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Estate Planning

Crucial Considerations During Estate Planning

By Asset Protection Planning, Elder Law, Estate Planning

As you and a qualified attorney are drafting estate planning documents, be sure to consider the following and express to your attorney exactly how you want your assets to be distributed after your death.

  • Flexibility: Think about how easily you will be able to modify your estate planning documents.  Also consider how much flexibility you are giving your beneficiaries through your will or trusts.  For example, think about whether you are putting age restrictions on beneficiaries of a trust or if you want to put stipulations on how the funds can be used.
  • Special Provisions: If wish to leave someone with special needs an inheritance, consider how that money could affect their public benefits eligibility and discuss with your estate planning attorney whether you could leave assets to their special needs trust.
  • Titling Assets: When doing tax planning, discuss with an attorney how you and your spouse should title your assets such as real estate to ensure you are utilizing available tax exemptions.

To speak with and experienced estate planning attorney or  Board Certified Tax Attorney Fredric Jacobs, Esq., call our office at (941) 906-1231.

September 8, 2015
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What Constitutes Undue Influence?

By Elder Law, Estate Planning, Probate

Undue influence often involves a family member or friend coercing someone to add or remove beneficiaries from their estate planning documents in the last months of life or when their mental ability begins declining.  In determining if undue influence was exercised, the court evaluates whether mental inequality, or a notable difference in mental sharpness of the elder and accused exploiter, existed at the time of contested will revisions.

September 4, 2015
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Why could a will be contested in Florida?

By Elder Law, Estate Planning, Probate

Out of several circumstances under which a will could be contested in Florida, the simplest is the will was not drafted using the proper formalities.  For example, if a will is not witnessed as per state requirements, it can be contested and thrown out.

Other grounds for contesting a will include:

  • If the writer is found to have lacked capacity at the time of its drafting.
  • Due to the testator being manipulated or exploited, especially during old age if “undue influence” occurs.
  • if the author of the will suffers “insane delusions” which cause them to change the beneficiaries of the will, such as if a person believes their husband has left them and decides to remove the husband from their will when in fact the husband visits his spouse every day.
  • If fraudulent activity occurs. For example, if someone lies about other family members or beneficiaries and these lies cause the slandered family member to be taken out of a will.

Wills must be contested very quickly, generally within 90 days of when the Personal Representative files and serves the Notice of Administration.  It is also possible for other testamentary documents besides wills to be contested if the situations listed above apply.

If you have questions about whether a will can be contested or to ensure your estate planning documents will not be contested, contact our office at (941) 906-1231 to speak to an experienced probate attorney.

September 1, 2015
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Compiling Digital Asset Account Access Information

By Asset Protection Planning, Estate Planning, Probate

Use this digital asset inventory template to keep track of all of your important usernames and passwords for your digital fiduciary or personal representative.  You should designate who you authorize to access each account or computer and also specify what they are authorized to do.  For instance, you may wish for your Facebook account to be closed but want your email account to be preserved so your personal representative can retrieve stored sentimental photos.

Digital Assets Inventory Template

This list of account information should be kept in a secure location with other estate planning documents.

The attorneys at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. make efforts to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies that assist our clients, including the Personal Representatives that we represent.  We recommend all trust and durable power of attorney documents specifically authorize access to digital information.   We can also help you identify your digital assets and ensure that they are fully accounted for in your estate planning documents.

To set up an appointment to review what estate planning method would be best to grant access to your digital assets, call our office at (941) 906-1231.

August 25, 2015
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Appointing a Digital Fiduciary

By Asset Protection Planning, Elder Law, Estate Planning

            When planning for the transfer of your digital assets, you should be sure the person given the power to access and disperse information from your digital accounts is technologically savvy.  Most people appoint a surviving spouse or child who is financially literate to take care of many of their assets as personal representative or trustee.  If this person is not familiar enough with computers and the technology associated with your digital accounts, you can appoint a separate digital fiduciary to perform actions such as closing accounts, accessing photo storage, and transferring digital content such as videos or purchased books and movies onto DVDs.

The attorneys at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. make efforts to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies that assist our clients, including the Personal Representatives that we represent.  We recommend all trust and durable power of attorney documents specifically authorize access to digital information.   We can also help you identify your digital assets and ensure that they are fully accounted for in your estate planning documents.

To set up an appointment to review what estate planning method would be best to grant access to your digital assets, call our office at (941) 906-1231.

August 21, 2015
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How can I plan to transfer my digital assets after I die?

By Asset Protection Planning, Estate Planning, Probate

To ensure that your digital assets are protected and dealt with as you desire after death, be sure to compile all usernames and passwords for online subscriptions and accounts in a secure location.  Also, speak with an estate planning attorney about how to ensure your durable power of attorney will have authorization to access assets such as online bill pay, photos, or social media accounts.  You should specify which, if any, of your digital assets you want deleted and, if you have digital assets which earn profits, where you want that money to go and who is able to access and handle it.  An attorney can tell you where your digital asset wishes should be expressed, keeping in mind that wills become public record after death.

Planning for digital assets is a newly emerging issue in estate planning and is complicated by the fact that many accounts on websites such as Facebook and Google have Terms of Service agreements which can be violated by anyone besides the original account holder authorizing someone else to log in.  Attempting to access an account without proper permission can constitute a violation of anti-hacking laws.

The attorneys at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. make efforts to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies that assist our clients, including the Personal Representatives that we represent.  We recommend all trust and durable power of attorney documents specifically authorize access to digital information.   We can also help you identify your digital assets and ensure that they are fully accounted for in your estate planning documents.

To set up an appointment to review what estate planning method would be best to grant access to your digital assets, call our office at (941) 906-1231.

August 18, 2015
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What happens to my digital assets after death?

By Asset Protection Planning, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Probate

Digital assets such as online bill pay accounts, online investment management accounts, personal records, digital movies, books, games, airline rewards points, and photos must be accounted for in modern estate planning to ensure your loved ones can access and control your digital accounts as you wish.  As technology plays a growing role in our everyday lives, some of our assets carry personal value, such as photos and videos, and others, such as online blogs with paid advertisements, may even have monetary value.  In order to ensure that personal accounts, sites, and memories are available to the desired loved ones after death, who you want to be given access to your digital accounts and what type of control they may have over them must be included in your estate planning documents.

At Bach & Jacobs, P.A., we incorporate planning for the transfer of digital assets into our estate and end of life planning for clients.  Call our office today at (941) 906-1231 to set up an appointment to review how to make your digital assets a part of your estate plan and ensure access to these accounts is granted safely and as you desire.

August 14, 2015
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How can I ensure my medical treatment wishes will be honored

By Asset Protection Planning, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Guardianship

An essential part of estate planning is setting up clear instructions for loved ones about your wishes with regard to medical treatment.  It is incorrect to believe that a Last Will & Testament contains information that will empower your loved ones to make decisions in line with your desires in the event that you are incapacitated or unable to communicate.  To provide your loved ones with information about your medical care desires and give them the power to make decisions on your behalf, you must set up advance directives.  It is recommended that you set up a living will, health care surrogate, pre-need guardian, and/or health care proxy to protect your wishes.  These documents should be put into place far before incapacitation occurs and discussed with loved ones so they are clear about your wishes.  If you would like to discuss what documents you should have in place to give instructions about medical treatment, please contact Bach & Jacobs, P.A. at (941) 906-1231.

August 7, 2015
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How can I set up charitable giving to be a part of my estate?

By Estate Planning

We can help you set up a charitable giving plan to ensure you can continue to utilize and increase your money during your lifetime and later provide support to charities of your choice.  Some of the different ways to maximize your charitable giving are outlined below:

  • Charitable Lead Trusts: This type of trust can allow you to give to a charity each year until a designated year or your death. After the trust is terminated, the remaining assets can be distributed as you choose.  This type of trust brings significant benefits such as removing the contained assets from your estate for estate tax purposes and making earnings tax exempt.
  • Charitable Remainder Trusts: These trusts can be set up so that you can continue to increase and spend your assets during your lifetime. A tax deduction is available once money is transferred into this fund and the charity the funds are to be left to can be changed if the designated charity changes status.
  • Donor Advised Fund: These funds can be used to gain tax deductions and specify how you want your money to be spent within an organization through fund advising.
  • A Private Foundation: If you choose to establish a private foundation, you will have a very high degree of control over how your money is spent.  This can also be an opportunity to begin a family legacy of giving in the community.  Significant tax benefits also entail.  This can be useful for high net-worth families and wealthy individuals.

If you would like more information on any of the above charitable giving plans or want advice on what giving option would be of most benefit to you, please contact our Board Certified Tax Lawyer Fred Jacobs, Esq. at (941) 906-1231.

August 4, 2015
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How does a dementia diagnosis affect my ability to do estate planning?

By Elder Law, Estate Planning, Guardianship

Estate planning involves signing legal documents which those who are incapacitated due to a dementia diagnosis often cannot do.  For estate planning documents to be valid, they must be executed by a person with “testamentary capacity.”  This is why proper estate planning before capacity is lost or diminished is critically important in ensuring assets will be passed on to the desired beneficiaries.

However, a diagnosis of dementia does not always entail an immediate loss of legal competency or the right to sign contracts and undertake estate planning.  If a diagnosis of dementia is made and estate planning documents are not already in place, it is important to meet with an estate planning attorney right away to assess the necessary legal capacity or competency and discuss an estate plan before it is too late.

If you need help with estate planning for you or a loved one, contact Bach & Jacobs, P.A. at (941) 906-1231.

July 31, 2015
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