To review prenuptial agreements, postnuptial agreements, divorce decrees and child support orders to determine their relevance in regard to the distribution of the estate.
Premarital Agreement
A surviving spouse is required to receive certain statutory amounts and allowances from the deceased spouse’s estate. If the decedent did not provide the statutory minimum, their spouse is entitled to claim certain rights. The rights may be waived, wholly or partly, by a written contract, agreement, or waiver, signed by the waiving party in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. The waiver can be signed before or after marriage, and are most commonly seen in the form of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. In the absence of a valid agreement waiving these rights, the Personal Representative or Trustee will need to determine if the surviving spouse will elect to claim the statutory entitlements. The most significant rights include the elective share and the homestead property.
Guardianship
A well-crafted estate plan should provide for your loved ones in an effective and efficient manner by avoiding guardianship during your lifetime, probate at death, estate taxes and unnecessary delays. You should consult an experienced estate planning attorney to review your family and financial situation, your goals and explain the various options available to you. Once your estate plan is in place, you will have peace of mind knowing that you have provided for yourself and your family.
Child Abuse
Exceptions to the rule include, but are not limited to, reporting certain injuries to law enforcement officials, reporting child abuse or vulnerable adult abuse, reporting the occurrence of certain diseases to public health officials and complying with court orders and subpoenas.
Litigation cases can range from advocating for a family member that has been cheated out of their inheritance, to defending a Trustee falsely accused of embezzlement. He will take depositions, attend hearings, and try cases before a judge or jury. He handled his first appellate case to successful conclusion in 2013 and has since been back before the 1
Our firm regularly assists affluent families with such sophisticated planning strategies as Family Limited Partnerships or Limited Liability Companies, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts and a wide range of charitable gifting techniques to reduce federal estate taxes, gift taxes, and generation-skipping transfer taxes.
A Durable Power of Attorney should cover all banking and real estate transactions. It should give the person receiving the Power of Attorney the authority to continue or initiate a gift-giving program. The latter is a crucial clause for people with substantial estates. In addition, some Powers of Attorney may need to grant the power to create or fund a Trust. Under Florida Statutes, a Durable Power of Attorney instrument executed after October 1, 2011, may contain provisions giving unprecedented authority to the principal’s agent.
Eminent Domain
Condemnation – A legal declaration taking privately owned real estate for public use without the owner’s consent with the payment of compensation. This may be done pursuant to a governmental body’s right of eminent domain. Also the declaring of a premises to be unsafe for human habitation.
The fastest-growing segment of our population is the oldest one-third. More and more of this segment of society may need skilled long-term care. Medicaid’s Institutionalized Care Program (ICP) helps seniors pay for the monthly cost of the nursing facility and provides general medical coverage. The average cost of a nursing home in Florida is currently $9,485 (DCF Appendix A-35) a month. Learn More About Nursing Home Medicaid Planning
The term “estate” is the legal term given to all of your assets once you have passed away. The term “assets” means the property you own and control such as real estate, stocks, bonds, cash, etc. Assets can be tangible or intangible. Intangible assets include such items as powers of appointment. Simply put,estate planning is the creation of a plan or an arrangement which governs your assets during your lifetime and allows the orderly disposition of your estate after your death without the cost, delay, and burden often associated with expensive and lengthy probate proceedings.
Wills
A Living Will is a relatively well known and simple document that states the desires of the person signing it. The Living Will usually says that the signer shall not be kept alive by artificial means. Basically, a Living Will states that you should “feed me”, “water me” and then “unplug me” if I have a terminal condition from which I am not expected to survive. Living Wills can be modified to withhold food and water. According to a previous study, individuals who go into the hospital for their final stay with a Living Will, on the average, have a hospital bill 30% lower than those who die without a Living Will.
Trusts
The Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) is one of the most powerful tools of an estate planner. The primary asset held by this Irrevocable Trust is life insurance. The Trust is used to remove life insurance death benefits from the insured’s gross estate. This allows the full value of the life insurance death benefit to provide liquidity for the payment of estate taxes and administrative expenses.
Power of Attorney
A Durable Power of Attorney is a written Power of Attorney by which a principal designates another as the principal’s agent for making financial decisions in case of the principal’s inability to do so. Once you become incompetent, an ordinary Power of Attorney ceases to exist. In order for the powers granted to survive the eventual disability or incapacity of the principal, or be “durable”, the document must contain the language required by Florida Statutes, showing the principal’s intent that the authority conferred be exercisable, notwithstanding the principal’s subsequent incapacity. A Power of Attorney, whether durable or not, ceases at the death of the principal.
Receiver – A court appointed officer who holds possession of a defendant’s property during civil litigation and who then may be ordered to dispose of the property under direction of the court, as in a foreclosure or bankruptcy. Such property is said to be in receivership.
Tax Law
LLCs, like Family Limited Partnerships are tools for estate and gift tax planning because they permit the donor/parent to discount the value of gifts to donee/children that otherwise might not be discounted if made outright to children. The most common discounts are valuation discounts for minority interest and lack of marketability.