we often run into is that guardians for minor children who reside in Florida must be a close relative or a resident of the state of Florida. Often people designate non-relatives that do not reside in Florida and these are not effective.

While it is possible to create a trust or other legal instrument to allow a non-resident to manage the property of a minor, this should not be done in a will as it may be ineffective.

There are many other issues that arise with a move across state lines. Some states are community property and Florida is not. It is best to have your documents reviewed to make sure that your desires are carried out. There are some wills like holographic wills ( a will that is handwritten by the testator) that may be valid in states like California that Florida will not recognize unless they comply with the Florida Statute of Wills.

Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer for more information and a review of your documents.

It seems like ever few months we hear about another company who provides living trust seminars to the public and scares them into purchasing unnecessary trusts.

Another "Trust Mill" has been found guilty of practicing law without a license by masquerading as qualified financial advisers, estate planners, lawyers, and paralegals to exploit and prey upon senior citizens with the creation and selling of unnecessary and often useless living trusts.

In this case The Estate Plan, a company operating in Texas and Arkansas, was hit with a $16 Million default judgment for fraud, unauthorized practice of law, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy.

The following update was added after receiving a letter clarifing some information that was reported incorrectly by other news sites.
NOTE and clarification of other reports on this topic.
According to M. Wade Kimmel who is counsel for CLA USA, Inc., CLA USA Insurance Services, CLA Marketing, CLA Estate Services, CLA insurance services, Charles Loper, Jr., Charles Loper, III, Steven Morgan Robert Reese, winning Strategies Marketing, Inc., Quest Staffing Group, Inc., James E. Bradshaw, Jr. Joel Carson, and Olaf Turek, his clients were not part of this suit and their case was severed and no longer associated with the default judgment mentioned above. Mr. Kimmel wrote to me that his clients case's are pending and his clients expressly denied the allegations in the suit.

Mr. Kimmel stated that the original suit involved his clients but that they were not properly joined and the court severed the cases. His clients were not involved in the default judgment. Any questions regarding M. Wade Kimmel's clients should be directed to him

Gerey Byer of the Wills, Trusts & Estates Professors Blog covered an article on ILITS which discusses issues with Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (”ILITs”) and some of the important issues of determining the proper trustee and which state law to use.

Martin M. Shenkman (Member, Martin M. Shenkman, P.C.) has written a new article entitled The Practical Planner: "Insurance Trusts (ILIT) Not So Simple", Feb. 2, 2009.

Our twitter feed http://www.twitter.com/guntrustlawyer has been named one of the Top 100 legal feeds

Often a Florida Revocable Trust is not modified promptly upon a divorce. If the trust is subject to Florida law, Florida Statutes 736.1105 can amend the trust when the prior spouse is named as a beneficiary and the other spouse creates the trust.

736.1105 Dissolution of marriage; effect on revocable trust.--Unless the trust instrument or the judgment for dissolution of marriage or divorce expressly provides otherwise, if a revocable trust is executed by a husband or wife as settlor prior to annulment of the marriage or entry of a judgment for dissolution of marriage or divorce of the settlor from the settlor's spouse, any provision of the trust that affects the settlor's spouse will become void upon annulment of the marriage or entry of the judgment of dissolution of marriage or divorce and any such trust shall be administered and construed as if the settlor's spouse had died on the date of the annulment or on entry of the judgment for dissolution of marriage or divorce.

If you have a joint trust that was not addressed in a divorce decree or anulent or have recently been divorced, you should Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to review your trust to make sure that your ex-spouse is treated as per your intentions and not what your documents state.

Jonathan G. Blattmachr, a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy LLP, has published "Reducing Estate and Trust Litigation Through Disclosure, In Terrorem Clauses, Mediation and Arbitration" in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, 9 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 237 (2008).

He suggests six methods to reduce litigation.

1. Advise Inheritors of Inheritance Plans. Especially when children of the decedent are treated unequally, will contests and litigation arise from disappointed feelings of entitlement. Telling the children ahead of time what their shares will be may avoid a later dispute. Blattmachr even suggests that one could enter into a contract (for consideration) with such a person that he or she will not object to the validity of the document. (Of course, as Blattmachr says, "advising a child that he or she will not receive an equal share may have adverse effects even if it prevents litigation after death." You think?)

2. Use a Revocable Trust in Lieu of a Will. Since a revocable trust can be funded and operate during lifetime, it is difficult to contest on the grounds that the individual was unaware of its terms. When the Settlor of the trust dies, there is no need to begin a court proceeding to "prove" the validity of the trust, such as there is for a will.

3. Use an Irrevocable Trust in Lieu of a Will or Revocable Trust. An irrevocable trust is even less likely, in Blattmachr's view, to be challenged than a revocable trust. Irrevocable trusts can be drafted in such a way so that transfers of property to them are not completed gifts. Alternatively, making a transfer that is a completed gift, paying gift tax, and filing a gift tax return disclosing details may be additional evidence that the transfer was truly intended. Again, Blattmachr believes that a lifetime trust that is significantly funded is less likely to be challenged.

4. Use an In Terrorism Clause. If the testator lives in a state that will enforce it, an in terrorism clause (or disinheritance clause) could be used. Or the testator could direct that his will be probated in a state that does enforce such clauses. A lot of trust and estate litigation is not about the validity of the document, it is about its interpretation or about actions taken by the fiduciary. In order to reduce this type of litigation, an in terrorism clause can cause a forfeiture of a beneficiary's interest if such a challenge is made.

5. Use Mediation or Arbitration Provisions. Arbitration or mediation cannot be used with respect to the challenge of a document's validity unless the parties agree to it. Using an in terrorism clause to cause forfeiture if the parties will not participate can be used. This could stop claims that are filed only to harass other beneficiaries or to delay distributions to others. Another approach would be having the parties enter into a contract agreeing to arbitration before the transfer.

6. Use a Condition Precedent to a Bequest as an Alternative Method of Causing Participation in Mediation or Arbitration. Since a person cannot be forced to participate in arbitration or mediation unless the law provides for enforcement, consideration must be given to how to get parties to use these methods. One can use the carrot instead of the stick. Parties can be given a benefit if they consent to use arbitration or mediation instead of resorting to court.

When creating estate plans or trust documents it is important to consider the potential for litigation and whether it should be addressed prior to the death or after the death of the people creating it. While much can be done prior to death to resolve potential disputes and keep communications open, often issues only arise after the death of the trustees.

To discuss your estate plan with a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer and discuss what can be done to reduce the likelihood of estate and trust litigation Contact an estate planning attorney familiar with litigation issues.

Although these are difficult times and the experts acknowledge that we are in a recession it is just as important to plan for the future. The current economic situation may make the need for long term care planning even more important than in the past. My most recent newsletter discusses why planning needs should be and are unrelated to the economy in reference to

Disability and retirement planning;
Special needs Planning;
Beneficiary protection planning (for example, protection from divorce, creditors and/or perhaps the beneficiaries themselves); and
Second marriage and "blended family" protection.

If you would like more information on these issues please Contact Us to request a copy of the newsletter on these subjects.

Florida Estate Planning is important. Planning for Estate taxes has been part of our culture and one of the earliest examples and pointed out by Christopher Berry, of the Michigan Estate Planning Blog, is found when looking at George Washington's Will.

The estate tax has been part of our culture many times over the last 200 years. It has typically been used to help finance wars or the debts surrounding them. The last time the estate tax was enacted was in the early 1900's and it has been with us ever since. The current Federal Estate Tax is 45% on assets in excess of 3.5 million. With the current estate tax, the exemption is suppose to be changed over the next two years, but few expect the changes to happen. If the tax is not changed by congress there will be no limit next year and then in 2011 the number will drop to 1 million dollars.

An interesting fact I learned from an ex IRS agent in charge of the estate taxes was that the IRS spends around 15 billion a year to collect what is anticipated to be 20 billion in estate tax revenue. This does not seem like a very efficient use of 15 billion dollars. A few years ago many of us would have said - the IRS collects 5 billion, that is a good thing, but with the massive size of the recent bailouts of 700 billion and over 800 billion we might ask why we have an estate tax to collect such a small amount of money.

The current view is that the estate tax will be amended to keep the level of the exemption at 3.5 million. What is unknown is whether we will continue to receive a stepped upped basis and what the estate tax on the assets in excess of the exemption will be.

For a free review of your Florida Estate Plan contact a Jacksonville Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who has clients throughout the state of Florida, around the country, and and throughout the world.

A new concept in Estate planning is creating a trust to protect the families firearms. For the past few years the public has been using NFA Firearms Trusts for the purchase and protection of Title II firearms that are restricted by the NFA. Most gun enthusiast expect there to be a renewed ban on Assault Weapons that becomes permanent. To protect your families assault weapons, you might consider a new twist to the firearms trust - the Assault Weapons Trust. It might be a good idea to transfer your Assault Weapons into a Assault Weapons Trust before there is a ban on future transfers of these firearms.

One very useful Medicaid planning technique involves the creation of an irrevocable Medicaid Asset Protection Trust. With a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust a person or couple can transfer some of their property to the trust to hold and manage for their benefit during their live with the remainder paid to their family after their death.

Example: David and Beth have assets in their savings and stock accounts of $250,000. They currently live off income from their investments, social security, and other retirement benefits. They are concerned that if they need nursing home care they will not have enough money to support their lifestyle and pay for the medical expenses for the remainder of their life.

Solution: David and Beth decide to transfer $150,000 to a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust. The trust provides that all income is paid to them while alive and in the event one needs nursing home coverage under Medicaid the income is paid to the other. Upon the death of the surviving spouse, the trust will terminate and distribute the remainder to their children. By using this type of irrevocable trust their assets are protected and they receive an income stream for their lives.

Potential Problems: The gift to the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust can cause a period of ineligibility for Medicaid benefits. The length of the ineligibility period depends upon 1) the value of the assets given away and 2) The date the assets were given away. After the ineligibility period, the assets in the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust should be protected and not counted as a disqualifying asset for Medicaid planning purposes. In addition, this removes the assets from the reach of the spouses.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is not for everyone, but it can be a means of protecting a family's financial security. These trusts can be complicated and must be tailored to the families resources and needs. It is important that you use a Florida Elder law attorney who is familiar with the Florida Medicaid laws and who has experience in creating this type of trust.

Please note: The Irrevocable Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is not the same as a "revocable trust", "revocable living trust" or "living trust" that is currently being sold through Trust Seminars.

Contact us by email or at (904) 685-1200 for more information.

As our population continues to age, more and more individuals are concerned about how they will pay for care as they get older. Often individuals and families find that they are unable to take care of themselves and need assistance.

As medical costs have continued to rise, so have the costs of home health care. As a result we are seeing more individuals need the assistance of Medicaid. Too often we find individuals who have received advise from family members, friends, and professionals who do not understand Medicaid and only deal with elder law or estate planning issues. While it may be great to avoid the costs and fees associated with probate, what if you end up being disqualified from Nursing home coverage. This could cost far more than the savings on probate.

Florida is a great state to live at the time you need Medicaid coverage because of the large exemption allowed on one's home. Generally you can protect up to $500,000 of equity in a Florida homestead. Unfortunately in an effort to save a few thousand dollars many individuals transfer a partial ownership in the property to their children with rights of survivorship. Often this is done with a life estate deed.

This can cause many problems for the owner in the event they ever need nursing home coverage. There is way to accomplish similar results without risking the tax detriments, gifting issues, loss of control, and Medicaid eligibility - us a Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed.

Michael Bonasera with the Ohio Trust and Estate Blog recently wrote a on a similar topic Avoiding Probate vs Avoiding Taxes vs Medicaid Eligibility

If you would like a review of your estate planning that takes into account Elder law, Medicaid planning, as well as probate and tax issues Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who is familiar with Estate Planning and Medicaid Planning

Update:
Jacksonville Probate Lawyer, David Goldman has put together a Florida Probate Handbook that is being offered free to readers and visitors of his websites. If you would like a copy, visit the Free Florida Probate Handbook web page, fill out the form, and one will be sent to you within 24 hours by email.

One should be careful when leaving assets to someone who is in prison. They often have fines assessed against them and the assets can be taken for these fines. Sometimes it is beneficial to leave assets to the incarcerated persons heirs. While many trusts can be created to provide for creditor protection, these trusts usually fail when the government tries to take the assets. Often this happens with the IRS but it is logical to assume that the state could also take money from a trust offering asset protection.

As with most instances of Florida Estate Planning it is important to look at each families unique circumstances and dynamics to design aFlorida Estate Plan that addresses each families goals and objectives.

Forbes.com has an article on where not to die.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia (shaded in red) impose their own estate taxes. The dollar amount exempted from tax (in black) and the top tax rate (in yellow) vary by state. Eight states (shaded in orange) levy an inheritance tax, meaning the tax rate (in black) depends on who gets the money. New Jersey and Maryland levy both types of tax.

Bad will articles popping up all over the place

Seems like everywhere you turn these days there is another article on how Quicken and other online estate planning tools are a bad idea. I will begin to compile a list of other articles on this topic below my examples.

Some other examples of Do it your self wills and bad news are covered in my articles listed below

Do it Yourself Wills? More bad news and
Do it Yourself Wills? a Good Idea or Not?
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 3
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 4
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 5
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 6
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 7
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 8
Do it yourself Estate Planning: Bad News Part 9

Others have covered this topic also

Would You Consider a Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning Kit? by Paul Rabilias
Do-It-Yourself Wills: Is the Cheap Way the Best Way? by Hull & Hull
Using Wills from the Internet or a Book NJ Estate Planning

Florida Probate cases often result when people try to make their own wills, or transfer their assets without getting professional help from a Florida attorney or Accountant who is familiar with the effects of gifting and estate planning.

If you have a personal experience with software that you would like others to know about Contact Us .

If you have used software, a form, or an online service to prepare your will, a deed, or other document, you Contacta Florida Estate planning Attorney or Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to review your documents for potential problems.

The Wills, Trusts, and Estates Prof Blog had a posting from someone looking for interesting WIll issues. I thought some of my readers may be interested in contacting this person.

Hello,
I'm a researcher working on a documentary series about people's first-hand experiences with a family will. The project is being produced for a major US broadcaster.

The documentary explores various, unexpected family issues surrounding wills. We would like to showcase the powerful, true-life stories of family wills, in an effort to create a deeper awareness of the difficult subjects of legal wrangling, conflict, grief and deep-seeded dynamics that can often arise when the will of a loved one is read.

If you're interested in helping others reach closure on their feelings concerning a past will, or want to make sense of your own experience with a will, I would be very interested to hear your personal story. Thank you very much for generously sharing your story with me. You can email me.

The following fifteen common assets and applicable beneficiary designations should be reviewed to make sure they will not be paid (or given) directly to the special needs child:

(1) IRA, 401(k) and other retirement benefits.
(2) Life insurance (including employer-provided life insurance) benefits.
(3) Accidental death and travel insurance benefits provided through credit cards when a person purchases a plane ticket, etc. using that credit card.
(4) Annuities.
(5) Savings Bonds.
(6) Any property not subject to the parents’ will or trust.
(7) UGMA or UTMA accounts.
(8) TOD, POD, ITF designations on accounts, savings bonds, or securities.
(9) Inheritances, gifts, or bequests through another person’s will or trust (if not paid to a third-party created and funded SNT).
(10) Deeds.
(11) Joint accounts.
(12) Jointly owned property, including jointly owned real estate.
(13) Final paycheck (including unused vacation and sick pay).
(14) Collectibles, antiques and family heirlooms.
(15) Personal injury and wrongful death proceeds payable to a parent’s estate (in contrast to personal injury and wrongful death proceeds payable, by law, directly to the special needs child).
(16) Homestead laws that give the surviving spouse a life estate and the minor children a vested remainder interest (as does Florida law in certain instances).

The thirteen benefits of an inter-vivos stand alone third-party created and funded SNT are:

(1) The trust can be established by the parents (or by any third party, such as the grandparents) for the benefit of the special needs child.

(2) The trust provides for the investment and management of the special needs child’s inheritance by a third party - the trustee.

(3) The persons establishing the trust (such as the parents or grandparents) decide the terms and conditions of the special needs child’s inheritance and who is to receive the balance of the trust funds when the special needs child dies - rather than having to reimburse the government for Medicaid and/or “cost of care” benefits provided to the special needs child. One of the significant differences between a between a third-party created and funded SNT and a first party SNT is that there is no Medicaid payback requirement for a third-party created and funded SNT, and a third-party created and funded SNT should not contain a Medicaid payback provision.

(4) The trust does not have to be for the “sole benefit” of the special needs child; other children of the parents can be current beneficiaries (although it is generally recommended that the special needs child be the preferred beneficiary vis-a-vis the other current beneficiaries).

(5) The persons establishing the trust can name who should serve as the initial trustee and as the successor trustees, thereby avoiding the risk of the probate court appointing a “stranger” as a trustee.

(6) The trust avoids family conflict, since the trust spells out who gets what, when, how, and why.

(7) The trust avoids a probate court guardianship for the special needs child’s inheritance.

(8) The trust (if properly drafted and administered) maintains the special needs child’s eligibility for government benefits (assuming the child is otherwise qualified to receive government benefits).

(9) The trust coordinates government benefits and trust assets to meet the special needs child’s lifetime needs.

(10) The special needs child can be any age (i.e., the trust is not limited to a special needs child under age 65).

(11) The trust can provide for the appointment of an independent advocate for the special needs child, regardless of whether the child has a guardian, as well as a Trust Advisory Committee to advice the trustee concerning distributions for the benefit and well being of the special needs child.

(12) The trust protects the special needs child’s inheritance from being seized by his or her creditors, and avoids the imposition of a Medicaid lien.

(13) The trust can be “simple” or “sophisticated,” depending on the amount and type of assets that are used to fund the trust.

The principal purpose of a third-party created and funded SNT is to provide an inheritance for the special needs child without risking the loss of important government benefits such as SSI, Medicaid, etc. Consequently, it is important that grandparents and other relatives (including the siblings of the special needs child) not leave an inheritance outright to a special needs loved one.

Fortunately a parent’s stand alone inter-vivos third-party created and funded SNT can be structured to receive gifts, bequests, and inheritances from grandparents (and other relatives/friends) for the benefit of the special needs child. This avoids the grandparents (or other relatives/friends) having to prepare a separate third-party created and funded SNT.

There Are Many Ways A Special Needs Child Can Receive An Outright Inheritance and Lose Means-Tested Government Benefits. A special needs child can receive an outright inheritance in indirect ways. For example, if the grandparent’s will leaves his or her estate to “my descendants, by right of representation,” and the parent of the special needs child predeceases the grandparent, actually or presumptively under the requirement for survival (typically 120 hours (or 90 days for GST tax purposes)), a portion of the deceased parent’s share of the grandparent’s estate will pass outright to special needs child, and possibly disqualify the child from receiving certain government benefits.

Another way, that is not so obvious for a special needs child to receive an outright inheritance, is when an unmarried adult sibling dies without children and leaves his or her estate to his or her “heirs” and the decedent’s parents are also deceased. In such instance, the decedent’s special needs sibling (as an heir of the decedent) will receive an inheritance.

The trustee of a third-party created and funded SNT is given complete discretion in making distributions to or for the benefit of the special needs child. Thus, who should serve as the trustee of a third-party created and funded SNT is important.

The selection of the trustee involves many considerations, including the trustee’s ability to understand and respond to the needs of the special needs child; the trustee’s knowledge of government benefit programs and the effect that trust distributions will have on the special needs child’s government benefits; the trustee’s health, integrity, reliability and financial acumen; the trustee’s potential for a conflict of interest if the trustee is a current or remainder beneficiary of the trust; the potential for adverse income and transfer tax consequences if a family member serves as a trustee and is also a current or remainder beneficiary of the trust, etc.

Caution: Due to SSI and Medicaid rules and for various tax reasons, neither the special needs child nor his or her spouse should serve as trustee of either a third-party or first- party SNT.

There are five estate planning options available to parents concerning their special needs child:

(1) Distributing assets outright to the special needs child (not recommended since the assets may disqualify the child from receiving means-tested government benefits);

(2) Disinheriting the special needs child (generally not recommended since the child will have no “safety net” if government benefits are subsequently reduced or eliminated);

(3) Leaving property to another family member with the “understanding” that the property will be used for the benefit of the special needs child (generally not recommended since the arrangement is not legally enforceable and the sibling’s creditors (including a potential ex-spouse) may be able to seize the assets);

(4) Establishing a third-party discretionary support trust for the special needs child (generally not recommended since the trust will, in many states, disqualify the child from receiving means-tested government benefits); and

(5) Establishing a third-party created and funded SNT for the special needs child (highly recommended since the trust will not disqualify the child from receiving means-tested government benefits).

If an irrevocable inter-vivos third-party created and funded SNT is established by the parents or grandparents, the parents’ (or grandparents’) wills should specify the source for the payment of any death taxes attributable to the trust if any part of the third-party created and funded SNT is included in the parents’ (or grandparents’) gross estate. These trusts should not include a Medicaid Benefits payback clause. If its not drafted properly you can create a requirement to reimburse Medicaid.

Tax planning should not be ignored when preparing an estate plan that involves a special needs child.

There is a general (and incorrect) assumption among some estate planners that taxes are of little or no concern to families of special needs children.

Income taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and the confiscatory generation-skipping transfer (“GST”) tax should all be considered and dealt with when preparing an estate plan. Equally important are the income and transfer tax consequences of a special needs trust.

Five Essential Estate Planning Documents For A Special Needs Family. At the minimum, a special needs child deserves a parent’s continued stewardship and guidance, even though the parent may be incapacitated or deceased. Therefore, the parents of a special needs child should typically have the following five estate planning documents prepared:

(1) Last will and testament.

(2) General durable power of attorney for financial affairs (“GDPA”). The parent’s GDPA should permit the agent to make discretionary non-support distributions to or for the benefit of the special needs child, and to establish a SNT for the benefit of the special needs child.

(3) Durable medical power of attorney.

(4) Revocable living trust. During a parent’s period of incapacity, the parent’s revocable living trust should contain language that permits the trustee to make discretionary non-support distributions to or for the benefit of the special needs child. Upon the parent’s death, the special needs child’s inheritance should be distributed to a third-party created and funded SNT previously established by the parent.

(5) Third-party created and funded SNT.

In addition to the usual hurdles that parents face when preparing an estate plan (e.g., who should be the guardian, trustee, executor, etc.), the parents of a special needs child are faced with five unique estate planning challenges:

(1) How to provide for all of their loved ones without jeopardizing the special needs child’s current (or potential) eligibility for means-tested government benefits such as SSI and Medicaid;

(2) How to design an estate plan that supplements the special needs child’s means- tested government benefits and enhances the quality of the special needs child’s life;

(3) How to treat the other children equitably while adequately providing for the special needs child;

(4) How to make sure there are sufficient funds available at a parent’s death to care for the special needs child; and

(5) How to provide for the proper supervision, management, and distribution of an inheritance for the special needs child through a third-party created and funded SNT

When creating an Florida Estate Plan your lawyer should ask about special needs.

There are at least seven options for family philanthropy, each of which has its own
strengths and weaknesses from tax, regulatory, and personal perspectives. Some are extremely complex while others are simple.

1. Private Foundation According to the IRS in 2006 65% of the 80,000 private foundations had assets of less than 1 million dollars. Biggest reason for forming a foundation is control over the assets and expenditure.

Advantages: 1) Charitable deduction for the gift. 2)Distributions to individuals and foreign charities. 3) Control of charitable distributions 4) Control of administrative and investment management decisions. 5) Memorializing the family. 6) Endowing the family’s charitable priorities while maintaining long-term flexibility. 7) Platform for family philanthropy. 8) Visibility and influence for family members. 9) Protection of assets from personal bankruptcy

Disadvantages: 1) Lower annual gift limitations. 2)Limitations on the value of some contributed assets. 3) Excise taxes on income 4) Costs of creation and ongoing management. 5) Investment restrictions. 6) Potential for personal liability. 7) Complicated rules and procedures

2. Type III Supporting Organization: A supporting organization (SO) is a separately-established public charity that makes distributions to or for one or more public charities. Since the SO exists solely to support the public charity, it derives its “public” tax-exempt status from its nexus to those charities rather than from meeting the public support tests on its own.

Advantages: 1) Full benefit of public charity deduction rules 2) Supporting organization administrative role 3)Supporting organization grantmaking role.

Disadvantages: 1) Supporting organizations under Congressional scrutiny. 2) Public status at risk with certain transactions. 3)Burden to establish support status 4) Less control than with private foundation 5) Ongoing Congressional involvement 6) Limits on payments to family members or related parties 7) Type III SOs subject to as yet to be determined mandatory distributions 8) Limits on family business holdings in Type III SOs

3. Donor Advised Funds A donor advised fund is created by making a charitable gift to a publicly supported charity to create a segregated fund over which the donor or named individuals reserve the right to make non-binding recommendations to the sponsoring charity on the charitable entities to receive the funds. In the past, traditional community foundations and Jewish community foundations were the primary sponsors of donor advised funds. Over the last fifteen years, however, commercially sponsored donor advised funds have become popular. Under the legal definition established under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, a donor advised fund has the following three characteristics:

• A fund identified by reference to one or more donor contributions;
• Which is owned and controlled by the publicly supported (sponsoring) entity; and
• Over which the donor(s) has a reasonable expectation to advice on distributions or
investments for the amount (because of his status as donor).

Advantages 1) Funds managed by charitable sponsor/manager. 2) Staff resources support grantmaking. 3) Anonymous giving possible

Disadvantages 1) Loss of control 2) Institutionalized nature of fund may extend for only one or two generations below the donor 3) New limitations and requirements for charitable deduction. 4) Limitation on distributions from the advised fund. 5) Limitation on holdings through application of the excess business holdings rule. 6) Penalties for taxable distributions. 7) Penalties for more-than-incidental benefit distributions. 8) Penalties for excess benefit transactions

4. Charitable Lead Trust A charitable lead trust is an irrevocable trust that creates an income, gift, and estate tax charitable deduction for the present value of amounts irrevocably set aside for one or more charities over the term of the trust. When there is greater than a 5% probability the assets will be returned to the grantor at the end of the trust term, it is treated as a grantor trust. The donor is entitled to a charitable income tax deduction for the charitable portion in the year of gift but is taxed on the undistributed income and gains in the trust over its term. When the trust is structured to distribute the assets to family members or other individuals at the end of the trust term, the donor is entitled to a gift or estate tax deduction for the charitable portion of the transfer and the trust is taxed as a complex trust, responsible for payment of taxes on undistributed income.

Advantages 1) Platform to combine personal and charitable goals. 2)Current environment attractive to lead trust gifts. 3) Short-term foundation substitute 4)Short-term foundation substitute. 4) • Long-term philanthropy funding mechanism

Disadvantages 1) Complex trust tax rates. 2)Prohibited transaction rules apply. 3) Donor involvement limitations when lead trust funds private foundation

5. A “Charitable” Revocable Trust A “charitable” revocable trust is simply a revocable trust used for family philanthropy. The Donor funds the revocable trust with dollars that will be used to make charitable gifts. The trust adopts by-laws and operating procedures that bring the family together as trustees or an advisory board for the purpose of making distributions. And the donor – without creating an expensive, irrevocable structure– can engage in the process of teaching younger generations about philanthropy, engaging the family in philanthropic impact, and benefiting the community. In addition, the donor can add a testamentary provision that distributes any remaining assets to a donor advised fund, a private foundation, or any of the other philanthropic entities discussed here to perpetuate that giving.

Advantages: 1) Control and use of assets during life. 2)Platform to engage and train family members. 3) Little or low cost to create 4) Flexibility in determining charitable form at death. 5) Income, gift, and estate tax charitable deductions. 6) Discount and defer transfers to heirs

Disadvantages: 1) There is no immediate charitable deduction for assets transferred to the trust. 2) Assets set aside for charity not protected

6. Partnership With the Charity Sometimes donors do not need to create a separate entity, especially when charitable interests are focused narrowly on a single charity. In these instances, the donor may want to engage family members to fund a program over a defined period of time (or lifetime) or may want to create a permanent endowment using family members to provide ongoing advice and counsel.

Advantages: 1) Public charity tax benefits. 2) Achieving specific results and controlling the terms. 3) Flexibility to stop funding. 4)Louder voice. 5) Meeting goals.

Disadvantages: 1) No tax disadvantages. 2) For short-term projects, no ongoing pool of funds. 3) Potential lack of family interest.

7. Informal or Kitchen Table Philanthropy

Advantages: 1) Direct engagement with and training of family. 2) Flexibility. The arrangement is as flexible as the donor’s goals and objectives. 3) Ability to adjust annual contributions based on convenience, the economy, and need. 4) Ability to “test drive” and determine priorities

Disadvantages: 1) Temporary structure. 2)Avoids experience with administration

Seven states have enacted statutes that permit a trustee with discretion to distribute principal of a trust to exercise the discretion by transferring principal to a new trust, which may have terms different than the original trust. They are Alaska, Delaware, Florida, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota and Tennessee.

Main issues for using Decanting statutes:

1. The discretion the trustee of the first trust must have to use the
statute;
2. The permissible beneficiaries of the second trust;
3. Interests in the first trust that are protected from change;
4. The ability of a beneficiary-trustee to exercise a decanting power;
5. Whether the statute permits transfer to a trust in another state
and/or applies to trusts that move into the state; and
6. The effect of decanting under the rule against perpetuities.

Florida statute for decanting Fla. Stat. §736.04117 (2007)

§736.04117. Trustee’s power to invade principal in trust

(1)(a) Unless the trust instrument expressly provides otherwise, a trustee who
has absolute power under the terms of a trust to invade the principal of the trust,
referred to in this section as the “first trust,” to make distributions to or for the benefit
of one or more persons may instead exercise the power by appointing all or part of the
principal of the trust subject to the power in favor of a trustee of another trust, referred
to in this section as the “second trust,” for the current benefit of one or more of such
persons under the same trust instrument or under a different trust instrument; provided:

1. The beneficiaries of the second trust may include only
beneficiaries of the first trust;
2. The second trust may not reduce any fixed income, annuity, or unitrust interest in the assets of the first trust; and
3. If any contribution to the first trust qualified for a marital or charitable deduction for federal income, gift, or estate tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, the second trust shall not contain any provision which, if included in the first trust, would have prevented the first trust from qualifying for such a deduction or would
have reduced the amount of such deduction.

1 (b) For purposes of this subsection, an absolute power to invade principal shall include a power to invade principal that is not limited to specific or ascertainable purposes, such as health, education, maintenance, and support, whether or not the term “absolute” is used. A power to invade principal for purposes such as best interests, welfare, comfort, or happiness shall constitute an absolute power not limited to specific or ascertainable purposes.

(2) The exercise of a power to invade principal under subsection (1) shall be by an instrument in writing, signed and acknowledged by the trustee, and filed with the records of the first trust.

(3) The exercise of a power to invade principal under subsection (1) shall be considered the exercise of a power of appointment, other than a power to appoint to the trustee, the trustee’s creditors, the trustee’s estate, or the creditors of the trustee’s estate, and shall be subject to the provisions of s. 689.225 covering the time at which the permissible period of the rule against perpetuities begins and the law that determines the permissible period of the rule against perpetuities of the first trust.

(4) The trustee shall notify all qualified beneficiaries of the first trust, in writing, at least 60 days prior to the effective date of the trustee’s exercise of the trustee’s power to invade principal pursuant to subsection (1), of the manner in which the trustee intends to exercise the power. A copy of the proposed instrument exercising the power shall satisfy the trustee’s notice obligation under this subsection. If all qualified beneficiaries waive the notice period by signed written instrument delivered to the trustee, the trustee’s power to invade principal shall be exercisable immediately. The trustee’s notice under this subsection shall not limit the right of any beneficiary to object to the exercise of the trustee’s power to invade principal except as provided in other applicable provisions of this code.

(5) The exercise of the power to invade principal under subsection (1) is not prohibited by a spendthrift clause or by a provision in the trust instrument that prohibits amendment or revocation of the trust.

(6) Nothing in this section is intended to create or imply a duty to exercise a power to invade principal, and no inference of impropriety shall be made as a result of a trustee not exercising the power to invade principal conferred under subsection (1).

(7) The provisions of this section shall not be construed to abridge the right of any trustee who has a power of invasion to appoint property in further trust that arises under the terms of the first trust or under any other section of this code or under another provision of law or under common law.

Some of the common issues with naming beneficiaries on retirement accounts:
1) Make sure you name a beneficiary on a retirement account or estate will become beneficiary.
2) Multiple Beneficiaries on accounts can cause problems because all Beneficiaries must take the ADP of the oldest beneficiary
3) Lump sum distribution requirements- can be transfered to IRA.
4) If the beneficiary is a see through trust, then each beneficiary of the oldest beneficiary.
5) if the beneficiary is older than the participant, the life expectancy of the participant is used.

We previously reported that there were no RMD (required minimum distribution) in 2009. This turns out not to be trust in at least one case. If you turned 70.5 in 2008 and did not make your RMS in 2009 as required. You must still make your RMD by April 1, 2009

The University of Miami School of Law’s Heckerling Institute will host the 43rd Annual Estate Planning Conference from January 12 –16, 2009 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center.

The Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning is the nation’s leading conference for estate planning professionals. As the largest gathering of its kind in the country, the conference is designed to meet the educational needs of sophisticated attorneys, trust officers, accountants, insurance advisors, and wealth management professionals.

This year, the Institute offers a new series of programs focusing on the estate planning and administration issues associated with retirement plan benefits. The comprehensive series will provide registrants with a thorough understanding of the planning techniques involved in this growing practice area. This year’s Institute will also address the planning issues and opportunities presented by recent economic developments, changing demographics and the prospect for wealth transfer tax legislation in 2009. Conference sessions such as “Planning for the Unknown for 2010 and Beyond” and “Estate Planning for the Next Generation of Clients” reflect these timely concerns.

The Institute offers a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and network with leading estate planning professionals from around the country. The conference also offers the opportunity to review the latest in technology, products and services displayed by nearly 150 vendors in an exhibit hall dedicated entirely to the estate planning industry. Register for the conference at http://www.law.miami.edu/heckerling or call (305) 284-4762 for more information.

Professor Gerry Beyer, author of the WIlls, Trust & Estates Professor Blog wrote an article where a Texas court admitted a copy of a will which gave most of the assets to the decedents sister instead of the children. The will had been seen shortly before the decedents death and many people had access to it. Normally, if a will was last seen in the decedents possession and cannot be found the Florida Will is presumed to have been revoked by the decedent. But his presumption can be overcome as it was in this Texas case.

I have begun seeing attorneys advertise on Craigslist. Here is the latest one in San Francisco.
This San Francisco Estate Planning Lawyer is offering a 25% off on California Estate Planning.

I have tended to take a different approach and price my services at lower fixed rate than many of the Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyers. I am interested to find out If you would check craigslist for a lawyer ? If so please Le me know.

A common question with Florida Estate Planning is whether an adult who is adopted is considered a child. We often recomend that out clients places language in their Florida Wills or Florida Revocable Trusts that deal with these issues. The typical language deals with adopted children above or below a certain age. Most people want to consider children adopted at a young age the same as a child who is naturally born. Occasionally it is necessary for an adult to be adopted. This can happen to provide medical coverage or for other reasons. In these cases, individuals may not want to consider these adopted individuals the same as their naturally born or younger adopted children.

Gerry Beyer of the Wills, Trust & Estate professor Blog wrote an article on a Texas case where the court found that an adopted adult is not treated as a descendant. Gerry points out that this ase seems to be one where the court struggled with the facts and created bad case law to deal with the facts in the case.

Garry's moral is one that should be used in all estate planning documents. When making gifts to classes such as “children,” “grandchildren,” and “descendants,” settlors and testators should indicate whether adopted children are included and if adopted children are included, the age by which they need to be adopted to be included in the class.

There seems to be articles misquoting the Suspension of RMDs by Congress. Congress has not suspended the 2008 RMDs. As of this time The Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 is awaiting the President's signature.

One of the provisions of the bill is the suspension of required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2009 ONLY.
This applies to all RMDs from IRAs and employer plans for account owners AND beneficiaries. This temporary suspension will not affect an individual’s required beginning date. An individual who turns 70 ½ in 2008 and chooses to defer their first distribution to April 1, 2009 must still take that distribution.

Non-spouse Beneficiary Rollovers from Employer Plans Made Mandatory
A non-spouse beneficiary direct rollover provision mandatory for employer plans. All employer plans will be required to allow these direct rollovers to properly titled inherited IRAs after December 31, 2009.

Senior citizens in Florida are being warned to think before going to financial planning seminars and estate-preservation workshops that offer a “free lunch” or "free dinner" to lure seniors to attend.

The Florida AG's Office has received more than a dozen complaints from seniors enticed to attend a free meal that actually turned out to be a high-pressure sales pitch for investments that may be entirely inappropriate based on age and financial circumstance.

In quoting Attorney General Bill McCollum, the Naples Daily News reported that “The last thing our seniors need during this economic climate when their retirement savings may be dwindling is an investment scam that further depletes that nest egg”. “Too many of our seniors are finding that these free meals can cost them dearly.” The invitations often arrive by phone or mail and promise tips on earning great financial returns with minimal risk, eliminating taxes or avoiding probate. After a high-pressure presentation, salespeople then try to schedule follow-up visits in the homes of those who attend so they can continue the pitch. In addition to losing money, consumers who complained to the Attorney General reported being badgered by many unsolicited phone calls and frustrated by misrepresentation of the seminar’s purpose.

The UPC or Uniform Probate Code has been modified to accept a Notarized Will as valid. Lawrence W Waggoner, wrote an article "The UPC Authorizes Notarized Wills", 34 ACTEC 83 (Fall 2008). (This article was brought to my attention by Gerry Beyer of the Wills, Trust & Estate professor Blog)

The article begins by reviewing the history of attested wills which were derived from the English Statute of Frauds Act of 1837. The requirements state that the will must be (1) in writing, (2) signed by the testator, and (3) witnessed by attesting witnesses. The UPC also popularized the concept used in Florida of self-proved wills. A self-proved will allows the testator to execute a will and attach an affidavit to the will, notarized and signed by the testator and the attesting witnesses.

In 1990- the UPC adopted another new concept, the harmless error rule. Under the harmless error rule, a will that does not strictly comply with the statutory requirements for an attested will is treated as if it had been properly executed if the will is proved by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document to be his or her will. So far Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, Utah, and Virgina have adopted statutes based upon the Harmless-Error Rule.

In 2008, the UPC added Notarized Wills so that a will that is in writing, signed by the testator, and notarized is valid. The rational behind this is that the notary provides the same protections and removes the danger of reliability that is present with wills that are not witnessed by two attesting witnesses and that a Notarized Will is a logical an extension of the harmless error rule.

The UPC and many Non-UPC states authorize holographic wills ( Florida does not recognize a holographic will unless it also complies with the Florida statute of wills)

The article goes on to state that often lawyers who prepare a package of estate planning documents often miss a signature on one or more documents and the ability to use a notary protects the clients and the attorney from the mistakes and consequences associated with the improper execution of the a will. In addition, the Notarized Will option would benefit individuals who attempt to execute wills on their own. Given the high likelihood of errors in these wills it is hard to determine if this is a benefit or not.

If you would like a will reviewed in Florida contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

A Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer Blog has written another article on Problems with Michigan Trust Kits. While we have reported on these issues many times in Florida, there appear to be similar problems in other states. Christopher Berry, a Michigan Estate Planning Attorney, points out that Michigan citizens have lost over $200,000 because of poorly drafted Revocable Trust .

In addition, many of these Estate Planning Kits do not take Elder law issues into account when filling out the generic forms for individuals and their families. Please contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your individual needs.

Life insurance is counted as part of your taxable estate. Many people understand that life insurance is income tax free to the beneficiaries, but the do not know that the proceeds of a life insurance policy are usually counted as part of the decedent's estate for Federal Estate Tax purposes.

This increase in the taxable estate can often lead to estate tax or a death tax being due. 1,000,000 in life insurance can create as much as a $450,000 tax bill for the estate. To avoid this many individual create an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust or ILIT. An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust is a type of Florida Revocable Trust that is designed to hold and own life insurance policies. Once the ILIT is created you transfer ownership of your life insurance policies or purchase new policies in the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. By giving up all "incidents of ownership" over the policies the benefits of the policies are not part of your taxable estate when you die.

To find out how an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust can benefit you Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your situation.

If you are a Trustee or Guardian over property in Florida There are many things to consider when remodeling or purchasing an older home, which is common in the real estate industry.

I recently became aware of problems with some homes built before 1980 because they have a strong likelihood of containing asbestos. Due to a steady progression of technology and green sustainable methods, there are many ways to ensure your home or property is asbestos free. If you are interested in saving money, remodeling and improving your carbon footprint, here is some information that I found to help you get on the right track.

Asbestos insulation was used in millions of homes throughout the last quarter of the 20th century and can become a real dilemma for homeowners due to a variety of health problems, including malignant mesothelioma and a variety of other lung ailments. Mesothelioma takes the lives of thousands of people each year and has lead to a variety of mesothelioma lawyers throughout the nation. Manufacturers of asbestos products knew about the harmful effects of asbestos and continued manufacturing the products anyways.

Non-regulated asbestos material can be legally performed by homeowners, regular contractors, or licensed asbestos abatement contractors as long as the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) are not violated. Asbestos removal in public facilities, homes and workplaces must be undertaken by a licensed asbestos abatement contractor. Once the removal is complete, green insulation options should be given serious consideration, such as: Cellulose, Cotton Fiber and Lcynene.

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC), in a study conducted in 2003, estimated a savings of $50-$65 per square foot for well-constructed green buildings in the U.S. (see table below) during that year. The numbers continue to improve as more eco-friendly options become available, and those kinds of figures have finally begun to attract those who thought eco-friendly construction was just a bunch of hogwash.

If you are involved with property in Florida as a fiduciary, you may want to check out these resources to protect the assets. To discuss your potential liability, Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

a Florida Revocable Trust is a trust created during the life of an individual which can be modified, amended, or revoked at anytime during their life. Often they are used to:

1. avoid Florida Probate;
2. Keep your assets and decisions private;
3. Simplify after death distributions;
4. Increase the amount of the estate tax exemption for a couple;
5. Simplify the management of the beneficiary designations on property and other assets; and
6. Keep property separate in the case of a divorce.

A Florida Irrevocable Trust cannot be easily changed after the trust is created. It often takes consent of the creator, beneficiary, and trustee or judicial modification. A Florida Revocable Trust becomes irrevocable after the Settlor or Grantor dies. Florida Revocable Trusts are often used for:

1. Estate tax reduction;
2. Removing Life insurance proceeds from one's taxable estate;
3. Asset protection for the creator;
4. Asset protection for the beneficiaries;
5. Charitable Estate Planning; and

To determine what type of Florida Trusts would be best for you, you could Contact a Florida Trust Attorney or a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 temporarily raises the basic limit on federal deposit insurance coverage (FDIC) from $100,000 to $250,000 per depositor. WARNING the basic deposit insurance limit will return to $100,000 after December 31, 2009.

The rise in insurance coverage applies to most trust accounts with no more than five beneficiaries.

Some benefits of establishing a Florida Revocable Trust include of avoiding probate, transfer upon death of property,reduced taxes, and privacy.

A Florida elder law attorney or Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer can help you determine whether your trust accounts are adequately insured or tell you whether your situation merits setting up a trust.

To discuss ways to reduce your estate taxes, avoid probate, and make the transfer of assets upon your death easy for your family and friends Contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Attorney

The FDIC has extended FULL insurance coverage to all Florida IOTA trust accounts, regardless of amount on deposit or number of clients. The unlimited FDIC insurance is available at all financial institutions that participate in the FDIC's Transaction Account Guarantee Program. Please make sure that you comply with the trust accounting rules by placing all short term or nominal funds of clients and third parties in your IOTA trust account. Those funds, which are incapable of generating income for individuals, in excess of the costs to secure that income, are pooled in IOTA accounts the interest from which provides legal services for the poor and other law-related public interest programs approved by the Florida Supreme Court. If you have any questions about your ethical responsibilities relating to your trust account, please call the Bar's Ethics and Advertising Department at (800) 235-8619. If you have any questions about the mechanics of setting up an IOTA trust account or how the IOTA funds are used, please call The Florida Bar Foundation at (800) 541-2195.

The 2009 IRS annual gift tax exclusion is increasing form $12,000 to $13,000 for 2009.

This increase means that more money can be given away for estate tax planning purposes. For example, a married couple with two married children will be able to give away up to $104,000 in 2009 with no gift tax implications.

To discuss other ways of moving funds to your family or friends in order to reduce the effects of estate taxes, Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

In Florida, if you were married when a will was created by your spouse, a subsequent divorce will treat you as predeceasing your spouse in most cases. Even if you were living with your ex spouse, engaged, or had a new wedding date planned, a will executed before the divorce would not be valid in regards to anything devised from a person to his or her ex-spouse.

It is possible to talk with the family and if they agree, the beneficiaries can work together with the ex-spouse to provide assets after the death. The ex-spouse has no legal right to receive assets but it can be negotiated in a friendly arrangement.

If you are an ex-spouse who was friendly with their ex, contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your options.

if you have been divorced or reacquainted with someone from a prior marriage, it is important to update your Jacksonville Estate Planning Documents to reflect your current intentions.

I recently receive a copy of Quicken Willmaker 2009. I have previously written about many articles about the unintended results that occur with Do It yourself and Free Estate Planning Documents created by individuals without the advice of counsel and the problems with online document preparation services like LegalZoom and RocketLawyer.

I decided to try out a few of the documents in Quicken to see if they had improved the quality and accuracy of their Florida documents. Last week I wrote about problem with the Quicken Willmaker 2009 Durable Power of Attorney. This week I will be looking a the Revocable Living Trust. I have previously written about the many problems in using Quicken to create a Firearms Trust but for this article I will be focusing on the typical issues with regular estate planning and living trusts.

1. No free updates and old language, in order to keep your trust up to date, you need to purchase the software every year and hope they have dealt with changes in your state laws. Quicken seems to be slow at incorporating small or significant changes in the law. The changes in the new trust code from Florida in the years 2006 and 2007 have not been incorporated into the software. Quicken does not let you know what years statutes its language is based upon. Quicken states that when their users report problems they try to fix the program. Unfortunately, their users are not lawyers, and their users never find out about the problems. Their family may find problems when it is to late to make changes, but they have no way to ask, nor to they attempt to ask the beneficiaries to report problems.

2. Review your document is advice given to the users by Quicken. Quicken's instructions also state to make sure that your document says exactly what you want it to. Although Quicken recommends that you have your document reviewed by an attorney, they neglect to mention that useful advice in their instructions under the review section. Living trusts are complicated documents, how the state law interprets the language you choose is complicated. Lawyers have differing interpretations, how can a non-lawyer pretend to understand what the outcome of the language they choose will be. Want proof of this, check out Do It yourself and Free Estate Planning Documents and see some of the results that have occurred when users attempted to make their own trusts and wills.

3. Register your trust with the court? Quicken incorrectly advises that you must register your living trust with your local court. Although there are some states that do require this they incorrectly state that it is a requirement in Alaska, Colorado, Florida Hawaii, Idaho Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota.

4. Quicken WillMaker Doesn't Provide Legal Advice. The instructions state later that Quicken published legal forms that are useful in many situations but they can not tell you whether or not a form is right for you, given your circumstances. Only a lawyer can do this and you should consult a licensed attorney in your state.

The Trust

5. Part 2 of the trust declares that the assets mentioned in the trust have been delivered. While this may work for an assignment of interest, anything requiring a deed can not be transferred by this language. Individuals should not rely on this misleading statement and believe that their assets are transferred because they sign a sheet of paper that states that they have.

6. Revocation and Amendments: The Quicken trust allows revocation after one of the grantor's dies. Typically a revocable trust becomes irrevocable and cannot be changed once a settlor or grantor dies. Quicken does make this distinction when dealing with an amendment and states that the trust cannot be amended once a Grantor dies. I am not sure why or how they allow a trust to be revoked by not amended after the death of a Grantor.

7. Amendment by power of attorney: Florida case law states that a trust must specifically allow for amendment by a durable power of attorney, and the durable power of attorney must authorize the act specifically. The quicken trust includes language that the trust shall not be amended by an agent unless the document creating that power authorizes the amendment. This may or may not comply with the case law. It would be simple to ensure that it did comply compared to the language that is used.

8. Income. The Grantors are required to take all income from the trust at least annually. It would seem that this creates assets that are subject to probate and may not be what the individuals desire.

9. Successor Trustee. The successor trustee is chosen automatically but there does not appear to be an ability for someone else to choose a more appropriate trustee at the time one is needed. Quicken does give the last serving trustee the ability to appoint a new trustee if the successor trustee is unable or unwilling to serve. What happens if the trustee ceases serving because of death, who would have the power to appoint a new trustee? Quicken leaves this question unanswered.

10. Compensation. While Quicken allows for several choices for compensation, their no compensation choice does not contemplate the need to have a professional or corporate trustee.

11. Powers. The Quicken trust states that the trustee has all the authority and powers allowed or conferred on a trustee under Florida law. They do not tell you what these powers or authorities are or where to find a list of them. Also are they the powers granted when the document was signed, or when one goes to use the powers. While this may not seem important one should consider the substantial changes made in the area of a trustee's powers within the last 2 years in Florida.

12. Incapacity: Quicken gives the power to determine incapacity to a person, rather than a court conservator or guardian, or physicians. Under this trust it would be very easy for your children or whom ever you select to declare you incapacitated, remove you a trustee, and appoint a successor trustee of their choice.

13. Beneficiaries. Although quicken does appear to do a better job of checking the names of a beneficiary to make sure it is not a grantor, they only look for an exact match and do not question names that are close or provide a warning for any name. I found that it was possible to name yourself as your own beneficiary using a slightly different name, misspelling, or middle initial. This creates several problems and can void the trust.

14. Survivorship. The quicken trust voids a gift to a beneficiary if that beneficiary dies within 120 hours. This can cause some big problems when there are large unpaid medical bills related to the death of a beneficiary. To deal with this issue completely you should contact an estate planning lawyer.

15. Spendthrift provisions. Quicken does not make a mistake in this area because they do not address the concept.

16. Property transfer. Quicken does not address the potential for a re-evaluation of property taxes upon the transfer of a piece of property into the trust when the names on the trust are different than the current title on the property. Nor does quicken address the requirement that taxes may be assessed.

17. Choice of law, venue, arbitration, required notices under Florida Trust code. Quicken does not address these, perhaps they are not important. Whether that is true depends on your circumstances and what happens in the future, where you live when you die, where your beneficiaries live when you die. I personally feel that every trust should address these issues including the requirements of the new Florida Trust code, but if you use Quicken you will not have the benefit of these provisions either.

There are many mistakes in the Quicken documents, most disturbing might be some of the things that are not included in a Quicken trust. Quicken gives none of the flexibility to a trust that make it useful for the common person. A trustee under a Quicken trust could not do anything without creating liability to a beneficiary because by default they must act as a prudent trustee. If you have a trust created by Quicken 2009, 2008, 2007 or a previous version, you should have it reviewed by an estate planning lawyer. If you are in Jacksonville or anywhere in Florida Contact us about reviewing your Quicken Revocable Trust.

I recently receive a copy of Quicken Willmaker 2009. I have previously written about many articles about the unintended results that occur with Do It yourself and Free Estate Planning Documents created by individuals without the advice of councel and the problems with online document preparation services like LegalZoom and RocketLawyer.

I decided to try out a few of the documents in Quicken to see if they had improved the quality and accuracy of their Florida documents.

Problems and issues I encountered with the Quicken Durable Power of Attorney.

1) Willmaker 2009 now attempts to verify duplicate names but only catches them in the event that they are spelled exactly the same, they do no use any fuzzy logic to find and warn about names that are close. For Example David Goldman could be the agent for Dave Goldman, David M. Goldman, or David Michael Goldman. Although it will catch an exact duplicate, this problem allows for potentially invalid documents to be created.

2) The instructions suggest that the DPA must be filed at the courthouse to become effective, this is not true in Florida.

3) The instructions suggest that a revocation is not effective unless you file it with the courthouse and notify anyone who has a copy with the revocation. Although this is a good idea, the point of filing it with the courthouse is to put the world on notice. It is impossible to know everyone who would have received a copy or acted upon the validity of a Durable Power of attorney in the past. This can cause the individual to spend more than $120 in unnecessary filing fees.

4) The document does not comply the the Florida Statutes for Durable Powers of Attorney and as such the individual or agents have no right to sue and collect costs and fees associated with the improper denial of authority granted under the Durable power of attorney.
5) The document is effective upon the execution of the agreement, there is no option for deployment contingent (becoming effective upon incapacity), nor is there an option to limit the time that the document will be effective for. This is significant problem because it assumes that everyone wants to grant their agent the power to do anything they want and right now. In fact, very few individuals want to grant this type of power, and most who initially do, change their mind after learning what they will be doing from an attorney.

6) Their instructions warn that their conversion utility may not make an accurate conversion to Microsoft Word or RTF formatting so you need to verify that the versions are the same. This seems like something that they should have done prior to releasing the product to the public.

7) They inaccurately state that the witnesses signatures must appear on the same page as yours.

8) they do not save the footers and suggest that you break each section into a unique document and insert footers with the instructions found in the manual. This is not necessary and for most documents the footers are unnecessary and not a requirement of Florida Law.

9) States that the agent must have the original Durable Power of Attorney to act. A copy of the Durable Power of attorney is just as valid as the original. In fact, if you follow their MANDATORY (but not really mandatory) instructions of filing the document in the county records the original may be kept they the county.

10) They recommend asking your Agent not to use it unless your incapacitated. There is no requirement for them not to act, and no liability for the agent if he does act. This is not the proper way of dealing with this issue under the Florida Statutes.

11) They do have a nice warning which states that if you do not understand anything about this document you should ask a lawyer to explain it to you. We are not sure if that warning is intended for the agent or the principal.

12) Quicken appears to have a provision which creates a Pre-Need Guardian designation within their power of attorney. Typically this is a separate document which is filed in the county records. Although, if you file the recommendation and file the document in the county records, there would appear to be a public record of this request, it might be overlooked or ignored by the court because it is hidden inside a power of attorney. In addition, by statute, a DPA becomes ineffective once you receive notice of a pending petition for guardianship. This would appear to make your nomination invalid during that time.

SUMMARY: While the Quicken WIllMaker can produce a valid Durable Power of Attorney in Florida banks, businesses, and others can refuse to honor it without liability because it does not comply with the Florida statutes. You can also create invalid document, will unnecessarily spend more than an additional $120 in state filing fees, create a potentially invalid pre-need guardian selection, and expose yourself to unnecessary risk and liability.

Conclusion: For around the same price as the software and the recording fees, you can have an attorney discuss your needs and draft a document that provides you additional protections that comply with Florida law. In addition, for most people a deployment contingent Durable Power of Attorney is what is needed compared to the higher risk document created by Quicken. There are many mistakes and misguidance found within the generic documents created by the software package.

If you are looking for a Free or Low cost Durable Power of attorney, it may be less expensive and a better value to contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer.

The provision allowing IRA owners over age 70 ½ to transfer up to $100,000 of their IRA directly to charity has been RETROACTIVELY extended through the end of 2009 (as if it never expired).

This provision was part of the massive bailout legislation officially known as the “Emergency Economic Stabilization, Energy Improvement and Extension, and Tax Extenders and AMT Relief Acts of 2008”

It is so far being referred to in the short version as The “2008 Economic Stabilization Act”

H.R. 1424 was signed into law by the President on October 3, 2008.

In re Estate of Carpenter, 253 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 1971), the Florida Supreme Court stated to raise the presumption of undue influence, a plaintiff must show a confidential relationship between the donor and the donee and active procurement of the gift. Because courts have found that a confidential relationship exists in most relationships, the real issue comes down to active procurement of the gift. Recently Patrick Lannon wrote a summary of case law on the topic for the Florida Bar journal. Carpenter gives a list of seven factors of active procurement of a will, the:

1) presence of the beneficiary at the execution of the will;
2) presence of the beneficiary on those occasions when the testator expressed a desire to make a will;
3) recommendation by the beneficiary of an attorney to draw the will;
4) knowledge of the contents of the will by the beneficiary prior to execution;
5) giving of instructions on preparation of the will by the beneficiary to the attorney drawing the will;
6) securing of witnesses to the will by the beneficiary; and
7) safekeeping of the will by the beneficiary subsequent to execution.

1) the donee’s level of involvement in the donor’s affairs;
2) the donee’s level of involvement in the actual gift in question;
3) the relationship of the donee to the donor as compared to the natural objects of the donor’s bounty;
4) the secrecy or openness of the transaction;
5) the effect of the transfer on the donor’s pre-existing estate plan; and
6) the physical health and mental acuity of the donor at the time of the gift.

If you would like help in structuring transfers of property to help avoid the appearance of an improper transfer of property, Contact a Florida Will Attorney or a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to review your case.

If you believe you have been harmed by the improper transfer of property, Contact a Florida Probate Litigation Attorney or a Florida Trust Litigation Lawyer to review your case.

Update:
Jacksonville Probate Lawyer, David Goldman has put together a Florida Probate Handbook that is being offered free to readers and visitors of his websites. If you would like a copy, visit the Free Florida Probate Handbook web page, fill out the form, and one will be sent to you within 24 hours by email.

Florida Statute 193.1556 requires that any changes regarding a person or entity owning real property under Florida Statute 193.1554 or Florida Statute 193.1555 are reported to the property appraiser.

This may affect some Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deeds. Under Florida Statute 193.1554(5), If the property is nonhomestead residential property, there is an exemption for the transfer between husband and wife, including transfer to a surviving spouse or a transfer due to a dissolution of marriage. The transfer to a revocable trust will not trigger a new assessment at fair market value.

On the other hand for all residential and non-residential property which is not protected by homestead there doesn't appear to be the same exemption under Florida Statute 193.1555(5).

In either case the transfer to a Florida Revocable Trust where there is simply a change between legal and equitable title, will not trigger a new assessment at fair market value.

One new issue is that it is now required to report a change in ownership or control when a business entity owns property. In the past, many were able to sell an entity and no notice to re-evaluate the taxable base would be generated. Now if you convert real property to personal property by selling the ownership in an LLC instead of the real estate holdings of the LLC, you still have to report the change in ownership.

To read more on Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deeds or Florida Revocable Living Trusts read some of the articles on this site or Contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer

Greedy Trustees can be a problem in Florida Probate Litigation and Florida Trust Litigation. Often the Trustee must be removed to resolve the issues. Adrian Thomas a Florida lawyer who specializes in Florida Trust and Probate Litigation sent me an article where he discusses individual and corporate trustees. Often banks and financial institutions make their money by managing Florida Revocable Trusts and Florida Irrevocable Trusts. In recent interviews by news organizations, some employees talked about abuse of powers and improper investments that placed profits ahead of the best interest of the beneficiaries of the Florida Trusts.

Some of the abuses included:

Charging inflated fees;
Making distributions difficult for the beneficiaries;
Not considering compelling circumstances for distributions of allocation of principal and income; and
Naming themselves beneficiaries or trustees in the wills of elderly Florida Citizens.

The new Florida Trust Code includes remedies which allow the court to inquire into the appropriateness of a trustee and evaluate a change in circumstances for a judicial modification of the trust. In addition, Section 736.0706(2)(d) allows a trustee to be removed when there is a change in circumstances and the removal would best serve the interest of the beneficiaries.

Many of these problems can be addressed in the drafting of the Florida Living Trust by creating language and terms that beneficiaries can remove or modify the terms when it is in the best interest of the beneficiaries. In addition, judicial modification is a process where the court can modify a trust for similar circumstances. In Aelillo v. Hyland one beneficiary was favored over another beneficiary. The Florida Court removed the trustee because of conflict of interest.

If you feel that your are not being treated fairly by the trustee of a Florida Trust which you are the beneficary of Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who deals in Florida Probate Litigation or Florida Trust Litigation

There is a new site which is putting together a list of Estate Planning and Probate professionals including lawyers for each state. You can find them at www.Estate-Attorneys.net.

If a person's usual place of dwelling was in Florida then the original probate should be opened in Florida. We see cases where someone is in the process of or has just moved to Florida and the issue of where to open a probate becomes more complex. In those instances where it may be difficult to determine the exact residence of the decedent there are several factors that should be evaluated to determine the residence.

1) Ownership of a home(s), and the percentage of time spent in each state.
2) Had the decedent applied for and are they currently receiving homestead exemptions in either state?
3) Where is the decedent employed?
4) Does the decedent own business interests?
5) If a homestead cannot be determined, where else does decedent own property?
6) Where are their federal tax returns filed?
7) State of Vehicle registration, Drivers license.
8) Location of Will, Ownership of cemetery lot.
9) Affidavit of domicile as found in Florida Statutes 222.17.
10) Religious, social, and union affiliations.
11) Charitable contributions.
12) Children's school attendance or activities.
13) Official termination of residence in one state by notice to taxing officer, cancellation of voter registration, change of DL, vehicle registration, and insurance.
14) Specific provisions in the will reciting the domicile.

Although the state of Florida accepts wills created in other states when they were valid in the state where created, not all of the will may be valid. Recently, I ran across a will that named an accountant of the decedent as their Personal Representative. Several months later the decedent moved to Florida and eventually died without updating the will.

The problem started with the fact that the accountant was not related or married to someone who was related to the decedent. This is a disqualification of a Personal Representative in Florida. The result was that the decedent did not get to choose their Personal Representative.

If you have a will that was prepared in another state and want a Florida lawyer to review it for compliance with Florida law so that your desires are carried out upon your death, Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to review your Estate Planning Documents.

The new Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Web site for the Apple Law Firm PLLC has gone live. This site will act as a hub for the Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog and the NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog.

Its been a long month setting up the new website and more pages will be added as time permits. For now the Jacksonville, Florida based Apple Law Firm deals with:

Florida Asset Protection
Business Formation
Florida Estate Planning
Firearms Trust
Florida Guardianship
Florida Probate Litigation
Florida Trust Litigation and
Florida Trusts

The Florida Constitution protects one's Homestead from creditors. One provision that is often misunderstood is a devise of a homestead in a will when there are minor children in the family. In some cases two people are getting married and one has a home and a minor child. The spouse may draft a will that states that the home goes to the future husband, but what happens if the spouse dies before the child reaches the age of 18?

Under the Florida Homestead Protections, the house does not pass as the will states, but the homestead goes to the minor child with a life estate going to the surviving spouse. Sometimes this appears to be an intentional mistake in a will to appease a future spouse but the clause does little to provide a fee simple ownership the the decedent's homestead.

If you are getting married or your spouse had a home prior to your marriage that is now your Homestead, be careful that any attempted devise of the home when there are minor children will create a default condition establishing a life estate for the surviving spouse and remainder for the children even if one is a minor.

To have your will reviewed for invalid clauses or to update a Florida will Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

LegalZoom and RocketLawyer are two of the many online services that allow individuals to create their own wills at low costs. Many times they are below the cost for a single hour of legal time from an attorney. The real question is whether they are a good value for individuals. Rebecca Kennedy with Everyday Simplicity Blog has a detailed analysis of the positives and negatives where she quotes a previous article on some of the problems with RocketLawyer that I previously wrote about.

Rebecca states that although the prices are low and may serve your needs, you are taking a risk by using these document services to create estate planning documents. She points to the following:
What if the will is not valid after you die?
What if the incorporation documents are not respected or as complete as necessary in a future civil suit.
What if your assets are not protected because of the choices that were made?
What if divorce documents are not valid?

With LegalZoom or RocketLawyer you have to hope that you get far more than you pay for.

Legal Zoom and RocketLawyer cannot and do not claim to be up to date with the ever changing state laws and do not offer any legal advice.

Often I see clients who have created perfectly valid legal documents with free or low cost providers but do not realize the problems they have created by executing them. Many families are unable to get Medicaid coverage for their loved ones because they executed a deed to transfer property. The use of an attorney offers far more than creating documents; the lawyer will examine your current and future circumstances to make sure the choice you are making will not cause problems down the road.

If you are looking to create a Florida Will or Florida Estate Planning document Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss your circumstances and create documents that do what you want.

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.

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

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.

The Florida Supreme court has ruled affirmatively on the question presented to it.

Whether, under Florida Statutes section 689.07(1) as it existed before
its 2004 amendment, this Deed––which is a recorded real estate
conveyance deed to a named trustee of a private express trust
identified in the deed by name and date, and contains other language
referring to the unrecorded trust agreement, the settlors, and the
beneficiaries––conveys only legal title to the property in trust to the
grantee as trustee.

In Raborn v. Menotte, 974 So. 2d 328 (Fla. 2008), the court held that a deed which identifies the grantor as the creator of and the grantee as trustee of a named trust shows sufficient “contrary intention” and grants legal title as trustee to the grantee.

This case was brought to my attention by an article by Gerry Beyer on the WIlls, Trust, & Estates professors Blog.

Spendthrift clauses can be confusing to trustees. The general idea with a Florida Spendthrift clause is that the beneficiaries cannot assign their interest in the trust to a creditor ( voluntarily or involuntarily)

Here is the test found in a typical clause under the new Florida Trust Code

Spendthrift Provisions. Each trust created by this Trust Agreement shall be a spendthrift trust to the fullest extent allowed by law. Prior to the actual receipt of trust property by any beneficiary, no property (income or principal) distributable under any trust created by this Trust Agreement shall, voluntarily or involuntarily, be subject to anticipation or assignment by any beneficiary, or to attachment by or to the interference or control of any creditor or assignee of any beneficiary, or be taken or reached by any legal or equitable process in satisfaction of any debt or liability of any beneficiary, and any attempted transfer or encumbrance of any interest in such property by any beneficiary hereunder prior to distribution shall be void.

The most common application of a Spendthrift Provision is to protect against involuntary assignment or bankruptcy.

While this may be fine with a small estate, this question often comes up with larger estates.
Why would I want to void my child's right to his 5 Million dollar distribution to avoid paying his creditors $25,000. Would it not be better in such a case to pay of the creditor and let my child enjoy and use the benefits of the trust rather than treat his a being predeceased?

Although it is not clear, the trustee can take this into consideration and make the distribution even though the creditor will receive a small portion of the decedents estate.

In these types of cases, I prefer to include language that a trustee can, in their discretion, make a payment when they know that a portion will go to a creditor of the beneficiary. Some times there is a limit placed on the amount and other times there is no limit placed on the maximum amount that can be used to pay a beneficiaries debts.

The Louisiana Estate Planning Law Blog has an article Whether you should include a "Spendthrift Trust" in your will? where they discuss using a spendthrift trust to prevent your children from loosing the money you leave to them.

If you want to make sure your children do not spend or loose all the money or assets you leave to them. It is also common to include a spendthrift provision in a NFA Gun or Firearms Trust to protect the items from being lost to a creditor. To find out more about how a Spendthrift Clause can help you Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer
about including a Spendthrift Provision in your Florida Estate Planning Documents

It could be happening again in Florida, The Palm Beach Post has a report on a similar case. If you do not have a Florida Living Will now is the time to get one.

Karen Weber did not have a Florida Living Will when she suffered a seizure back in November. Her husband wants to disconnect the feeding tube that has kept her alive for the past 7 months.

The courts have not ruled on Ms. Weber's condition and it is Mr. Weber's intent to keep it a private matter.

Who could forget the circus that can arise when such an emotional issue is tried in the court of public opinion.

If you need a living will you can get a free one, I have previously posted a Free Florida Living Will on this site.

If you need help with Florida Estate Planning Documents please Contact a
Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

Seven weeks ago, I got a new puppy. I was thinking of a way to protect myself from Florida's Strict Liability for Dog Bites. Most states have a one free bite rule, but Florida does not and makes the owner of the Dog liable for all damage by the dog from the first bite.

In walks the Florida Revocable Trust. I began thinking that if you set up a separate revocable trust that owned the dog, you could transfer the liability of the dog's future actions to the revocable trust.

I began reading the Florida Statutes and sure enough the statute states that the "owner" is the party liable. Figuring that this must be too easy, I kept reading. It seems that when the state creates statutes, the often hide the real details in some other part of the statute. Sure enough after a few minutes I found that "Owner" as defined in the statute means any person, firm, corporation, or organization possessing, harboring, keeping, or having control or custody of an animal or, if the animal is owned by a person under the age of 18, that person's parent or guardian.

So while the trust would be liable as the owner, so would the person who the animal was staying with and the person keeping the animal, and the person in control or custody of the animal at the time of the attack.

So what did I learn from this exercise? You should be very careful when offering to take care of someone's pet while they are out of town as the person in control and / or custody is just a liable as the person or entity that owns the animal. More over your homeowners insurance may cover your liability as an owner, but I am not sure if they would cover damage caused by a pet that you did not own.

The only other way to protect yourself from liability is to have good insurance and / or protect your other assets.

To discuss potential sources of liability that you can help protect your self and your families assets from, you should contact a Florida Asset Protection Lawyer or read more on Florida Asset Protection

For families living in Florida, choosing a guardian for their minor children is a primary reason why a Florida Will is such an important document to create and keep updated.

Often choosing who will care for your children is a difficult decision. Many families find it the hardest decision that they make in terms of estate planning. This is one area where it is common for the husband and wife to have completely different views of who should raise their children in the event that both the husband and wife die prior to the children reaching the age of 18.

First it is important to know that the planning is more important than agreeing with your spouse. Although it can create some tension between spouses, it is important to know that should one of you predecease the other, and then the surviving spouse gets to make their own decision anyway. Also, as long as one of you lives until the children reach the age of 18, it will not matter who you choose.

It is more important to discuss the reasons with each other and if possible come to a decision as to what is important to each of you than to try to come to a decision that one of you does not agree with.

The Georgia Wills, Trust, and Estate Planning Blog has an article on choosing the right guardian for your children where the break down the process into three steps. This three-step approach should make the process easier to accomplish without damaging the marriage.

Step 1 Make a list of people - make it long and include everyone that would make a better home for your children than the foster care system.

Step 2 Decide What Matters the Most - choose factors that are important and rank them in an order of priority. Some examples are maturity and patience, parenting style, religious beliefs, values, ability to care for additional children, and do not forget their willingness to serve (don't forget to ask them)...

Step 3 Match People to the Priorities - rank and evaluate your choices. Listen to each other and try to come up with a coherent reason for the choices you will make as a couple, or individually. Remember you may not be exactly happy with your spouses’ choice, but if you live longer you get to change your mind anyway. Perhaps its better to come up with someone you can both agree upon in case you both die simultaneously.

To choose a guardian properly, you should make a valid Florida will. Please contact a Florida Will Attorney or Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to help you prepare valid documents that accomplish your goals.

Before making a Florida will you should think these things before drafting or having your Florida will modified.

In Florida to create a valid will the person needs to know what assets they have, who they are giving them to, and have an understanding of who they would go to if they were not listed in the Florida Will.

In addition, there are specific execution requirements to make sure the resulting document is a valid Florida will. The Jersey Estate Planning Blog
has a nice summary of what should be considered when creating a will.

I have adopted the issues to Florida, but in general they mention the following issues to consider when making a Will:

1) What assets will put into the Florida will.
2) Who you are going to leave your assets to;
3) Who will administer your will?
4) Who will care for (minor children) both financially and physically?
5) Who will witness the execution of your Florida Will

A Florida will is a very important document and careful attention should be paid to what it states and how it is executed. Unlike other documents that you may sign during your life, this document cannot be changed once you die. I like to contrast it to dying your hair, if you do not like the color you can seek the help of a professional, try again, let it grow out, or even cut it off and wait for your hair to re grow. With a Florida will or a will in any state, you do not have any of these options and your family, heirs, and beneficiaries do not get the chance to make changes because of unforeseen changes or poor choice of words.

Most people think a Florida Will is an expensive document to create, but generally they are not much more than what you would pay an online service. Many online services allow you to create documents that have unintended consequences. I have a section on this blog with many examples of estate planning problems created by the wrong choice of words. Before you create a Florida Will you should contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer or a Florida Will Lawyer to discuss your needs and objectives.

Florida QPRT (Qualified Personal Residence Trust): Options:

Often clients want to make sure their homes go to their children. In Florida, a homestead will automatically go to your descendants and be protected. One of the problems is that although the home is generally not subject to Florida Probate, the value of the home at the time of their death is subject to estate tax. Once option of leaving a home to children is to use a special trust designed for the home. There are many advantages and disadvantages of using a Qualified Personal Residence Trust in Florida (QPRT).

Andrew Ewalt recently wrote an article on this on his Legal Blog where he listed the basic Pros and Cons. It is important that there are risks involved with a QPRT and each persons situation needs to be evaluated to determine if this is the right way to deal with the transfer of one's Florida Homestead. QPRT's are not for everyone, and many who used them in the past have ended them because of the changes in tax laws and how they impact their individual estate plan. As with all Florida Estate Planning it is important to review and update you estate plan on a regular basis.

The Advantages of a QPRT that Andrew list are

1. A QPRT removes any appreciated value of a house from a parent's estate which can help reduce estate tax liability.
2. The parents can continue to live in the house during the term of the trust.
3. Both residence and vacation homes can qualify.
4. Often more than one home can be protected.
5. When the trust term ends the children receive the home.

1. Capital gains tax can be a significant factor on the sale of the home because the cost basis of the house remains the same as it was for the parents. (as the capitol gains is suppose to increase shortly, this can be a significant issue)
2. If the parents die before the trust terminates the home will not be devalued for estate tax purposes. Thus it is very important the parents survive for the term of the trust.
3. Children will become their parents landlord when the trust terminates. As such children could evict their parents or increase the rent to live in the home.
4. These trusts are very complicated. In order to set one up you will need a lawyer.

If you live in Jacksonville or have property in Florida that you are considering placing in a Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) you should discuss your personal situation by Contacting a Jacksonville Estate Planning Attorney

POWERS OF THE ATTORNEY IN FACT AND LIMITATIONS IN FLORIDA

Except as otherwise limited by statute (below), by other applicable law, or by the durable power of attorney, the attorney in fact has full authority to perform, without prior court approval, every act authorized and specifically enumerated in the durable power of attorney. Such authorization may not include:

1. Perform duties under a contract that requires the exercise of personal services of the principal;
2. Make any affidavit as to the personal knowledge of the principal;
3. Vote in any public election on behalf of the principal;
4. Execute or revoke any will or codicil for the principal;
5. Create, amend, modify, or revoke any document or other disposition effective at the principal's death or transfer assets to an existing trust created by the principal unless expressly authorized by the power of attorney; or
6. Exercise powers and authority granted to the principal as trustee or as court-appointed fiduciary.

PROPERTY SUBJECT TO DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY IN FLORIDA.
Unless otherwise stated in the Florida durable power of attorney, the durable power of attorney applies to any interest in property owned by the principal, including, without limitation, the Principal's interest in all real property, including homestead real property; all personal property, tangible or intangible; all property held in any type of joint tenancy, including a tenancy in common, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, or a tenancy by the entirety; all property over which the principal holds a general, limited, or special power of appointment; chooses in action; and all other contractual or statutory rights or elections, including, but not limited to, any rights or elections in any probate or similar proceeding to which the principal is or may become entitled.

If you have questions about the validity or scope of your Florida Durable Power of Attorney Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer

Once an Agent (Attorney in fact) receives written notice which requires a signature, their powers under the Durable Power of Attorney are suspended until the court determines incapacity. The court may reinstate the Durable Power of Attorney for an emergency, when a petition if file upon the court showing the nature of the emergency, the property or matter involved, and the power to be exercised by the attorney in fact.

Notwithstanding the provisions above, a proceeding to determine incapacity must not affect any authority of the attorney in fact to make health care decisions for the principal, including, but not limited to, those defined in chapter 765, unless otherwise ordered by the court. If the principal has executed a health care advance directive designating a health care surrogate pursuant to chapter 765, the terms of the directive will control if the two documents are in conflict unless the durable power of attorney is later executed and expressly states otherwise.

If the person has not received written notice of the proceeding for which they were required to sign for, any third party may rely upon the authority granted in a durable power of attorney that is not conditioned on the principal's lack of capacity to manage property until the third party has received the required notice. A third party may, but need not, require the attorney in fact to execute an affidavit.

If the Durable Power of Attorney is deployment contingent, any third party may rely upon the authority granted in a durable power of attorney to manage property as defined in Florida Statute 744.102(11)(a) only after receiving the affidavits provided in paragraphs (c) and (d), and such reliance shall end when the third party has received notice.

Continue reading "Guardianship and Durable Power of Attorney in Florida" »

Where can I get a Form for Florida Lady Bird Deed is a question that I am often asked. Florida Lady Bird Deeds are generally not available on the Internet because not many Florida Lawyers even know what they are. They are also far more complex than a regular deed.

I have seen several cases where clients used Ladybird deed that were not acceptable to Title insurance companies and the families had to open probate cases to clear the title on the property after the death of the grantor.

Because of this when we created our deeds we went to many title companies to get their feedback and modified our deed and they way they are filed to be in compliance with the title companies requirements.

In addition the language that is used on the remainder interest is very important because it is possible that the person named might not survive the original owner. If the wrong language is used, the property will revert back to the original owners estate and could potentially be subject to the claims of the creditors and Medicaid liens. They are often used in Florida Medicaid Planning.

If you need a Ladybird deed in Florida, you should Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer who is familiar with Ladybird deeds.

When Selecting an attorney for will preparation it is important that they take a look at your full financial condition. Often clients think they want an attorney for will preparation but in fact need other types of estate planning.

You should be prepared to give full financial disclosure as well as all information about your family dynamics to make sure that the right Florida Estate Planning Documents are created for you.

Often clients do Florida Estate Planning in anticipation of an overseas trip or international relocation. They often ask if they should make special considerations because of their anticipated location.

Generally we advise clients that the planning is basically the same even if they will be living overseas for an extended period of time. The one area where there may be differences is in their Durable Power of Attorney where it might be advisable to make changes.

These changes require an evaluation of the current and anticipated needs of the individual client and cannot be generalized.

If you are planning an international trip, going on a cruise, or moving overseas for a time, you should contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss or review your Florida Estate Planning Documents .

Although there are no current verdicts against Florida Companies, many states have taken action against living Trust Scams / Trust Mills / and Elder Law Planning Seminars. Michael Bonasera of Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP and author of the The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog wrote an article titled Living Trust Scams/Trust Mills/Elderlaw Planning Seminars - STAY AWAY! where he mentions a previous posting on this Blog, Florida Estate Planning Lawyers Blog, on a similar topic dealing with a Texarkana Arkansas class action suit.
I thought I would start a list of Living Trust Scam Articles and resources on my blog.

1. Texarkana Arkansas Living Trust Seminar Class Action suit
2. California Living Trust Mill Judgment
3.Texas Bar story reported by Professor Beyer of Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog- Living trust Scams and Senior Consumer
4. Michael Bonasera wrote an article titledLiving Trust Scams/Trust Mills/Elderlaw Planning Seminars - STAY AWAY! where he Ohio's history with Trust Mills and cites a case Ohio Trust Mill Case of Cleveland Bar v Sharp Estate Services, Inc. which seems to have ended Trust Mills in Ohio.
5. Minnesota Sues "Trust Mills" on Consumeraffairs.com
6. Beware of Trust Mills when Estate Planning - by Randall Armour, CA Lawyer- reported on by Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog
7. Don’t Trust the “Trust Mills”, Traci D. Ellis Esquire

If anyone has heard of additional Living Trust Scam / Trust Mill or Elderlaw planning Seminar articles please contact me and let me know and I will update the list.

There are many places to get advice on the Internet. Be sure when you are looking for legal advice, you are working with a licensed lawyer. Below is the finding of the Ohio State Bar in regards to one such service.

We the People is a franchise that provides forms and help in legal matters including wills, trusts, divorces, bankruptcy and other areas of law.

The Ohio State Bar found that they were practicing law without a license because they were owned and operated by attorneys not licenced in Ohio and advised individuals with respect to the completion of forms for filing a personal bankruptcy, application of probate, advising individuals on how to complete the forms and what answers to put down, directing individuals to execute documents and charging them for services, instructing completion of forms in disregard for proper procedures and determination by the Bankruptcy Court that the filing was incomplete, preparation of unnecessary and incorrect form for administration of an estate, preparing improperly completed forms for a bankruptcy, issuing advertisements, and advertising the preparation of services for living trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and incorporation's.

They were enjoined form further engaging in the unauthorized practice of law and from damaging members of the public and fined $10,00 per occurrence as a civil penalty as well as court costs.

To read more download the case Ohio State Bar Association v. Martin et al., No. 2007-1939, 2008 Ohio 1809; 2008 Ohio Lexis 1024 (April 23, 2008)

A *Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed or Florida LadyBird Deed is designed to pass the property if any to a person upon the death of the life tenant while allowing the life tenant to do anything during their life.

What happens if the person named in the remainder interest predeceases the life tenant?
This is
From A to B for life (with enhanced powers) remainder to C.
If C dies before B, and then B dies the property will revert to A or A's Estate upon B's Death.

This can be problematic when claims are potential claims against A's estate.

Solutions:
1) When C dies, B should change the Enhanced Life Estate Deed
2) create the deed in such a way that the language of the deed specifies that the property does not go back to A or A's heirs

If you need a Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed or Florida LadyBird Deed Contact a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to create a deed that serves your needs and minimizes your risks.

A Florida Living Trust is a Florida Revocable Trust created while a person is alive, while a Bypass Trust is usually a testamentary irrevocable trust. Some Bypass Trusts are created by a Living Trusts or even Florida Will.

A Trust is an ownership arrangement where property is held in the name of a "trustee" rather than in the name of the person who really owns the property. It is a separation of legal and equitable ownership. People often create Living Trusts for their own benefit, to avoid probate, address the possibility of future incapacity, or keep their finances private.

Normally, the person who creates a Living Trust names himself or herself as trustee and as beneficiary. Upon that person's death, all or a portion of the property which remains in the Living Trust passes according to the terms specified in the trust agreement.

A Bypass Trust is created when a husband or wife dies and their assets are more than the estate tax deduction. Currently this is when a couple is worth over $2,000,000. The Bypass Trust is a way to shelter the first spouse's $2,000,000 exemption from taxation when the surviving spouse dies, thereby doubling the amount that can be left tax-free to $4,000,000.

Also a Bypass Trust can protect the trust property from creditors' claims, and allow the deceased spouse to direct where the trust property passes when the other spouse dies.

529 accounts are good and are one of the best ways to save for a child's education.

When paying for college there are many options.

Uniform Transfers to Minors Accounts;
Education IRAs;
Prepaid tuition plans; and
529 plans to name a few.

The biggest advantage is that earnings and most withdrawals are free of income unless they are not used for tuition, room, board, and other authorized expenses.

Another advantage is that gifts to a 529 account can be made in larger amounts. Typical gifts can only be $12000 per person per