Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

September 16, 2006

Florida Guardian: Choosing a Guardian for your Children

Florida residents who die with minor children should be concerned with who will raise their children? One of the most important reasons to have a will in Florida or any state is to have the ability to select the person who will take care of and raise your children. It’s a very simple process to select who will be the guardian of your children until the reach the age of 18. If a guardian is not selected, you will have no say in who raises your children, and they could end up being the responsibility of the State.

Sometimes parents want to choose different Guardians for different children.

Parents can allow the guardian to manage the finances of the child or children or select alternative people or institutions to manage the assets of minors.

September 15, 2006

Advantages of Estate Planning tools

by David M. Goldman

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 9, 2006

Probate and Estate Terms

by David M. Goldman

Florida Trust Terms

Crummey Letter A written notification to the beneficiaries that contributions of money — typically to an irrevocable life insurance trust — have been received on their behalf. The beneficiaries then have a period of time to withdraw the funds. If the beneficiaries do not withdraw the money, they are regarded as having received a gift. The funds can then be used to pay the premium on insurance on the grantor’s life. Use of a Crummey Letter can avoid certain potential tax problems arising from the gift of a future interest.

Grantor: The designation for a person who is transferring their property through a trust or a deed.

September 7, 2006

Florida Probate Process –

by David M. Goldman

In Florida probate is a court-supervised process that is designed to determine how to transfer the assets of a decedent upon their death. Property subject to Florida probate administration is that owned by a person at death, which does not pass to others by operation of law, contract or designation (such as life insurance policies, retirement accounts and transfer on death bank or brokerage accounts)

Probate administration transfers legal title of property from the estate of the decedent (the person who has died) to his or her proper beneficiaries as determined by a will, if no will by the state laws of intestacy and if there was a surviving spouse they may receive some statutory rights not provided for in the will such as homestead or an elective share.

The term probate means to prove. In the probate administration process the petitioner / personal representative seeks to prove the existence of a valid will or to determine and prove who the heirs are if there is no Will so the property passes by intestate succession.
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September 6, 2006

Florida Probate:Executors-Claims

by David M. Goldman

Within one to four months (depending on the particular state) after the executor has been appointed, he is required by law to file a “complete” inventory of the estate’s assets. A Florida Probate Inventory is required to be filed within 120 days. The inventory is submitted to the court and, like all other papers submitted to the court, becomes a matter of “public record” (available to anyone who wants to look at it). Briefly, there are two reasons for the filing of the inventory. First, to indicate to the court the items of property for which the executor will later “account” to the court (tell the court in detail what he did with all these items when the estate is settled), and to let the beneficiaries, creditors, and all other interested parties know just what is included in the deceased’s probate estate. If the executor delays or refuses to file an inventory, any interested party may ask the court to order him to file one, although if there are no disputes or contests, executors often file their inventories late.

The inventory will include any type of property (stock, bonds, real estate, furnishings, jewelry, copyrights, claims against others, etc.) that belonged to the deceased at the time of his death. Normally, this only includes property that stood in the deceased’s name alone, but could very well also list property that was being held by someone else, such as property, for example, that the executor believed should be a part of the deceased’s probate estate. Otherwise, nonprobate property, such as jointly held property, life insurance or retirement plan benefits payable to a named beneficiary, or assets in a living trust, will not be mentioned in the probate inventory.
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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: