Estate Planning

September 15, 2006

Advantages of Estate Planning tools

There are many tools for estate planning in Florida. Findlaw has a nice table that summarizes the benefits provided by some of the more common estate planning tools. Be sure to talk to a Florida estate planning attorney for the details of each and your specific circumstances.

This table Covers the effects when there is no will, there is a basic will, the will contains a pour-over will, a living trust, and AB Trust ( a trust for each spouse), and a QTIP Trust. Larger estates often utilize additional tools like the family limited partnership and Testamentary Charitable Lead Annuity Trusts.

September 14, 2006

Estate Planning- Planning for Incapacity

by David M. Goldman

A Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Directive / Living WIll are two additional documents that should be part of every family’s estate plan, in addition to a Will or Living Trust.

An Advance Health Care Directive appoints someone to make medical decisions for you if you become incapacitated. It also tells doctors what kind of medical care you do, or don’t, want at the end of your life.

A Durable Power of Attorney for Property Management appoints someone to manage your finances for you if you become incapacitated.

September 12, 2006

Estate Planning Basics- Picking a Guardian

by David M. Goldman

Picking a guardian is often the most difficult part of estate planning for most parents. Your Estate Planning Attorney can help by asking you to consider

While every family in Florida faces different decisions, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Who do your children really care for?

September 11, 2006

Estate Planning: Wills

by David M. Goldman

With a Florida Wills you can appoint guardians for your children and arrange to manage their property for them until they’re legal adults. Making a will is a critical first step in your plan.

But in Florida a will must go through the probate process, a lengthy and expensive court procedure in which a judge determines that your will is valid and supervises the distribution of your property. In most Florida counties including Duval, Clay, and St. Johns it can take 6 to 18 months and cost up to 3% of your non exempt portion of your estate. There can be additional fees for dealing with non-probate assets (that includes your Florida Homestead when you die, even if the bank really owns it).

If you have a house worth $300,000 and $200,000 worth of other assets, probate costs could be close to $7,000 and could easily be even higher. An estate of 500,000 could be looking at fees around $15,000. You can avoid probate costs by establishing a Florida Living Trust, Make sure you use a Florida living trust attorney to ensure that you comply Florida laws and regulations.

September 10, 2006

Estate Planning Basics- Why make a Plan?

by David M. Goldman

Estate planning is something that most parents want to avoid. But it doesn’t have to be.

Understanding how to make the most of your estate for your children can actually be interesting, and even fun. Taking a few simple steps now will save your children thousands of dollars later that they’d otherwise spend on estate taxes and lawyer’s fees. Wouldn’t you rather that they had that money?

Both the Wills and Living Trusts that FamilyWorks drafts create tax-saving trusts that will allow you to pass up to $2 million tax-free (as of 2006-2008) to your children and create a property management system to manage your children’s money until they’re well into adulthood and able to manage it on their own.

September 5, 2006

Making Final Arrangements — Ceremonies

by David M. Goldman

When formulating a Florida estate plan, you should contemplate body disposal and ceremonies. Writing out a statement of your preferences will likely save money and save your loved ones from additional heartache. Typically, at least one ceremony occurs when a person dies. Sometimes several ceremonies are held, either before or after burial or cremation. Most loved ones are likely to be comforted by attending a ceremony that reflects the wishes and personality of the deceased person.

Pre-Burial or Pre-Cremation Ceremonies

Pre-burial and pre-cremation ceremonies have many concerns in common. For either type of ceremony, you may wish to address:

September 3, 2006

Donating One’s Body to Science

by David M. Goldman

Donating One’s Body to Science

A dead human body is usually disposed of by burial or cremation. One alternative that benefits people outside of the funeral industry is to donate one’s dead body to science. Donation to science (also know as donation to medical science) is turning over a dead body to doctors, medical students, and/or other scientists for use in their studies. The charitable goal is the advancement of science. Donation to science is usually to a medical school. The most common use of a dead body by a medical school is to teach human anatomy to the next generation of doctors and other medical professionals.
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September 2, 2006

Florida Spendthrift Trust

by David M. Goldman

Florida law specifically authorizes Spendthrift provisions in a revocable living trust or irrevocable trust. A spendthrift clause in a trust prohibits transfers of a beneficiary’s interest in the trust. In some jurisdictions, all income interests are automatically given limited spendthrift protection meaning that they cannot be transferred by a beneficiary or reached by his creditors unless a provision is inserted in the trust document allowing such transfers. If there is no provision allowing the beneficiary to transfer his interest, it can be reached: by a creditor that furnished necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, or medicine; in suits to enforce child support or alimony; to collect a federal tax lien; to the extent of income beyond that reasonably needed by the beneficiary for support and education; and by creditors who have a judgment against the beneficiary and can levy upon 10 percent of the income due. There is no spendthrift protection where the trustor is also the beneficiary.

September 1, 2006

Totten Trust

by David M. Goldman

Under a Totten trust, a trust-like arrangement is created by a person who deposits money in a bank account and names a beneficiary. Because the depositor owes no duties to the beneficiary, a real trust (Florida Revocable trust)is not formed. However, upon the depositor’s death, the account will not go through the Florida probate process but will be distributed by the bank directly to the beneficiary. Although the account belongs to the beneficiary, it can be reached by the depositor’s creditors. A Totten trust is revoked if the beneficiary dies before the depositor. Revocation can also be by will, but only if the will expressly refers to the account and to the bank.

August 30, 2006

Life Insurance Proceeds, Retirement Plan Benefits

by David M. Goldman

A trustor can name the trustee of a living trust or of a testamentary trust created in a will as beneficiary of his life insurance proceeds. However, if the trustee of a living trust is named beneficiary, the trust must exist at the time that the beneficiary is named. These principles also apply to retirement plan benefits.