NBA free agency is in full swing this week, with multi-million dollar contracts being signed and players finding a new home for next season. Heat fans are still waiting to see who will be bringing their talents to South Beach, to see what sort of long term planning team President Pat Riley has in store for the team. You may never be a superstar athlete, but you too can plan for your future by meeting with one of our South Florida probate attorneys and making sure you have a proper estate plan in place.
If you die without an estate plan in Florida, the laws of the state will decide how your property is distributed. You have worked too hard to earn what you have to let someone else dictate what happens to it when you are gone. Having a validly executed will assures that your assets will be passed according to your wishes. However, all wills must go through a process known as probate. Probate involves the validating of a will and the subsequent distribution of the estate assets. Probate can be a time-consuming and arduous process. Depending on the size of the estate and complexity of assets, the process can take between six months and a few years. During this time, accounts are frozen as ownership is changed from the estate to the beneficiaries. This can lead to bills going unpaid, companies going broke, and even houses being foreclosed.
One of the best ways to avoid probate is to use a trust based estate plan. Trusts have multiple advantages over just avoiding probate, such as increased control over your assets and creditor protection for your beneficiaries. Using a will to distribute assets allows for you to decide on your beneficiaries, but once it is distributed, you no longer have any control. The asset belongs to the beneficiary. With a trust, you can dictate where the asset goes for multiple generations. This ability allows you to protect the assets from any creditors, divorce, or remarriage. Just as you worked too hard to let the state control your assets, you want to keep your assets in the family, instead of letting them go off to the family of your child’s spouse or a step-child. In addition to protecting where your assets go, a trust protects the inheritance from any creditors of the beneficiary.
Other assets beside those held in trust can be passed without going through probate. Bank accounts and retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401Ks pass using beneficiary forms. In fact, beneficiary forms will trump any contrary bequest in a will. For example, if you wanted your estate to be split 50-50 amongst your two children and had it that way in your will, but your beneficiary forms all only named one child, that child would receive all of the money and would be under no obligation to give any to the other child. Jointly owned property will also pass outside of probate.
Don’t just watch as NBA players and teams plan for their futures. Follow their lead and contact our South Florida estate planning attorneys today.
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)