Recent Blog Posts
The Most Important Mistakes to Avoid When It Comes to Naming Beneficiaries
We’ve previously discussed the importance of beneficiary designations and keeping them updated in order to ensure that certain assets such as your 401(k) and life insurance policies are passed on in accordance with your wishes. Below, we also discuss some of the most common mistakes when it comes to naming beneficiaries and how you… Read More »
Using Life Insurance to Strategically Plan Your Estate Post-Divorce
As estate planning attorneys here in Florida, we frequently encounter clients who are going through or contemplating divorce, we regularly receive questions regarding whether or not there are particular estate planning choices that can help protect families and divorcees. For some clients, life insurance can help address some of these concerns, and you can… Read More »
Inherited IRA Rules You Should Be Aware Of
If you have inherited an individual retirement account (IRA), it can be very confusing in terms of how your new account or asset is affected by estate, financial and tax planning. Your choices very much depend upon if you are a spouse or non-spouse, who left you the IRA, and whether the original account… Read More »
Distinguishing Between Probate and Non-Probate Assets
The process of administering and probating a last will and testament involves figuring out what assets are estate versus non-estate (or probate versus non-probate) assets. And executor must make this distinction in order to properly address with estate taxes. Probate/Estate Assets The general rule is that all probate assets are assets that must pass… Read More »
What’s The Difference Between a Trust and A Trust Fund?
Trust funds sometimes get a bad rap because they are often associated with the wealthiest of the wealthy, however, there truly isn’t a huge difference between the kind of trust that most families establish during estate planning in order to ensure that their assets pass onto their heirs without having to go through probate… Read More »
Florida Hospitals Found Applying for Massive Numbers of Guardianships for Their Patients, seeking to Strip Away Their Rights
On October 21, ABC Action News broke news on an undercover investigation here in Florida involving a number of hospitals in Florida—including Miami, Naples, Orlando, West Palm Beach, and other cities—paying private attorneys to file hundreds of court petitions to place a number of their patients into guardianships. Specifically, the investigation found that hospitals… Read More »
Make Sure That Your Beneficiary Designations Do Not Mess Up Your Estate Plan
Unfortunately, even though beneficiary designations are an important part of estate planning, they are frequently overlooked. And yet, an estate plan is not simply a will and a trust; you have to make sure that your beneficiary designations go along with the rest of your plan, because if they do not, these designations can… Read More »
Estate Planning for The “Modern,” Non-Traditional Family
Given that only approximately 35 percent of today’s families are “traditional,” making the nontraditional family the “norm” when it comes to estate planning, there are a number of things that you may want to do differently when it comes to approaching estate planning if you do not have a traditional family. Below, we describe… Read More »
What Financial Advisors May Not Know to Advise You On for Estate Planning
While financial advisors have been overseeing asset management and estate planning for clients for many years, in recent years, new asset types and laws have made it important for clients to consult estate planning attorneys primarily because international law is changing things at such a rapid pace. In fact, some finance professionals may very… Read More »
How to Carefully Choose Your Trustee(s)
As estate planning attorneys here in Florida, one question that we frequently get is how to select a trustee for your trust, and whether it should be someone who has personal connections to the family or a third-party professional. Below, we discuss some key considerations you will want to take into account in making… Read More »