This Sunday most of America will be glued to television sets while watching the Patriots and Giants battle it out on the football field. Everyone will be rooting for their favorite team while wolfing down Buffalo wings and downing endless cans of beer. During commercial airtime, you might be thinking how great it is that your family and friends are all together watching the biggest game of the year. So many memories are being filled right in your family living room. You then decide you are going to leave your house to your kids so that these memories will last forever. What a great idea!

However, without careful thought, you might be doing disservice to your children in the future.  If your residence is worth less than $5 million, most likely you will not have to pay any gift taxes. This is great. However, if your children decide to sell the house immediately, they will be hit with heavy capital gains tax. This is because your cost basis (whatever it cost you to purchase the house) is transferred over to the recipient. So if the fair market value of your house has substantially increased, Uncle Sam will dip into that higher gain.

However, the only way for your children to avoid such high taxes is for them to live in the house for at least 2 years before they sell it. This situation affords them the opportunity to exclude up to $250,000 from capital gain taxes.

What if you decide your children will instead inherit the real estate? In this case, the cost basis will become the current market value, which could translate into a lower gain and thus, lower taxes. However, there are estate tax consequences that will come back to haunt you.  So what do you do?

Take action and consult a highly qualified South Florida attorney to learn about all the available options that can save your children from harsh taxes.

Back in 2008, the Patriot’s offensive line failed to protect their quarterback Tom Brady from the NY Giant’s hard-charging defensive linemen. Don’t fail to protect your kids from Uncle Sam’s appetite for more taxes. Put down that plate of nachos and schedule an appointment today!

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.

It’s a Wild world.  Are you protected?

This week is welcomed by the holiday known as Celebration of Life Day.  Every January, it is a day to take the time to honor children and grandchildren in America. Each life is held to be a precious gift. However, sometimes we are too busy existing in life that we forget to actually live it, let alone stop to appreciate the people we love most. Hardly do we ever contemplate life after death and rarely do we stop to consider what will happen to our children after we pass away.  There can be no better way to show love and honor to our progeny than to protect them from future legal distress and financial insecurity after we are gone. Ensuring a brighter future for our children and grandchildren starts with estate planning and asset protection. The attorneys at Wild Felice & Partners are well-equipped with the necessary tools, legal knowledge, and expertise of South Florida estate planning strategies and asset structuring to ensure the financial stability of society’s most vulnerable individuals in order to guarantee the quality of life they deserve. Whether it’s a drafting a will or forming a trust, there are countless benefits to strategic estate planning. You can protect your children and grandchildren from potential lawsuits and creditor claims to your family life savings. You can protect your children against inadequate insurance coverage. You can eliminate the need for probate and reduce the burden of estate taxes. It is difficult to think of a better way to celebrate the life of your offspring and acknowledge them as precious gifts of life than to ensure their financial protection and shield them from unnecessary legal hassles after we are gone. In return, our children will be honoring us …on Remembrance of Death Day.

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.

It’s a Wild world.  Are you protected?

I am trying to come up with a topic related to South Florida estate planning and asset protection as I watch this South Carolina Republican debate and the candidates are currently stuck on the topic of the right to life and debating which of them are pro life.  If anyone took a look at what’s going on with the estate tax and how difficult and costly the South Florida probate process is, theyd surely be pro life.  With a 55 percent estate tax, there’s no way a person would be pro death.

I hope that was what they were talking about.

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.

It’s a Wild world.  Are you protected?

All too often, even after realizing the indispensability of a comprehensive South Florida estate plan – people try to cut corners.  When it comes to preserving hard-earned assets for posterity, being penny wise is not only pound-foolish. It may even be fatal to all your hard work, hopes, and dreams of perpetual prosperity for future progeny.

Why Not Do Estate Planning Yourself?

A plethora of workbooks full of fill-in-the-blank forms is available online and at local retailers. Some subscription-based websites offer downloadable standardized materials with audio or video instruction.

Although helpful, such resources are woefully ineffective estate planning tools. In the “game” of planning estates, what is good for the goose will not always work for the gander. Everyone has different needs and objectives. No two situations are exactly alike.

There is simply no substitute for the specialized expertise of a Florida estate planning attorney. As your legal representative, an attorney is legally and ethically bound to represent only your interests and desires when devising any estate plan on your behalf. The availability of free initial consultations gives you nothing to lose and everything to gain by consulting a qualified estate lawyer in Florida.

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.

It’s a Wild world.  Are you protected?

What does Bono have to do with South Florida estate planning?  Probably not much.  After all, most of Bono’s assets probably lie overseas and are governed by that country’s specific estate planning and probate laws.  However, as a non-US citizen, his estate tax exemption amount for all property held in the United States will be a measly $60,000.  He may want to become a resident of Florida so that he can avoid the state estate tax shouldered by the residents of many of the other 50 states.  He should also consider some agressive estate tax planning and probate avoidance techniques to assure that his family or his charities end up with more of his assets than the IRS does.  After all, they say that this is the Golden age and nothing changes on New Year’s Day.

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.

It’s a Wild world.  Are you protected?

As the end of 2011 approaches, Florida residents realize that 2012 is about to hit us smack in the face.  As a tradition, Americans tend to use the New Year as the motivation necessary to set goals for themselves to earn more, weigh less and even to be a better person.  While I am certain that some of you will work less, eat more and go about your lives in the same manner as you did this year, there is one resolution that cannot go unfulfilled: you MUST institute some form of South Florida Estate Planning this year.

You put it off each year because you know you aren’t going to die – until you do, of course.  Unlike joining a gym, which requires monthly payments and showering with strangers (which may be your thing so I don’t aim to judge), your Trust-based estate plan can be formulated during an hour long consultation and signed just a week later.  There are no monthly fees and my office doesn’t even have a shower.

If your resolution is to be a better parent or spouse, there is no better way than to protect your loved ones after you are gone.  A Revocable Trust can avoid probate, reduce estate taxes and provide asset protection for its beneficiaries.  If you love your kids, you’ll get one drafted soon.  Click here to schedule a free consultation with one of our South Florida Estate Planning Attorneys.

If your resolution is to quit smoking, I hope you are successful but the fact remains that you probably wont be.  That means that your living will and designation of health care surrogate had better be in order.

Each year we make resolutions and each year we have trouble keeping them.  I will make this promise to you.  If you complete your estate plan in January of 2012, I promise that you will stress less, spend less and be a better parent immediately.  Then you can feel free to take the rest of the year off.

For more information on successful Florida estate planning and probate techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Partners, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.

It’s a Wild world.  Are you protected?