Managing Partner, Michael Wild is interviewed by 940amWinz Radio Hosts, Jeff De Forrest and Brett Tessler talking a little Estate Planning and a lot Football. Click the Play Button Listen!

In a world of paperless statements, life is much less cluttered and complicated. Unless you die of course.

The digital forms of your will, finances, business, personal and administrative documents probably reside online, guarded by a complex password of your dogs name or a string of random numbers. While we congratulate you for making your password so difficult to decipher, this will one day be a major problem after you die. Often, family members are denied access or may not even know this account exists.  In fact, 63 percent of people don’t know what will happen to their digital assets when they die, according to a survey by Rocket Lawyer, an online legal service.

By creating a digital estate plan you are giving your loved ones:

• Access to these accounts online,
• Ability to transfer digital assets to the appropriate parties
• Capability of determining if an account needs to be submitted to probate
• Avoiding Online Theft

In addition to your bank statements, personal and business documents, do not overlook your email accounts, online retail accounts (Paypal, Ebay or Amazon), Social Media Channels (ie. Facebook, Instgram or Twitter), Utility bills you pay online or a digital wallet.

Since most of us are cruising the web so frequently, this task appears quite daunting. We suggest that you create digital inventory overtime, keep the list close to your computer so you can continually add to it when you are reminded of a particular site.  In this list, include instructions for what should happen to each account. Would you like it deactivated or allow someone to log in and use?

Once complete, keep this list in a safe spot. One option is the safety deposit box at your bank.

Lastly, it is important to name your “digital executor.” This is the person you designate to carry out your digital estate plan upon your death, ensuring that your end-of-life requests are met. Make sure this person is written in your will and is able to carry out your wishes.

Our lives are online and we must be proactive to protect those digital assets. Let your love ones grieve and celebrate your life instead of leaving them with the hassles of finding your passwords and online accounts.

To learn more, Please contact Wild Felice & Partners, South Florida Estate Planning Attorneys at http://wfplaw.com/

A special needs trust is designed for beneficiaries who are disabled, either physical or mentally. It is often viewed at as a stand-alone document that can be included in a Last Will and Testament or a Revocable Living Trust.

Special Needs trusts can provide benefits far beyond a traditional trust, addressing the specific needs of that disabled family member. Some of these benefits include supplemental security income, Medicaid, vocational rehab, and subsidized housing to name a few.

If the beneficiary lacks the legal capacity to handle his/her finances, an administrator, whether a private trust run by family members or by trustees appointed to the court, can hold and manage property intended for the beneficiary. In additional to the unlimited amount of assets a Special Needs Trust can provide, it can also protect your beneficiary should they encounter a lawsuit. Trust funds are not subject to creditors or seizures, and are not subject to judgment.

It is important to keep in mind that when a child turns 18, they are presumed to have the legal rights of adults, no matter their condition.  Therefore, parents and guardians should make a valiant effort to learn about all the different options for their beneficiary and seek legal counsel. It is important to remember that if you wish to set up a special needs trust, you need to do so with an attorney familiar with this area of law. A poorly written trust can be ineffective if not written properly.

To learn more about special needs trusts or discuss other estate planning options, contact Michael Wild of Wild Felice & Partners in Plantation for a free consultation.

As if the bar exam isn’t stressful enough for test takers, hopeful future lawyers across the country found themselves unable to upload their first day exams after the ExamSoft servers were apparently unable to handle the massive traffic. While the issue appears to be on its way to resolution, test takers were still subjected to a tremendous amount of stress before the second part of the test. ExamSoft had years to prepare for this level of traffic and yet the system was not ready and many students suffered unnecessary stress. This situation mirrors what your loved ones will go through if you do not have a proper estate plan in place at your death, especially if your estate has to go through probate.

Probate is the mandatory process in Florida of validating a will (if there is one) and distributing the assets to the beneficiaries. This process usually lasts at least six months and can take substantially longer depending on the size of the estate or complexity of the assets. While the probate is going on, the estate assets are frozen while they are marshaled and prepared for distribution. Creditors are also paid off out of the estate before distribution. During this time, the presumed beneficiaries do not have access to the estate property. This can lead to financial hardship and liquidity issues for the surviving family members. Furthermore, probating an estate is costly, which continues to decrease the inheritance the beneficiaries will receive.

Whether you die with a will or not, you will still have to probate your estate if your probatable estate exceeds $75,000 (Florida’s probate limit.) A will alone is not a sufficient device for avoiding probate. The benefit of having a will is that you can decide who gets what from your estate, and you can also name a guardian, but a will does not avoid probate. To effectively avoid probate, a trust based estate plan should be used. A trust based plan avoids probate by transferring ownership from you as an individual to your living trust. You will be able to use all your assets in the exact same way, but when you die, your estate will pass to your beneficiaries without going through probate. In addition to the benefit of avoiding probate, a trust based plan also gives you as grantor increased control over who gets the assets down the road and creditor protection for your beneficiaries.

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.

It’s a Wild world. Are you protected? SM

This weekend, fourteen Venice Beach patrons were injured, with one fatality, when lightning struck near the pier. This was a rare occurrence and was not something the beachgoers were prepared for. Lightning strikes can be a lot like a probate hitting your family. Not only will they be dealing with the passing of a loved, they will have to deal with the long and complex process of probate.

In Florida, probate is the mandatory process of validating a will and distributing estate assets to the beneficiaries. During this time, accounts are frozen while the personal representative marshals the assets and prepares to distribute. Probate usually lasts at least six months and can last considerably longer depending on the size an complexity of the estate. Probate can lead to periods of illiquidity for beneficiaries as they wait for accounts to be unfrozen and distributions to be made, putting in dire financial situations.

The best way to avoid the hassles of probate is to use a trust based estate plan. With a trust based estate plan, a living trust is formed in your name and is funded using an assignment of property. Essentially, all of your property becomes property of the trust. While this might sound scary at first, it really isn’t. Because you are the grantor, trustee, and beneficiary of the living trust, you retain complete control over all your property and can do with it everything you could as an individual.

In addition to passing your property outside of probate, trusts provide creditor protection for your beneficiaries and give you as grantor an increased level of control from beyond the grave. Once you pass, your living trust will create individual irrevocable trusts for all of your beneficiaries. As grantor, you can name the trustee of each of these trusts and the contingent beneficiaries. If you have a child who is not fiscally responsible, you can name a trustee other than them who will manage the trust for the benefit of your child while making sure that your child doesn’t waste the money. If you have a child who is married to a spouse you don’t trust, you can make sure that the trust money passes to your grandchildren and not the spouse. Because the inheritance will be held in a trust, creditors will not be able to reach the money either.

Under a trust plan, a will is still used, but it is used as a funding document, rather than a distribution document. This type of will is referred to as a “pour-over will.” Pour-over wills act as a safety net, or a funnel, and makes sure that any property that you forgot to put in the trust (if you had just moved homes and not retitled for example) ends up in your trust. This property would still have to be probated, but only this property would have to be; all the property in your trust would pass outside probate as originally intended. After the probate, the pour-over will gives the property to the trust and it will receive all the benefits of all your other trust property.

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.

It’s a Wild world. Are you protected? SM