Charlie was quoted as saying: “I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying’s for fools, dying’s for amateurs.”

For those of us that are not filled with tiger blood, we should be concerned about what will happen to our family when we die. Get an estate plan taken care of today because tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.

Dying isn’t for fools but a lack of planning is. Don’t be a fool. Call the attorneys at Wild Felice & Pardo today to schedule your free consultation.

A Special-Needs Trust is a trust established for the benefit of a disabled beneficiary who is entitled to receive governmental assistance.  The intent of the trust is to provide for the beneficiary above-and-beyond the supplemental assistance without accidentally turning that Federal aid “faucet” off.  The correct drafting of this type of trust is very important since errors can result in the loss of government assistance or trust income. 

The payment of income and principal should be entirely left to the discretion of the trustee and the beneficiary should never be given the option to act as their own trustee.  In addition, cash payments should never be made directly to the beneficiary.  Instead, the trust should simply pay for the items that are needed by the beneficiary.  This is important because any money the beneficiary receives may reduce their Supplemental Security Income or may even cause a total loss of Medicaid benefits.

The beneficiary, or their guardian, will ask the trustee to make a distribution.  The trustee will consider whether or not he or she is permitted to make the distribution and whether making the distribution is in the best interest of the beneficiary.  If the trustee agrees to the distribution, the trustee will pay for the good or service directly from the trust account to the vendor. 

Protective wording should be inserted in the trust to clarify that the trustee is to expend income and principal only after Federal, state, and local public assistance is received and exhausted.  The income and principal should only be used for the benefit of the beneficiary.  A spendthrift clause should also be included in the trust to avoid the possibility of the government’s attaching the trust property to be reimbursed for its public assistance payments.

Choosing an attorney to draft a Special-Needs Trust is not always an easy task.  Drafting a Special-Needs Trust is highly specialized and you want someone who is experienced in this area.  Choose someone whom you can trust and you feel comfortable with because the Special-Needs Trust will last for the lifetime of the beneficiary and your attorney will be a crucial part of your financial team. 

Michael D. Wild is a Florida attorney specializing in the areas of estate planning and asset protection.  For more information on successful Florida estate planning and asset protection techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Pardo, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation.  Protecting what you value most.

Congress hasn’t renewed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, otherwise known as E. G. T. R. R. A. consequently the estate tax will go back to 55% again next year. Even small estates will have to expect a possible estate tax at death. With this in mind, it becomes imperative that individuals planning their estate, incorporate, in combination with basic revocable trust planning, several of the more advanced estate planning strategies.

 While the the estate tax related reasons for proper estate planning are certainly valid, they should not be your sole motivation. Even while the E. G. T. R. R. A. was in effect, the more successful estate planning attorneys learned that proper estate planning was justified for reasons beyond purely tax savings.  In the interim, while we await the decisions of our leaders we experience a continued uncertainty.

The estate tax will continue to be a hot political issue beyond 2010. There are way too many winners and not enough losers if EGTRRA is allowed to sunset.  Let’s examine the players in this, and see just what it is they have on the line:

Democrats – Increased revenues may help offset continued increasing budget deficits.

Republicans : Campaigning for a repeal of the estate tax continues to be an effective fundraising issue. A permanent resolution of the estate tax issue would “kill the Golden Goose.”

Insurance Companies – Use of ILITs funded by life insurance policies will again become a favorite estate planning tool to pay for the estate tax and preserve the estate.

Charities – estate tax motivated charitable planning will again become popular.

As for the States, they are counting on the return of the estater tax to boost dwindling revenues.

Losers, should the estate tax return: Those with a vested interest in seeing a permanent end to to the estate tax are the heirs of those people who have failed to plan.

The political posturing of the estate tax issue has changed from the early Bush years of calls to repeal the “unfair and unjust death tax” to “not giving a tax break to the very wealthy.” It is unlikely that we will see bipartisan political agreement on any meaningful long-term “estate tax reform” in the near future.

What this means to you is continued uncertainty about the pending return of the estate tax. For those people lucky enough to live in South Florida, the estate planning attorneys of Wild Felice & Pardo can effectively create an estate plan that will protect your beneficiaries from any possible estate tax and make certain to avoid probate entirely.

Michael D. Wild is a Florida attorney specializing in the areas of estate planning and asset protection. For more information on successful Florida estate planning and asset protection techniques, please contact the South Florida law firm of Wild Felice & Pardo, P.A. at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com to schedule your free consultation. Protecting what you value most.

Everyone needs a basic estate plan. This involves putting the documents in place that will take care of you in case you become disabled and will take care of your loved ones once you pass away. However, there are certain circumstances where additional planning is necessary. This is where Advanced Estate Planning comes in. Here are some of the areas Advanced Estate Planning covers:

1) Tax Planning: If your estate is large enough, you’ll need to work with your estate planning attorney to minimize or reduce estate taxes and generation skipping transfer (GST) taxes.

2) Asset Protection Planning: Your estate planning attorney can help you structure the way you hold title to your property so as to limit creditors’ ability to access it.

3) Planning for Disabled Beneficiaries: A Special Needs Trust can help you leave money to a disabled beneficiary without interfering with his or her government benefits.

4) Planning for Beneficiaries with Special Circumstances: If you have a beneficiary with trouble handling finances or may be in a rocky marriage, your estate planning attorney can help you establish a trust that will allow that beneficiary access to money or property without leaving him an outright distribution. This will help protect his or her legacy in case of divorce proceedings or creditors’ claims.

5) Business Succession Planning: If you’re the owner of a closely held business, special planning is required to smooth the transition of ownership in the event of your disability or death. Your attorney can help you anticipate potential problems and tailor solutions to meet your needs.

For more information about estate planning and asset protection techniques and to schedule your free consultation with one of our attorneys, please contact the attorneys of Wild Felice & Pardo at 954-944-2855 or via email at info@wfplaw.com.  Protecting what you value most.

Even if you remember to assign your IRA with the correct beneficiary designation, there are many benefits in using a trust to distibute your IRA after death.   One such benefit is the ability to provide asset protection to your beneficiaries once they receive the money from the IRA.  Recently, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that inherited IRA’s do not have the same asset protection features as self-owned IRA’s do.  A trust would supply the asset protection that an inherited IRA currently lacks.

Unlike an IRA, a 401k will automatically transfer to a surviving spouse no matter who the designated beneficiary is.

IRAs and Estate Planning

With a growing number of retired people in South Florida, not paying attention to how your IRA will be distributed after your death could cost your family a small fortune.  Your designated beneficiaries can still receive the IRA proceeds but they will be forced to empty the account and pay taxes on it much faster if it is not addressed as part of a comprehensive South Florida estate plan.

The beneficiaries of IRA plans may stretch out the distributions across their life expectancy.  Through aggressive and creative estate planning, an IRA of decent size could be converted into generational wealth.  You may be able to use your IRA to find your grandchildren’s college education while saving your children estate taxes in the process.  It all depends on the beneficiary forms and how they fit with the rest of your South Florida estate plan.

The key is to make certain that your IRA’s custodian rules allow your heirs to move the IRA to a different custodian via a trustee-to-trustee transfer that avoids triggering a taxable event.  Your South Florida estate planning attorney should make certain that your heirs are free to name successor beneficiaries which would allow your grandchildren to take distributions based on their life expectancies rather than on your children’s.

People assume that any lawyer is qualified to prepare their South Florida estate plan or worse yet, they attempt to do it themselves.  Wills don’t govern accounts with beneficiary designations such as 401(k) plans, life insurance policies, or IRA’s which could cost your heirs thousands of dollars.  Estate planning is a legal specialty and you should always consult your South Florida estate planning attorney for all of your estate planning needs.  Please call the South Florida estate planning attorneys of Wild Felice & Pardo, P.A. at 954-944-2855 to set up your free consultation, or email us at info@wfplaw.com for more information.  Let us protect what you value most.