Probate is a legal process that takes place after someone dies. This includes:

1. Proving to the Court that the Will is valid
2. Identifying and recording the deceased’s personal items
3. Appraising the property
4. Paying remaining taxes and debts
5. Providing remaining property to heirs

Just five simple steps, right? Wrong.

By reading the aforementioned process, you must believe probate goes something like this…

Grandma dies, grandma’s will is read by the court, grandma pays her taxes, then grandma gives her prized mahjong set to her favorite son. The family then skips off into sunset and lives happily ever after.

In an ideal world, we would all be eating milk and cookies while listening to the final requests of Bubbe. But the truth is, probate is a long, arduous, stressful process that does not include milk and cookies. In fact, by the time you are done with probate, you might feel like you are on the verge of death yourself.

Like your mother-in-law, probate is something you might want to avoid. But unlike your mother-in-law, probate is something you can avoid by visiting with an estate planning attorney and setting up a revocable trust.

It would behoove you to work with the estate-planning attorneys at Wild Felice & Partners and avoid the hell on earth called probate.

Here are three ways to avoid probate:

1. Living Trust: Living trusts were invented to avoid probate. Any asset held as part of a trust will avoid probate. This is so important so we will repeat that, any property within a trust will avoid probate. After the death of your loved one, the trustee can easily and quickly transfer the trust property to the family or friends it was designated to, without probate.

2. Joint Ownership of Property: By adding someone else to take title on your property, the papers show ownership. Therefore, when the owner dies, the property goes to the other joint-owner – no probate involved. However, you should NEVER own something with someone you aren’t married to. There are asset protection and tax consequences to doing to.

3. Gifts/Beneficiary Designations: Giving away property while you’re alive helps you avoid probate for a very simple reason: If you don’t own it when you die, it doesn’t have to go through probate. That lowers probate costs because, as a general rule, the higher the monetary value of the assets that go through probate, the higher the expense. However, be prepared to pay gift tax for any gift over $14,000 in a given year. Gifting at the time of death, via Trust or beneficiary designation, is much more affordable.

Losing a loved one is already a stressful and arduous experience. Why would you chose to allow your family to suffer through probate during their time of mourning? It is recommended to contact an estate-planning attorney to ensure your assets are all protected, including the mahjong set.

Estate Planning Blunders

We all make mistakes.

Forgot to turn off the coffee pot, oops.

Burnt the chicken, things happen.

Give all your retirement savings to your ex-husband instead of your children, no big deal.

Here is where we insert the sound of a screeching halt.

People make mistakes, but the latter of the three should not be one of them.

As Halloween approaches, it’s time to gather around and tell the scariest stories you have ever heard. Disclaimer: these stories may cause one to lose sleep, experience night sweats, and worst of all… call an attorney.

Story I: The not-so-wise old man.

Benjamin* was successful gentleman; he worked hard and amassed significant wealth throughout his life. One day, Benjamin met a beautiful younger woman. As a widow, he was happy to have found someone to enjoy his time with. Benjamin was smitten over the bombshell and decided to take the relationship to the next level and give her partial control of his assets during his lifetime.

Unbeknownst to him, the girlfriend had transferred a significant portion of the estate to herself. At his death, his children were left with nothing. Once it was discovered, it was too late. The assets were spent or transferred out of jurisdiction.

The lesson learned: don’t date young women or pick the right person to be in control of your assets before and after your passing.

Story II: Money to strangers

As an attorney looked over his client’s trust he became a little disturbed. William* was set to give $50,000 to two different people that he did not even know! How is that even possible you ask?

William knew he had to set up a trust. One night he used the trusted and credible Internet to do so. However, when he copied and pasted an old trust from the Internet, he failed to take out the previous information.

Thank goodness William was smart enough to meet with an attorney and get this fixed before it could have been a true horror story. 

Story III: Cheap is expensive.

We all love the Mad Libs game. You get a story and are prompted to fill in the blanks within the story before reading it. It always ends in barrels of laughter. This story however, does not leave anyone laughing.

Probate is not a game, but perhaps Alice* thought so. Ninety-year-old Alice decided to get preprinted wills from a local office supply store. Much like Mad Libs, Alice filled in the empty spaces and considered this paperwork her will. Upon her death, this “document” failed to conform to the laws of the state in which she lived.

Rather than paying an experienced attorney to prepare her will, her family suffered through a long, lengthy and costly probate. No laughing matter there…

*All names have been changed

To learn more about Estate Planning  and avoiding these situations, visit our website at www.wfplaw.com, you can also schedule a free consultation at http://wfplaw.com/Contact-Us.html.

What is Estate Planning?

Bobby has heard he needs estate planning, but Bobby is too embarrassed to admit he doesn’t know what estate planning actually is? Don’t be embarrassed Bobby. Estate planning covers the transfer of property at death, as well as a variety of other personal matters. The core documents associated with estate planning are your will and your trust. Depending on your estate, it may or may not involve tax planning. At WFP, estate planning is really counseling from professional advisors who are familiar with your goals and concerns, your assets and how they are owned, and your family structure. This should be a personal process and is all about what you want. Don’t trust a lawyer who tries to give you some cookie cutter document.

To learn more about estate planning click here, you can also call the experienced South Florida estate planning attorneys at WFP at 954-944-2855 for a free consultation today.

Wild Felice & Partners, PA
Attorneys at Law
101 North Pine Island Road,
Suite 201
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33324

What Is an Irrevocable Trust?

An irrevocable trust is an estate planning and asset protection tool that provides creditor protection and gives the grantor extended control over the assets. With an irremovable trust, the grantor gives away the asset to the beneficiaries during the grantor’s life. Because the asset is for the benefit of the beneficiaries and not the grantors, creditor of the grantor can’t reach it because it is in a trust, creditors of the beneficiaries can’t reach it either. The only downside to an irrevocable trust is that upon the execution, the grantor loses control of the asset, even while he is alive.

To learn more about irrevocable trust visit http://wfplaw.com/Irrevocable-Trusts.html or you can call WFP at 954-944-2855 today for a free consultation.

Wild Felice & Partners, PA
Attorneys at Law
101 North Pine Island Road,
Suite 201
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33324

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/

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