Six Tips On A Florida Living Trust - Sunshine Estate Planning

Keeping your assets and inheritance matters private, avoiding the costs and frustration of Florida probate, completing a swift legal asset transfer to legal heirs is why Florida living trusts have snowballed in popularity with the "snow-bird" set.

Tip #1 Florida Estate Planning To Avoid Probate Costs. Florida living trusts are all about taking smart and legal planning steps to minimize complexity, cost and grief following death. Remarkably, thousands of people fail to prepare their estate for legal transfer. Age, ill health or an accident leaves them incapable, incompetent or worse! Result? Their entire estate, along with the unraveling of taxes, creditor obligations and more "defers" to the probate court.

* What Probate Costs Families! Families and estates without properly constructed asset transfer documents like the revocable Florida living trust, could lose over 20% of the estate's value to court administrative and attorney fees, and up to three years or more in court time, add-in a chunk of grief and frustration, and then ice the cake with the time-value cost of financial assets taken out of the market for the probate period. And, don't forget your family's total loss of privacy...while a Florida living trust renders the asset details and transfer utterly private, the Florida probate court is an "open book" for any snoopy neighbor or investigative reporter to pour over.

Tip #2 What About Taxes And Asset Protection In My Florida Living Trust. * No Tax Benefit. Florida living trusts do not provide any tax benefits at all. Ordinary earned income and/or capital gains and losses, partnership income, rents and the like for all the assets "funded" into the Florida living trust are treated for taxation purposes on your personal or joint tax filing. The only exception may be Florida living trusts where the combined estate asset "community property" of a husband and wife exceed the then current Federal estate tax exemption figure.

* No Asset Protection. Florida living trusts also do nothing about asset protection from creditors or judgment lawsuits. If you personally own an asset, and if that asset is not protected or legally sheltered, and if you "lose in court", then the litigating party or plaintiff will likely obtain a judgment order to reach-in to your living trust and legally remove the target asset.

Tip #3 Picking Your Trustee And Successor Trustee. If you want to personally direct your Florida living trust business, then as grantor or settler you can appoint yourself as the initial Trustee. Make sure to instruct for a "successor Trustee" who is the person ... or institution like a bank or law firm ... who will have the actual job of distributing the assets according to your instructions, and complying with all filing and statutory requirements under Florida State law.

Tip #4 You've Got To Hire An Attorney - It's The Law. Reviewing assets, preparing a revocable Florida living trust for inheritance matters, and entering into a legal service contract requires that the preparer be a Florida State bar certified attorney. Any other situation constitutes illegal practice of law within Florida, and is punishable. Your Florida estate attorney has a multi-part role ...he or she will identify all your assets, make sure that they legally transfer into your inter vivos revocable Florida living trust.

Tip #5 Getting Your Assets Together. What empowers your Florida living trust is both its form, its administration and whether it has been legally "funded". In layman terms this means that all of your assets ... both in Florida or any other State ... must be legally transferred in title and control to your Florida living trust. Assets that you forgot about or didn't manage to transfer prior to your death could get bound up in probate, and will impact your heirs in ways they don't need to experience. Walk carefully when handling 401K or IRA retirement accounts, in order to ensure that changes to beneficiary designations are handled correctly.

Tip #6 Your Florida Living Trust Is Your Estate Planning "Alter Ego". Think of your living trust as a documentary form of You ... what you've worked for your entire life, the assets you've created, and your preferences for inheritance are entirely captured by your Florida living trust. You "fund" the trust with your financial and real property assets. You can amend it or determine the trust's day-to-day business ... it's revocable ... up until the time of your death. Thereafter, no change is permitted. Your Florida living trust reverts to an "irrevocable trust", managed by your successor trustee under strict rules until all assets have been legally transferred, taxes paid, and creditors paid.

Bottom Line. If you're looking for privacy, and potentially significant cost and time savings to your heirs, without the imposition of court-ordered probate, then examine further the increasingly popular Florida living trust.

Fitness equipment Birth injury Therapeutic natural