For parents and students, the commencement of a new school year is much like what January 1st is to everyone else: Looking back on the recent life events and choices, while looking forward to the lofty ideals of what lays ahead – a fresh start to the “new” year. In the inception of the new school year, it is time to consider whether you are sporting an old, and less effective, estate plan. Explore your current status, and determine if you are properly prepared for tomorrow.

A lot can happen in a year: children get older, family relationships change, or the size of your estate increases. Let us take a look at possible life events that can warrant a revised estate plan:

Marriage & Divorce: If you have recently married or divorced, it is important to go back through your current estate plan to see whether these life events are addressed in your will or trust documents. First and foremost, marriage does not revoke a will. Divorce, however, may have an effect on the validity of the will. When you fail to amend your will following a divorce, and unless there is a provision within it that states otherwise, the will is treated as if the former spouse died upon divorce (wishful thinking, right?). As an alternative, the divorce or dissolution of marriage judgment can contain such language stating that the provisions in the will regarding the former spouse are valid, notwithstanding the divorce. Therefore, if you no longer want your former spouse to be the beneficiary of any portion of your estate, you need to check the language of your current will. If you get married following the execution of an estate plan, your spouse is entitled to an intestate share (in Florida, this is “per stirpes”) of your estate by statute, unless the new spouse waives the right, or the document itself provides otherwise (intent not to provide for new spouse, or provision providing for spouse in contemplation of marriage). Also, you may have had your former spouse designated as a Power of Attorney, or health-care surrogate. Thus, it is very important to ensure that your estate plan is consistent with your wishes following a divorce or marriage.

Children: if you have a new child following the creation of your estate plan, it is important to ensure that your new bundle of joy is provided for. You may want to set up a trust, a 529-college plan (see “Student Tax Holidays & Savings,” above), alter beneficiary designations in your will, and nominate a legal guardian.

Estate Size Increase: You want to make certain that your estate plans are tailored to your estate size. Therefore, when your estate increases, you may want to make some changes in terms of tax and estate planning. Furthermore, if you have an estate plan that is set up to avoid probate, and acquire new property, you will want to assign that property to your living trust. You may want to consider a variety of estate planning strategies, anywhere from setting up an LLC to protect certain assets from lawsuits, to reducing the size of your estate for tax purposes.

If you have experienced any similar changes since creating an estate plan, it may be time for you to make some changes for this fresh start to the new school year! It’s a Wild world. Are you still protected?

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and asset protection techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 to schedule your free consultation, or visit our website at www.wfplaw.com/Estate-Planning.html.

A new lawsuit is filed every 30-seconds, and 16 million lawsuits are filed in the U.S. each year. It is clearly a Wild world out there, but there are ways that you can protect your assets from your not-so-friendly next door lawsuit opportunist. You are an especially viable target if you have something worth taking. There is no need to be alarmed, just prepared! An LLC or LLP can be your ultimate armor in protecting yourself from such lawsuits.

An LLC & LLP allows you to use and control an asset, yet you will not own the asset in your name. Rather, it will be owned by the LLC or LLP. Therefore, by separating your assets into several LLC’s, you are safeguarding them from being pulled into a lawsuit brought against you (or one another), as they are owned by the LLC.

An LLC is a “Limited Liability Company.” It provides the desirable liability features of a corporation, without all of the extra hassle (paperwork, etc.). Lets say you have a boat. So you give it a clever and punning name, and put it in an LLC. A judgment against you is not valid against the LLC and the asset it holds (the boat). Furthermore, lets say you have an investment property (a high risk lawsuit property), and tenants injure themselves on the property, and commence a lawsuit. They can only sue the LLC. Your home and other assets (bank account, etc.) may not be touched, because you do not own the property, thus you are not personally liable. It is like being a stockholder in a corporation.

Due to the fact that there are several requirements to properly forming an LLC, you may want to seek an attorney (that has a thorough understanding of asset protection) to assist you in ensuring that the LLC is valid; otherwise, your safeguarding efforts will be futile. Also, keep in mind that the timing of the asset transfer cannot be done to actively avoid a present creditor, as it may be considered a “fraudulent conveyance.” Therefore, it is important to partake in these asset protection strategies prior to any legal or financial problems. The early bird gets the worm!

Enjoy the fruit of your labor, but don’t own it; control it!

We are all familiar with our country’s most important holiday, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July. After a grueling period of ups and downs, on July 4th, 1776, the United States adopted the Declaration of Independence, finally declaring independence from Great Britain. If you know anything about the term probate, you know that the process can feel a lot like the grueling encounters that the thirteen colonies fought back in the 1700’s. If you are not familiar with the phrase, in South Florida, probate is the legal process of distributing the estate of a Florida decedent to the intended beneficiaries or heirs. If a will is drafted, a probate judge will determine its validity, make sure all debts are resolved, and then distribute property according to the wishes of the decedent. The issues include prolonged waiting time for final estate resolution and additional administrative and legal fees.

If you remember correctly, the thirteen colonies didn’t gain independence for four hundred forty-two days after start of American Revolution. Probate can feel very similar; it takes forever. The deceased individual’s property must be properly inventoried and identified. All necessary appraisals of any properties involved must be completed, and debts will be paid off. The estate needs to be distributed. If the deceased owned property outside of Florida, then the entire process may have to be repeated in the proper jurisdiction. With a smaller estate worth just a few hundred thousand, the proceeding might last around 6 months. With an estate under $1 million, where conflicting interests of family members are present, the process might take up to 18 months. However, for more complex estates, it may take a few years before final resolution.

Probate is also extremely expensive. Living in South Florida, you can expect to pay about three to seven percent of the total estate value in addition to court fees, personal representative fees, attorney’s fees, accounting fees, appraisal and business valuation fees, bond fees, and anything else that may come up along the way. The validity of a will is often questioned, and creditors can stake a claim on the estate. This can prolong the process for years resulting in additional legal fees. Finally, there are forthcoming estate taxes that will leave your legacy in disarray.

Continue the legacy of this great nation, and gain independence against the grueling process and hefty costs that are hindering your estate – declare your freedom from probate!