Asset protection acts as a safeguard between your creditors and you if you’re going through a divorce, getting sued, or going through some other legal battle. In this litigious society, it is vitally important that you have an asset protection plan, no matter whether you’re an individual or business. The more you accumulate assets and wealth, the bigger a target you are for creditors and other people who might be looking to take your hard-earned cash and property.

What Does An Asset Protection Plan Entail?

​This plan consists of legal tools and documents that insulate your assets without running afoul of the law, hiding things, transferring fraudulently, evading taxes, or committing bankruptcy fraud. There are plenty of asset protection tools that an AP plan could entail, including:

There are many other asset protection tools; what is seen above is just a selection. Contacting an estate planning attorney will help you put together the right plan for your assets and situation.

What Can This Plan Accomplish?

​There are many different goals that having a well-structured, properly-carried-out asset protection plan can accomplish. This plan can achieve your important objectives, and it also:

Generally, estate planning is thought to involve only issues of passing property and preserving assets for family members after your death. But, asset protection, which is a part of this general field, deals with the immediate, vital need to protect your assets during your lifetime.

Who Needs An Asset Protection Plan?

​Every individual and every business can benefit from an asset protection plan, but there are some who are especially in need of an APP. They include individuals who work in high-risk professions, such as doctors and lawyers. People sue doctors and lawyers all the time, and asset protection can keep these professionals’ assets safe from liability.

​Additionally, wealthy individuals might be a target for creditors because they have a high net worth, so asset protection plans offer a shield. Sometimes, APTs are even used to replace a prenup.

​It’s important to contact an attorney to set up an asset protection plan. The attorney will be able to maneuver through the legal jargon and technicalities, setting up the plan without legal errors that could make it vulnerable to challenge.

Additionally, going through a lawyer ensures your asset protection abides by the law. There are many laws that prevent concealment and fraudulent behavior, and it is important that you do not run afoul of any of them (or you’ll find yourself with far bigger things to worry about than creditors). An attorney can make sure you toe the legal line, all while getting the most asset protection possible – contact WFP now. 

 

There’s no denying that small businesses are the backbone of America. According to the SBA, there are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States. By the end of 2022, 17 million more will be formed, something that NASDAQ expects will set a record for entrepreneurship. These new business owners likely have a lot of questions, so, in this guide, we will answer some of the most common small businesses planning FAQs in the state of Florida. 

Writing A Business Plan 

What Should This Plan Include? 

According to the SBA, it is vitally important to write down your business plan, no matter whether you’re seeking financing or not. This business plan should include your mission statement, product or service, and information about your employees, location, and leadership team. If you are seeking funding, you should include information about high-level growth plans and other financial must-knows. 

Starting A Small Business 

What Is An Overview of the Process? 

There are a lot of steps to starting a small business, but you should first conduct market research, as that will help you decide whether your idea will be successful in the environment in which you’re starting your company. Then, write your business plan, decide on funding if you’re seeking it, and pick your location.

You’ll want to choose a business structure. There are several from which to pick, and some of the most popular include: 

• Sole Proprietorship. This uncomplicated form of business is simple, and, in Florida, you do not need to register it with the state. There is no formal paperwork required to set it up, and it is owned and operated by one person (you).
• Partnership. In Florida, this is created when 2+ people agree to conduct business together in pursuit of a profit, even if the people do not intend to form or do not write an agreement to form this partnership. 
• Limited Liability Company. A very common type of business structure, an LLC combines the easy administration of a partnership with the tax benefits of a corporation. In Florida, you get pass-through taxation when you form an LLC. That is one of the reasons this type of business structure is so popular in this state. 
• Corporation. This type of business is its own legal entity, and it exists separately from the people who own and operate it. A corporation is considered its own “separate” person, as far as the law goes. 

Registering Your Small Business In Florida

For certain types of business structures, you will need to register your small business. It is advisable that you seek the counsel of an attorney to do this, as the attorney will be able to make sure it is done properly the first time, with no technicalities missed.

How Do I Incorporate a Business in Florida? 

There are several steps to incorporating a business in Florida, should you choose a structure that requires this process. First, you’ll need to select a new, unique name for your business that no one else has. Then, you should choose the type of business you want and file Articles of Incorporation with the State Department of Florida.

On those Articles, you’ll need a company name, physical address, mailing address, names and addresses of the company’s owners, and an email address. The next step will be to obtain an EIN filing (Federal Employer Identification Number). If you have an LLC and it is a single member, you may just choose to use your social security number for business transactions. 

You’ll then want to secure a business/occupational license with your county. This is required by most Florida counties in order to do business. You’ll want to check with your local tax collection office to see their requirements. One final step will be to secure a bank account for your company, as monies entering and leaving the business must go through this account. 

If these steps seem overwhelming, they don’t have to be, if you have the right legal help. Contact an attorney today to help you get through the process of starting your business. 

While the summer has been fun (and a scorcher, at that), reality is slowly coming back to everyone, as the beginning of school season is, once again, approaching. This new era brings with it some estate planning considerations. The number-one thing on your mind, if you already have an estate plan, should be to ensure that it is up to date and, if necessary, revised.

A lot can change in a short period of time—we all know that. Though the rule of thumb is to edit and update your estate plan every three to five years, big changes might have occurred in far shorter a time frame than that. In this article, we’ll talk about revising your estate plan: the dos, don’ts, and must-knows. 

What Does Revising Mean In This Context? 

In the context of your estate plan, revising refers to looking over the different documents in your plan to make sure that they are still aligned with your current situation. Are the people listed in the documents still in your life? Have things change with them? In the next section, we’ll discuss the times when revision is the most necessary, though this list is not exhaustive, and there are many other changes that could occur that would make updates a must-do. 

When Do You Truly Need to Revise? 

Listed below are some major life events that require you to go back and look at your estate plan, ensuring that the plan reflects the current changes, if applicable. 

Divorce

Alas, the divorce rate is pretty high, with around half of marriages saying goodbye the legal way. If you divorce your spouse, you will need to go back to your estate plan and ensure that, in the documents, your significant other is no longer listed as a beneficiary or a power of attorney. Even if you two had an amicable split, it’s best to change that role rather than leave it. 

Marriage

On the reverse, getting married is a happy occasion to change your estate plan to include your new spouse. You will want them to be a beneficiary or take on important roles in the plan, so this is another occasion where meeting with your attorney would be an excellent idea. 

New Family Members

Whether you’re gaining new family members through marriage, birth, adoption, or however else, you’ll want to make sure they are included in your estate plan, if you are close to them. Don’t think to yourself that you’ll get to it “eventually”—do it now, lest something happen, leading it to be too late.  

Role Change-Ups

Almost every estate plan has roles delegated to other people, including powers of attorney, guardians, and executors. These roles are vitally important to the administration of the plan, and you want to continuously make sure that the person you’ve asked to carry out that role is still fit. 

If illness, addiction, or injury, for example, have rendered your named power of attorney incapacitated, you’ll need to remove them from that role. If you’ve divorced your spouse, but they’re still executor of your will, you’ll need to make alterations. If your proposed designees are of sound mind and still close to you, they, obviously, can stay. 

What Happens If You Ignore Your Estate Plan? 

A whole lot of conflict, that is what can happen. In addition to people being left out or included who should not be, families can challenge wills post-mortem, leading to expensive inter-family strife. For your loved ones’ sake, it is important to keep up with your estate plan. 

Hopefully, this short guide has inspired you to contact your estate planning attorney to look over your plan again. And, lest we forget, we hope you have a great start to the upcoming school year! 

In this article, we will discuss estate planning for cryptocurrency. While this guide will not be the be-all-end-all to planning for this digital currency, it will cover some important fundamentals, including definitions, strategies, advantages, and disadvantages. 

What Is Cryptocurrency? 

If you’ve been following the financial headlines over the past decade or two, then you’ve probably seen information about cryptocurrency pop up. This digital currency is a medium of exchange, but it is unique because it does not rely on a bank or central authority to govern it. It is decentralized and largely unregulated. The crypto market can be volatile, but it can also be quite lucrative. It is easy to see why people who are not afraid of risk-taking invest in this digital asset. 

Advantages & Disadvantages of Cryptocurrency

As with any financial instrument, cryptocurrency has its benefits and downsides. Its “pros” include: 

• Accessibility. Anyone can buy this liquid currency, so long as they have the funds. Some coins even allow you to purchase currency in fractions. 
• User Anonymity. If you want, for whatever reason, to remain anonymous, the crypto blockchain allows you to do so. This anonymity is a big draw for a lot of people who value their privacy.  
• No Central Authority. Crypto is not tied to any bank or government, and it is totally decentralized. 
• High Return Potential. The flip side of the market’s volatility is that coins worth a few cents one day could yield hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars the next. 

But, crypto also comes with “cons” to consider, such as: 

• High Loss Potential. There are two sides to that aforementioned volatility, and purchasers of crypto might suffer extreme losses in just a matter of moments on the market. 
• Limited Use. When compared to cash, credit/debit card, and bank transfer, cryptocurrency is far less accepted at major vendors. 
• No Government Regulation. While some might appreciate the lack of oversight, others are wary about crypto’s freedom from government regulations. 

Do Estate Plans Cover Crypto? 

Estate plans can cover cryptocurrency, as well they should. After all, it is an asset you own that you may want to hand down after you die. Plus, the market is constantly shifting, so who knows how much value your coins could have one day? Some people do believe crypto is the future of payment (while others, obviously, disagree). 

The nature of crypto (and NFTs, for that matter) can make it difficult to place into a traditional estate plan, though the laws are still evolving. Keeping a digital legacy, regardless, is important. This organized, updated list contains information about your digital assets, including quantity, type, passwords, keys, and information that a fiduciary would need to access your crypto. 

It is currently difficult to put your crypto assets in the name of a revocable/irrevocable trust. But, you can still include this currency in your will. It will have to pass through probate, however. The most important thing to note when it comes to this digital currency is the ability to track it. Your executor cannot execute your will if they do not have information on how to access your coins. 

Challenges In Estate Planning For Crypto

The unique nature of this currency brings with it a lot of challenges. Trustee companies tend to know little about cryptocurrency, according to Bloomberg, but estate planning attorneys are likely to be more knowledgeable. Because there isn’t much personal information associated with crypto and it requires a private key to get in, this asset must be handled differently than others. 

If you are thinking of investing or have already made investments into cryptocurrency, it is important that you talk to an estate planning attorney, if you haven’t already. You will want to protect this asset the way you do your other holdings, in order to keep it available to your heirs. 

In this article, we are going to talk about two different categories of asset protection. Though there many different types of asset protection, we’ll be looking into the nature of the asset: whether it is personal or business-related. This distinction matters, as far as legal tools, planning, and taxes go.

To start, we’ll look at some definitions. 

Terms To Note 

Personal assets are items of present or future value that are owned by an individual or a household. Some common examples of personal assets include cash and its equivalents, checking and savings accounts, CFDs, physical cash, Treasury bills, money market accounts, and more. These assets are not owned by a company, corporation, or “entity.” They belong to a person or a household. 

Business assets, by contrast, are items of value that are owned by a business, company, or corporation. These assets deliver value to the business, as they are used for functions such as funding operations, driving growth, and producing goods or services. Examples of business assets include machinery, raw materials, inventory, patents, royalties, and other intangible items, and intellectual property. 

Asset protection is a term that refers to the goal of guarding your property from creditors, taxes, and other judgements. This set of legal techniques follows a body of common and statutory law. The goal is to insulate your assets, all while following the letter of the law and staying miles away from tax evasion or perjury. 

Personal Asset Protection 

Now that we’ve covered the definition of personal asset protection, it’s time to look into the various legal tools and techniques that can be used to insulate your personal property. These include: 

• Homestead Exemptions. A homestead exemption helps people save money on property taxes every year. In Florida, everyone with title to property (equitable or legal) is eligible to receive a homestead exemption up to $50,000. The first half of that $50,000 is applied to property taxes. This removes part of your home’s value from the overall taxation, appraising it as though it were worth a good deal less.
• Certain Types of Trusts. Asset protection trusts are three-party relationships that hold a person’s assets to shield them from creditors. APTs are self-settled in Florida if the person who creates the trust is also the trust beneficiary. 
• LLCs. A Limited Liability Company is a mix of partnership and corporation. It is a business structure that has the same pass-through taxation as a partnership/sole proprietorship, combined with the limited liability of a corporation. Individual business owners can classify their companies as LLCs to protect personal assets.

Though this list is by no means exhaustive, those legal tools are common ways that people protect personal assets from creditors. Likewise, there are several techniques that can insulate business assets. 

Business Asset Protection 

There are many ways to insulate your business assets. Some of these include: 

• Business Type. There are several different types of business structures in Florida, and each has their own role in shielding a business owner. Deciding how to classify your business can help protect your assets in the long run in the event of lawsuits or creditors.
• Insurance. Insurance is a good idea, no matter whether you are a business or individual. This failsafe protects your company if there is a lawsuit, disaster, or other problem. When it comes to insurance, don’t be afraid to splurge on an expansive policy. You never know when you might need it.
• Equity Stripping. Another possible way that businesses can protect their assets is through equity-stripping. This process removes the equity/value of an asset, making it unappealing to creditors. This is usually done via a separate company so that the overall assets remain the same. Once equity has been stripped, creditors cannot attack as easily.

As always, the best plan of action is to talk to a lawyer to ensure that your personal and business assets are as protected as possible. Legal counsel will be able to guide you in what tool to pick based on the facts you give them.  Contact our attorneys today. 

If you’re currently in a state of newlywedded bliss, this article might not be for you, as it is going to be a huge bummer. Let’s face it: the stats on marriage don’t look too great. The divorce rate is 44.2%. This means that if you know ten couples, four probably won’t make it. Some say that January is the most common month for divorces, while others say that it is July or August. Some even claim it is March (perhaps after Valentine’s Day’s pink-and-red haze wears off).

Whatever the month, there’s no denying that divorce is a real thing. In this article, we’re going to discuss divorce and its impact on your estate plan. If you feel, for whatever reason or inkling, that this information applies to you, read on. 

What Is Divorce? 

A divorce is the end of the legal contract known as marriage. When a court issues a divorce decree, that signals that your marriage is officially over in the eyes of the law. Divorce can take months, if not years, to finalize. According to experts, a breakdown of the marriage (arguing, lack of commitment, infidelity, etc.) is usually the biggest reason for a divorce. 

Divorce And Your Estate Plan 

Divorce might change your relationship with your ex, but it does not automatically take your ex-spouse off your estate plan as a beneficiary. Chances are, unless you saw a split coming from a mile away, your ex is in your estate plan as a beneficiary. If the divorce decree contains a stipulation to change your beneficiary designation, that’s one thing. If it contains no such clause, you’ll need to talk to an attorney. 

With a lawyer, revise powers of attorney, trusts, wills, and other documents with your ex-spouse in order to move forward. You don’t want to leave any stone unturned, and that is why it is important to sit down with a lawyer and go through your estate plan document by document. 

What Does The Law Say? 

In Florida, the law provides that a provision of a will that affects the ex-spouse of a married person is void upon divorce, annulment, or dissolution of the marriage. The divorce will not invalidate the entire will, though it does remove the spouse as a personal representative or beneficiary. It treats the spouse as though he or she has died and therefore cannot inherit or execute. 

Keeping this in mind, most lawyers agree that after a divorce, someone in Florida should not just rely on this law to cover them. Go through your estate plan and ensure that the documents officially have your ex-spouse removed. Neglecting this task will cause awkwardness at best. At worst, your ex-spouse might get a benefit from your estate when you really don’t want him or her to.

Protecting Assets From An Ex

Along this same line, you might be in a position where you want to protect assets from an ex. There are different financial tools that can help you with this, such as trusts, retirement accounts, and more. The bottom line is that divorce law and estate planning law often find themselves tied together. You don’t want to navigate this process without a lawyer. You might find yourself missing something important or getting an unfair shake from opposing counsel or the court. 

During the turbulent time of divorce, we understand that estate planning is likely the furthest thing from your mind. Some divorces are a terrible, heartbreaking tragedy. Others inspire less-negative emotions. No matter where you are on this spectrum, it’s important to contact WFP‘s legal counsel immediately to ensure your estate plan is updated after the marriage ends.