Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog
To hedge our bet against dying and to financially protect our families in the event death happens, we generally have a life insurance policy. This policy becomes part of our estate and can help our family with after death expenses such as funeral costs. You may already have a life insurance policy or need to get one. In either case, switching your current life insurance policy to a Florida Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT), or setting the life insurance policy up in the name of the ILIT, can be done by hiring the services of a Florida Trust lawyer to prepare a Florida Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust.
When you pass away and have a Florida life insurance policy, the insurance payment is deemed to be included in the insurer’s (the person who is now deceased) estate. By passing to your heirs under your estate, the insurance payment can be subject to federal and state estate tax, which can be about 40% for the portion which is in excess of the Federal Estate Tax figures. The following example assumes that the entire amount of the policy was subject to the Federal Estate Taxes. So if you have a $5,000,000 life insurance policy, your heirs receive the payment after taxes, which, in this case, would be $3,000,000 ($2,000,000 in estate taxes).
However, this does not have to be the case. If you were to set up a Florida Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust the amount of the policy would not be included in your estate, and you would not have Federal Estate Taxes which could save you more than $2,000,000 based on a $5,000,0000 insurance policy. Talking to a Florida Trust lawyer or Jacksonville Estate Planning attorney will allow you to see if your estate or life insurance is subject to estate taxes or might be subject to them in 2012 after the current exemptions expire.