Living Trust / Revocable Trust

March 13, 2010

Toyota Diminution of Value Lawsuits: Toyota Class Action Lawyer

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.

December 13, 2009

Specific Training and Trusts:- Does Your Trust Provide for the Training You and Your Family Need or Willl Want?

by David M. Goldman

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.

Whether your passion is firearms, golf, tennis, a musical instrument, or anything else its important to discuss this with your Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to draft documents that reflect your goals and help achieve your families desires.

December 2, 2009

The Family Dog and Florida Probate

by David M. Goldman

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.

November 4, 2009

Is a Will Contest Clause in Florida Valid? How about a Trust?

by David M. Goldman

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.

October 16, 2009

When to review your Florida Estate Plan.

by David M. Goldman

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;

October 14, 2009

Estate Planning & Trust Administration with Genetic Material

by David M. Goldman

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.

October 12, 2009

When not to us a Living Trust in Florida

by David M. Goldman

Florida Revocable Trust‘s are often used to avoid problems. The North Carolina Estate Planning Blog has an interesting article on when you should not use a Living Trust.

1. You want the court to dictate how your estate is handled.

2. You favor supporting the government, so you like the idea of your estate paying thousands of dollars in court fees.

3. You believe testamentary dispositions and lists of assets should be public record.

August 17, 2009

Hurricane Season and Storage of Florida Estate Planning Documents

by David M. Goldman

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.

August 12, 2009

Mandatory Arbitration Clause in Florida Trusts is valid per Florida Statute 731.401

by David M. Goldman

Trust Arbitration Clauses are common in Florida. In many states, they are not always enforced but Florida passed a law a few years ago that makes them enforceable in Trusts.

Florida Statute 731.041 Arbitration of disputes.

(1) A provision in a will or trust requiring the arbitration of disputes, other than disputes of the validity of all or a part of a will or trust, between or among the beneficiaries and a fiduciary under the will or trust, or any combination of such persons or entities, is enforceable.

(2) Unless otherwise specified in the will or trust, a will or trust provision requiring arbitration shall be presumed to require binding arbitration under Florida Statute 44.104.

July 15, 2009

When is an Heir an Heir? Can forum Shopping Protect Your Heirs?

by David M. Goldman

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: