Estate Planning

October 28, 2008

Florida Will leaves everything to ex wife

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.

October 27, 2008

Using Quicken to prepare a trust: The good, the bad, and ugly!

by David M. Goldman

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.

October 16, 2008

Free Florida Durable Power of Attorney and related problems – Quicken 2009 Florida Problems (part 1)

by David M. Goldman

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.

October 15, 2008

Charitable IRA rollovers are back

by David M. Goldman

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”

September 18, 2008

Notice of ownership or control change now required in Florida transactions involving real property

by David M. Goldman

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).

September 11, 2008

How to deal with greedy Trustees in Florida: Trustee Removal

by David M. Goldman

Florida Greedy Trustee Removal 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 deals with 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;

September 10, 2008

Estate Planning Attorneys

by David M. Goldman

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.

September 10, 2008

Where should a probate be opened? In Florida?

by David M. Goldman

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?

August 15, 2008

Florida Defective Wills: Invalid Personal Representative

by David M. Goldman

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.

August 14, 2008

Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Site Goes Live

by David M. Goldman

The new Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer Web site for the Law Office of David M. Goldman 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 Law Office of David M. Goldman PLLC deals with:

Florida Asset Protection

Florida Estate Planning