It’s incredible to think that 2018 has gone by so quickly. There have been a lot of changes throughout the year, both on a national and local scale. There have been tragedies and triumphs and, overall, I think we can all agree that it’s been an interesting year. Another major change that you may not have been aware of was that of the tax code. Your tax returns this year likely weren’t affected too much by it, but that may change next year. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December of 2017. The main goal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was to simplify the tax filing process (as well as cut taxes and increase jobs, like the title says). 

Here are some of the biggest changes that will show you what to expect come 2019. 

The Standard Deduction is Looking Good

A lot of people, prior to this new tax code law, usually selected itemized deductions as their preferred form of deduction. While that’s still an option, there have been some changes to the standard deduction that have made it look pretty good in comparison. The new code expanded the standard deduction. If you’re a single filer, the code expanded from $6,500 to $12,000. If you’re a joint filer, it expanded from $13,000 to $24,000. 

This expansion means that itemized deductions were limited, which made the standard deduction look like the better option in a lot of cases. Basically, the standard deduction has nearly doubled—that’s one of the biggest “headline” changes that came with this bill. 

Goodbye, Personal Exemption

Don’t freak out when you read that heading. The new law whisked away the personal exemption, but it gave an expanded standard deduction and a bigger child tax credit. With more people taking the standard deduction, this isn’t harmful. In fact, the IRS ran the numbers on who would be taking the standard deduction and found that it would be millions more than last year. The itemized deduction takers are projected to decline by thirty million. Getting rid of the personal exemption simplifies the process—one of the major goals the new law set out to accomplish. 

SALT Gets Limited 

Because the standard deduction was expanded, certain itemized deductions were limited. One major limitation is the cap on state and local taxes. The second is a cap on your mortgage interest. Prior to the new law, SALT didn’t really have a limit. People could deduct all the SALT they wanted for either state individual or income tax. This has now been capped at $10,000. There were 42.3 million people who used the SALT deduction in 2017. In 2018, that number shrank to 16.6 million. 

The second limitation, for mortgage interest, was another cap. The cap has been lowered from $1 million to $750,000 in terms of what you can deduct from your mortgage debt. Your home equity debt has also been limited. Again, way less people (almost twenty million less) took this deduction as a result of this limitation. 

Rewarding Charity 

The charitable deduction is actually a major reward for anyone who likes to give money to charitable causes. For cash donations, the deduction you can take went up ten percent—from 50% to 60%. If you give more of your money away, you can take a larger deduction. This serves an important public policy interest of encouraging charitable giving. 

Overall, The Process Is Way Less Terrible

Bottom line, the new law has made filing taxes way less cumbersome. This is mainly due to the itemized tax limitations. It’s way easier to take the standard deduction than to go through everything. According to the Tax Foundation, it took Americans, in total, 2.6 billion hours to do their taxes in 2016. This worked out to almost $100 billion each year in the total resources people dedicated to not bumping heads with the IRS. The hours and cost have both decreased, and more statistics will be available in 2019 as to exactly how much easier the new code made things. 

Knowing what’s coming down the pike is the best way to prepare yourself. Again, you may have already seen some of these changes come your way in 2018. 2019 will likely bring even more tax code changes with it. Whether you’re a fan of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act or not, it is the law, so you will want to make sure you know your finances and what to expect. Make sure to consult a professional if you have any questions. Seeking a pro’s help will allow you to avoid any scary IRS warning letters or frantic, last-minute digging for receipts.

When you think of December as the season of giving, you might just mean “giving” in terms of the pile of gifts under the Christmas tree. And, whether you’re doing your Christmas shopping online or braving the crowded stores this month, your family and friends will no doubt love the gift you give them. However, the usual holiday fanfare is not the only way you can celebrate the season of giving. Looking to the future presents a great opportunity to use your estate plan and tax savvy to give long-lasting gifts. Here’s how:

The Gift Tax Has Changed (For the Better!)

There have been major tax changes recently, particularly with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act last December. The gift tax went up from $14,000 to $15,000 per person. While that might not seem like a lot, keep in mind that the tax was stuck at $14K for five years, and $15K is the highest it’s ever been. So, comparatively, it’s a pretty big deal. 

Don’t forget that the usual gifts are still exempt. These include gifts between spouses, gifts directly made to a health care provider for medical purposes, gifts made for educational reasons to an educational institution, and, of course, gifts to charities. Remember: the gift tax applies to the person giving the gift, not the receiver. 

Update Your Estate Plan

A way to make Christmas more permanent and lasting is to update your estate plan to reflect more assets transferred to your family after you die. If you have a plan for your home and valuables and want to make sure that it is carried out, you should definitely include those directions in your estate plan. An estate planner will help you manage your estate in a way that will keep it out of the clutches of probate court. 

Consider a 529 Form 

A 529 plan is one of the IRS’s rare, drawback-free gifts to the taxpayer. The 529 form is a savings plan that gives you tax breaks for saving up for your child’s education. 529 forms are also called “qualified tuition plans.” These qualified tuition plans benefit both you and your child. Your child’s college financing will get a head start, while you aren’t saddled with a huge tax bill for saving up. This is an excellent Christmas present that will pay off in the long run.

Charitable Tax Deductions Have Increased, Too!

As mentioned above, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act led to tax deductions not just for gifts, but also for charities as well. Before, you could only deduct 50% of a charitable donation on your taxes. Now, you can deduct 60% of the donation from your taxes. This encourages generous donations to your favorite charities. It’s a way to give a holiday present to those in need without including the IRS on your charity list.

Think About Setting Up a Trust 

Going back to the estate plan, a trust (a tri-party fiduciary relationship) is an excellent way to give someone a gift that will stay out of probate court after you pass away. When you set up a trust, you are the donor. You transfer the property you want to give to the beneficiary to a trustee. The trustee then, at your direction, gives the property to the beneficiary. This trust goes into effect immediately. This is a tool for estate planning that can also function as an excellent gift with a lot of longevity for your transferee. 

New Family Members? No Problem

Another way you can give gifts to your family is by including new members in your estate plan. Weddings and births happen all the time. Encompassing these new family members into your estate plan ensures that they’ll get part of your estate after you pass on. This is a way to include someone and make them feel like they’re part of the family, all while making good financial sense and keeping your possessions out of the state’s hands after you pass away.

As you can see, there’s more you can do to celebrate the season of giving besides the usual Christmas shopping. If you want a permanent way to make sure that any gifts you have are long-lasting, update your estate plan. And don’t forget to take advantage of the tax deductions that have just passed recently. Merry Christmas! 

Charity is one of the best ways to help others. If you’re strapped for time, you can always donate food or money to the charity of your choice. For every cause, there is a nonprofit organization out there that is willing to help. Philanthropy and charity are two of the ways that you can not only help people in need, but also their families and friends. When illness or poverty strikes one person, it’s not just that individual affected: it affects everyone who is close to them. Charity is, in a sense, a way to protect others. But how can you protect your own family in a similar way? 

Asset Protection 

You might be wondering how your own assets can tie into nonprofits. Asset protection means that you’re setting aside legal tools and documents concerning what will happen to your assets after you pass on. Perhaps there is something you want to transfer to a family member after you die. By setting up a living trust, you can make that happen. This three-party relationship allows you to hand over nominal title to a trustee until your beneficiary is able to receive your asset. A living trust is not the only way to transfer assets, but it is the best way to avoid probate. 

Healthcare Decisions

The time, expense, and mental exhaustion of caring for an end-of-life relative is very draining. Through estate planning, you can ease that process. Selecting a power of attorney and filling out a healthcare directive will allow you to set up your decisions in preparation of a time period where you’re sick or incapacitated. A power of attorney is the individual you designate to handle your financial decisions, and a healthcare directive tells doctors and hospitals your particular wishes concerning your medical care. Having a clear-cut plan of action will save your family from guessing and stress when it is time for you to start receiving intensive care. 

Avoiding Probate 

As mentioned above, tools such as a living trust help you avoid probate. Probate court is the process by which a judge (called a probate judge) divides up your assets after you die. The court isn’t just for people who die without a will. Even a last will and testament is still subject to probate court. The probate judge pays off creditors first, and then divides up the remaining assets as he or she sees fit. You want to avoid probate court because it is time consuming, expensive, and very stressful. Diligent estate planning can keep you out of probate, something for which your family will thank you.

Giving Gifts 

If there’s a charity you love, you might even want to give a gift. Estate planning can help you manage this gift-giving. The gift-giving also applies to relatives and family that you might want to help as well. There are ways around excessive taxation using gift money, and that money also allows you to help someone in need. Gift money is very charitable, and it is definitely in the spirit of Nonprofit Awareness Month. If you think you’d like to take part and give gift money as part of your estate plan, an estate planner can help you do so.

Nonprofit Awareness Month brings attention to the many awesome organizations out there that help people in distress. Celebrate this month by giving a little, whether it is extra time, food, clothes, money, or something else. However, don’t forget to also take care of your own family by preparing for what happens if you yourself are sick or injured. Estate planning offers a similar monetary protection as charity. Taking care of your own family is just another way you can celebrate the charitable spirit of November. 

When you think of Thanksgiving, you probably think of the fun time you’ll spend with family and friends, the football games, and, of course, all the delicious food you’re going to eat. Whether you’re the one cooking or one of your family members is, Thanksgiving gives you the chance to enjoy what matters most: family, food, and togetherness. With that sense of family also comes all the obligations and responsibilities attached. Providing your family with security and safety is doable if you have an estate plan. If estate planning is relatively new to you, you can remember the major documents just by looking on your Thanksgiving table. 

The Turkey
If there’s one thing you don’t want to be, it’s the turkey on Thanksgiving. A turkey has a pretty short life thanks to this holiday, and death comes pretty unexpectedly to the unlucky bird. You can’t always be prepared for everything, and unfortunately, we humans can sometimes meet a sudden, turkey-like ending (minus the holiday dinner part). This is why putting off estate planning is never a good idea. Getting together a living trust, last will, or other documents to give instructions about your assets after you die is essential to ensuring that you’re prepared. You might think that you have time, but you never know that for sure. It’s best not to put it off. 

The Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes can seem pretty boring, but they’re one of the most important Thanksgiving side dishes. When prepared correctly, they’re pretty much essential to the meal. This is somewhat like estate planning itself. This field of law can seen boring and dull, but it actually is vitally important. The legal arena wouldn’t be the same without it. Estate planning handles all the posthumous things that would bog down the courts were they left undone. When your estate documents are correctly prepared, they become extremely important, whether they appear boring or not.

The Vegetables 

One day, most of us are also going to be vegetables. That sounds morbid, but it’s just true. There comes a time where most people enter end of life care and aren’t really with it mentally. Decision-making becomes difficult, and even communication struggles. Documents such as a power of attorney and healthcare directive can ensure that your life decisions are handled for you. A power of attorney controls your finances, and a directive tells hospitals and doctors any particulars about your medical care. While it’s no fun to think about and compose—instructions about your own dying are not exactly a thrill a minute—they are important to the process of a smooth transition for your family. 

The Pumpkin Pie
Last but not least, there is the pumpkin pie (or any type of dessert, really). This is the extra on top of the meal. There are a lot of documents in estate planning like this. They don’t necessarily make up the meat and potatoes of the meal, but they’re an important addendum. Documents pertaining to niche assets like Bitcoin, antiques, collector’s items, and more are examples of these “extras.” You want to get the big stuff into the estate plan, of course. But, you also don’t want to ignore the smaller, more unique things that are still of great value to you and your family. 

As you can see, the Thanksgiving table gives you a way that you can remember the major documents in an estate plan. These aren’t all the documents that you’ll need, of course, but they are the main ones, and they give you a sense of what estate planning is all about. Your family deserves a sense of security, and proper planning will provide that. When you’re spending time with them, think about ways you can improve or update plans you have in place already. Have a happy Thanksgiving! 

If you live in Florida, particularly in Broward County, you’ve probably heard of an awesome event called the Sixth Annual Miss Arc Broward Pageant. This pageant, presented by the law firm Holland & Knight, empowers girls and women between the ages of six and seventeen who have disabilities. Held at the Parker Playhouse, it gives these young ladies a chance to shine. Excitingly, Michael Wild is sponsoring one of the candidates! Not only should you look into attending the pageant so that you can sit in the audience and cheer on the girls, you can also take this opportunity to think more about your own family. There are different ways that you can support family members and friends who may have disabilities through inclusive, diverse estate planning. 

But First, More About the Pageant

Such a cool event needs more than just one little paragraph. The Miss Arc Broward Pageant is an event from Arc Broward. Arc Broward is an organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities. This nonprofit organization has been around since 1956, and the pageant is a relatively recent idea. Arc Broward has ten different locations and provides Broward County with twenty-one programs to help disabled citizens learn life skills. These programs aren’t just great for the more vulnerable parts of the population; they’re great for the community at large. The pageant itself celebrates the young women who take part in Arc Broward’s programs, because women’s empowerment is for everyone, disabled or not.  

Helping Disabled Family Members 

Disabilities are common throughout the world. Everyone is differently-abled in some way or another. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in five Americans has a disability, whether physical or psychological. Disabled people have an income that is almost half of what a non-disabled person has. Clearly, disabled people need our help, both as a society and, on a smaller scale, as a family. If you have disabled family members, consider ways to work them into your estate plan and provide at least some security for their needs, whether through asset transferring, gifts, setting aside a fund, or something else. There are many, many different ways besides just those to make your estate plan inclusive towards your disabled loved ones.

Consider the Future

Perhaps the disabled individual is someone in your actual nuclear family. You want to make sure that you consider all the facets of their care. This includes finding them a power of attorney for their finances and medical decisions. If something were to happen that would incapacitate them, having a power of attorney means that the financial and medical decisions would be taken care of by someone they trust. A power of attorney takes important decision-making power and places it into the hands of a trustworthy individual with which the person is comfortable.

Guardianship 

If the disabled members of your family are your children, guardianship takes on an even more enhanced role. In the event that something happens to you, selecting a guardian has a special importance. Choose someone who has experience working with the particular disability that your child has. The guardian should agree to the guardianship, as that is a big responsibility and you want to make sure they are on board. Don’t forget to make sure that your child is okay with the person and likes them, also.

As you can see, the upcoming Miss Arc Broward Pageant is going to be a lot of fun! We’re excited to sponsor one of the contestants. On a less public forum, feel free to schedule an estate planning appointment to talk about how you can take care of family or friends you may have who have disabilities. Estate planning is great at providing a unique type of future security for those close to you.

Football season is the most exciting sports season (to some, that is). Football is a fall American tradition, and the weekends are a great time to tailgate or just stay at home on the couch, eat snacks, and watch the game. Everyone has a favorite team, and, if you’re a fan, you probably know all the stats about your team, including the chances of winning, names of your favorite players, and, if your team isn’t that good, how they need to improve—in your opinion. Post-game talk show analysts pore over the game after it’s done, figuring out what went wrong and what went right. You need to know the game to play the game, and that doesn’t just apply to football. 

Understanding how to plan for your future is of the utmost importance, and, by consulting with an estate planner, you can ensure that you’re totally prepared for anything. While your favorite team might not be able to ensure a win, you can if you plan thoroughly. 

Take Cover!

In football, the offensive line’s job is to cover the quarterback and make sure nobody sacks him. Much in the same way that the O-Line covers the quarterback, your estate plan will cover you and prevent you and your family from a lot of headaches down the road. Your estate plan will protect your family in particular from probate court, which is a time consuming, expensive process that usually leaves everyone pretty unhappy with the way in which the assets are divided. Judges don’t know your family and what you want, so give your family some cover from probate and create an estate plan with the right tools to avoid it.

Who is estate planning for? 

Estate planning is for everyone! Even minors benefit from estate planning through third-party means, as parents often designate guardians for their minor children in the event that something happens to them. College-age kids benefit from estate planning because they are able to designate their parent as power of attorney and lay out any healthcare directives they may have for their medical care. And, of course, older adults benefit from estate planning because it provides a way to make sure your assets are divided the way you want them to be after you pass on. While the documents may differ from person to person, and the benefits may not be the same from person to person, estate planning is still a tool for everyone. 

Different Plays 

Much like how a successful football team has tons of different plays, you should have a lot of tools in your estate planning toolkit. There are documents for just about anything, including assets, your family, guardianship, your medical decisions, and more. Provide coverage for the various areas of your life and livelihood by securing each in the event of your incapacitation or death. 

Make Sure to Keep Your Playbook Updated 

Don’t forget to update and review your estate planning materials every three to five years. Families change. There are marriages, new babies, divorces, deaths, and more that may change your estate plan and give you a new person to add in or someone to take out. You could have all the estate planning safeguards in the world, but if you don’t have it updated to reflect your current family situation, you won’t be happy with the results.

A successful estate planning playbook ensures a win for you, and an estate planning consultation is a great way to prepare for the future. To win the game, you have to know the game, and the different tools that estate planning provides will help you secure your future and your family’s future.