Why everyone needs Estate Planning?
Do you have children? You need a plan.
Do you own real estate? You need a plan.
Do you own a business? You need a plan.
Do you want a say in who takes care of you if you
become incapacitated? You need a plan.
Do you care about your family and what they will
be going through when you die? You need a plan.
Estate Planning is designing and implementing a plan
for the management and transfer of an individual’s
estate during lifetime, upon incapacity, and on death.
Our strategy sessions include advice on the income, gift, generation-skipping and death tax considerations directed to achieve tax savings. Additionally, we counsel our clients on the use of powers of attorney, living wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, and court guardianship proceedings.
Estate Planning also integrates both the family and business concerns of our clients into the estate planning process through the preparation of family partnership and limited liability company agreements, shareholder buy-sell agreements, and marital agreements. We help clients understand and accomplish what is necessary for keeping the business in the family, despite the death or disability of family members who are active in the business. We develop and implement various kinds of agreements and compensation arrangements for business owners, including agreements for the economic participation of family members who are not active in the business.
The Simple Plan: This is to ensure that your wishes are followed during your lifetime when you cannot speak for yourself and after your death.
Last Will & Testament
Revocable Trust and/or a Florida Land Trust
Health Care Surrogate Designation
Living Will
Durable Power of Attorney
The Sophisticated Plan: This is about ensuring that the assets you have worked hard to acquire continue to benefit your heirs after your death.
Last Will & Testament
Revocable Trust
Florida Land Trust
Health Care Surrogate Designation
Living Will
Durable Power of Attorney
Plus these options:
Qualified Personal Residence Trust
You can transfer your home to a trust for a set number of years. The gift-tax value of the house can be a fraction of what the value would be for estate tax purposes if it had remained in your name until death.
Grantor Retained Annuity Trust
You can transfer an investment property to a trust for a set number of years. The trust pays you an annuity each year. At the end of the term, any property left in the trust passes to your family free of gift or estate tax.
Generation-Skipping Trust
Currently, you can leave $5.43 million to grandchildren (or more remote descendants) free of the estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax. With this trust, you can make this amount available to your spouse and children during their lifetimes, and ultimately transfer such property to your grandchildren.
Children and/or Grandchildren's Trusts
Currently, you can leave up to $14,000 each year to children and grandchildren (or any other person), free of gift, estate or generation-skipping transfer tax. Usually grandchildren are too young to handle large sums of money, which is why establishing a trust for them is beneficial.
Family Partnership or Limited Liability Company
Family LLC's or partnerships can be created with a wide variety of assets. In effect, you create a family business that allows younger generations to participate in the management of the family wealth.
Buy/Sell Agreements
A buy/sell agreement should be in place for every family business. These agreements restrict transfers of interest in the business. The agreement establishes a mechanism for owners, or the business itself., to buy out the share of a deceased owner.
Charitable Remainder Trust
With these trusts, instead of leaving money to charities in your Will, you transfer property to the trust and the trust pays you a fixed percentage of the trust each year for the rest of your life. This allows you to claim an income tax charitable deduction during your lifetime for assets that will pass to a charity at your death. The trust can also liquidate appreciated stock without capital-gain tax.
Life Insurance Trust
This is an irrevocable, non-amendable trust which is both the owner and the beneficiary of one or more life insurance policies. Upon the death of the insured, the Trustee invests the insurance proceeds for one or more beneficiaries. If the trust owns insurance on the life of a married person, the non-insured spouse and children are often the beneficiaries of the trust. If the trust owns "second to die" insurance which only pays when both spouses are deceased, the only beneficiaries of the trust are the children.
Frequently asked questions
Do you charge by the hour or use a flat fee?
Estate plans are offered on a flat fee basis.
Is this time consuming?
It usually takes two meetings to get a plan in order, but we offer as many meetings as needed in order for you to feel comfortable. The first meeting is the intake meeting where we get the opportunity to known one another. Thereafter, drafts will be sent to you via email for you to review. You can ask questions via email, telephone or during another meeting. The next meeting is where you sign your plan before a notary and two witnesses. If you have set up a trust, we will send you information on how to fund it.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to download forms from the internet?
Sure, but you'll get what you pay for and in many cases the forms you find on the internet are outdated and insufficient.
I just relocated to Florida from another state. Should I have my estate plan reviewed by a Florida lawyer?
Yes! Even if you had a lawyer draw up your plans recently, you should still make sure your documents will be respected by Florida law. In many cases, the only things you will need to have redone are your Will and your Power of Attorney. Trusts are respected in all 50 states. However, it may be beneficial to change the situs of your trust to Florida. That would only require a simple amendment to your trust.
Will I meet with an attorney or your staff?
You will always meet with an attorney and not with staff. If you are seeking estate planning, business planning or tax law advice, you will meet wtih Elan Kaney. If you are seeking litigation counsel, you will meet with Lester Kaney.