With Father’s day behind us, we still have an opportunity to celebrate Dad and thank him for everything he has done for you.  A father is for many of us a fountain of wisdom and the person we model ourselves to be, and for that reason it is important to let them know every day how important they are in our lives because unfortunately they won’t be around forever.  Take the time to tell him how much you appreciate all he has done and how he has shaped you.  To ensure that his legacy is preserved, consider planning for your future and that of your children after all, he worked hard so you could enjoy the fruits of his labor.

A common misconception is that only wealthy families and people in high risk professions need to put together an asset protection plan.  But in reality, anyone can be sued.  A car accident, foreclosure, unpaid medical bills, or an injured tenant can result in a monetary judgment that will decimate your finances.   To make sure that your assets are protected from unforeseen creditors, consult an estate planning attorney that can help you navigate confidently the waters of wealth and family protection, so you and your family can have the peace of mind that only comes with knowing that you are prepared for anything.

Plain and simple, estate planning helps protect your family in the event that something bad happens to you. And, yet, 55% of Americans don’t even have a last will, leaving them vulnerable to costly court fees and legal battles.  But even though it’s predicated on incapacitation or death, estate planning doesn’t have to be morbid. In fact, it can actually be life-affirming, because the process will allow you to take a closer look at the people you most care about in life—and ensure their future happiness.

Don’t procrastinate.  Unless you have a crystal ball, you just never know when death will occur. With the help of an attorney, determine which type of document best suits your situation.  You’re the only one who knows the extent of your assets, but if you have minor children, you must get a will.  Keep your will or trust current, life is fluid. As you increase assets, and expand your family, your will or trust should be updated to meet your changing needs. For example, wills and trusts should be revised following unexpected events, such as a divorce or the death of a spouse or a child. A substantial inheritance should also trigger a revision to your will or trust.  Let someone you trust know where you keep your documents.  A family member, relative or trusted friend should be able to easily find your documents at the time of your death to prevent any confusion.

Estate planning and asset protection are proactive methods to secure your family’s future and to ensure their financial stability when you are no longer there to do it yourself.  One of the most difficult things to do is think about the possibility we may die unexpectedly or too early, leaving our children without one of the most important people in their lives.  But stepping up and making a legal plan to protect your children if something should happen to you is one of the best Father’s Day gifts you can give yourself and the people you love.

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

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.

June’s cover of Vanity Fair magazine revealed the transformation of Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner into a woman.  “Call me Caitlyn”, the cover reads.  Life is inherently full of changes, some undoubtedly more drastic than others and while Caitlyn’s transformation certainly falls into the more drastic type of life change, there are life changes that most people go through that may require counsel from an attorney.  Estate planning, for example, is an important undertaking and hiring an attorney to draft an estate plan for you is definitely a step in the right direction.  However, just because you already drafted an estate plan does not mean you can simply file it away and forget about it.  There are certain life changes that warrant a review of your estate plan in order to make it congruent with the changes in your life; it is recommended that you take a look at your estate plan every 3 to 5 years, because within those periods it is likely that one of the following major life events occur:

Getting married: Generally you would want to update your living trust and/or your will to indicate what provisions you would like to make for your new spouse. You should also address your separate property.  You may wish consider a prenuptial agreement if one or both spouses come to the marriage with significant assets.

Divorce or death of a spouse:  The end of a marriage should trigger the need to review your estate planning documents.  That could mean changing beneficiaries, trustees and changing Powers of Attorney and Health Care Surrogates.

Purchase or refinance of a home:  If you have a living trust, your house should be held in the trust. Many times lenders, upon a refinance, will take the property out of the trust, put the mortgage in place and then neglect to put it back into the trust. When buying property many people simply forget to take title in the name of the trust. To have the maximum benefit of the trust, all properties should be in the name of the trust. If your properties are not in your trust, work with your estate planning attorney to help transfer the properties to the trust.

New accounts:  Making sure all savings accounts, brokerage accounts or mutual fund accounts are in the trust is important to avoid probate and make transfer of title to your new beneficiaries easier.

The birth of a new child:  If you have a baby, adopt a child or have a new stepchild, all would trigger the need to review and update your estate planning.

Change is the only constant and your estate plan should be constantly changing.

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

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.

The recent derailment of an Amtrak train left at least eight casualties and many more injured.  Nobody who boarded the train that fateful day was expecting this to happen, rather they were just going about their day as they would any other.  Death is a difficult topic to approach, because nobody likes to think that someday it will happen.  It is important however, because you want to make sure that you are ready for when it happens and because, unfortunately, it can happen at any time.

Waiting too long to draft an estate plan can be troublesome as well.  When a person dies, there may be reasons to question the mental capacity of the individual at the time he or she prepared an estate plan. Undue influence or fraud from third parties, who take advantage of a close relationship with the decedent for personal gain, can be reason to challenge a legal document after death.  Another reason that can be grounds to challenge a legal document is whether it was properly executed and with all the formalities required.

Powers of attorney, for example, are powerful documents that grant another individual broad discretion over medical and financial decisions. Such an important power should involve careful planning. Standard legal forms found online, software programs with legal templates, and other self-help documents, are attractive to many individuals due to the ease of access and low cost. However, template powers of attorney are not always the equivalent of a proper Florida power of attorney drafted by a lawyer.

Many states, like Florida, have strict requirements regarding execution of valid powers of attorney or advance directives.  In order to make it easy for your loved ones to say goodbye, you should consult an estate planning attorney who can recognize potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.

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

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.

With our favorite season almost coming to an end, it’s important to educate ourselves on estate taxes. Of course death is not our favorite topic to discuss nor is it something that we want to think about when receiving our tax return, however planning for the future is never a bad idea.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be certain, except death and taxes.”  This quote draws on the actual inevitability of death to highlight the difficulty in avoiding tax burdens. But, if you plan ahead and use the proper resources, estate taxes will not be too much of a burden.

Estate tax is known to be a tax on your right to transfer property after death. This tax consists of an accounting of everything you may own or have certain interests in at your date of death. The fair market value of these items are used which then becomes your gross estate. Once your gross estate is accounted for, certain deductions such as: mortgages and other debts, estate administration expenses, property that passes to surviving spouses, and qualified charities are allowed in arriving at your taxable estate.  After the net amount is calculated, the value of lifetime taxable gifts is added to this number and the tax is computed. The tax is then reduced by the available unified credit. Being that I just bombarded you with estate tax lingo and probably lost you after I said the word “death”, let’s talk about how to reduce estate taxes.

Setting up a QTIP trust, and no I don’t mean a piece of cotton, and a Bypass Trust can postpone the payment of taxes until both spouses in a marriage have died. If you die first but want to determine who receives the trust property after your spouse dies, you may want to consider setting up a Qualified Terminable Interest Property trust, or as we like to call it, a QTIP trust. This trust allows you to put property into the trust however, YOU, not your spouse, can specify who receives the remaining property in the trust after your spouse dies. A QTIP trust enables you to designate what happens to the leftovers of the trust instead of leaving it to the option of your spouse.  This may be a great option if you’re on your second marriage. Let’s say that you and your current spouse are both on your second marriage and each have children of your own from the first marriage. To put it nicely, you aren’t too fond of your spouse’s children and the word “freeloaders” comes to mind when their names come up in conversation. But, your spouse of course thinks of them as angels. In this situation, do you really want your spouse to decide what happens with any leftovers from your estate upon his or her death? I’m not thinking so.

Another option would be setting up a Bypass trust, also known as a “B” trust.  This trust shelters property from estate taxes and “bypasses” the property from your spouse to someone else, such as your child or children. But, guess what? Your spouse can still benefit from the trust.  Even though the trust is for the sole benefit of your child, your spouse, while living, can still benefit from the trust assets. Being that your spouse never actually takes possession of the property, he or she is never considered to be the property owner. This means that he or she never has to include the property in his or her estate.

So, as Franklin once said, death and taxes are inevitable but here at WFP law we can ensure you that we can help reduce the burden of estate taxes. It’s a wild world and if you don’t prepare your trusts properly, the IRS may not honor them. So, the real question is; are you protected? Come in today for a free consultation!

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.

What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine… Not always true.

Probate is the legal process used in Florida by which property and assets are transferred to the heirs or intended beneficiaries of the deceased person. The concept of probate does not exist in French law, property and assets pass automatically upon death to the heirs. Whatever your Last Will and Testament might say, it can be overturned by your protected heirs. In the majority of cases these will be your children. So you cannot cut your children out of your Will under French law.

Under American law anyone making a Will has “testamentary freedom” which means that you can choose whoever you want to inherit your property and assets and in whatever proportions as long as this is set out in a valid Will.

Another important fact is that in France the inheritance tax is paid by each beneficiary on the shares that they receive whereas in Florida there is no inheritance tax for amounts below $5.43 million per person.

Michael D. Wild is a Florida attorney specializing in the areas of estate planning, asset protection and probate administration. To learn more about probate administration, please contact the South Florida law firm of WFP Law at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation. It’s a Wild world. Are you protected?