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Estate Planning

Recent Posts in Estate Planning Category

  • Customization of Trusts in Your Estate Plan

    As we have discussed, there have been several significant tax law changes, including the Tax Act, SECURE Act & CARES Act, not to mention the effects of the pandemic. Additionally, we anticipate that there will be numerous changes in the law under the current administration. Have you had any changes in your financial or personal circumstances that warrant changes to your estate plan? Is your ...
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  • Building Your Estate Plan’s Legacy Component

    This is the sixth of a six-part series on building a comprehensive estate plan designed to protect you and your heirs for many generations to come. As our mantra states, “Today’s Plans Become Tomorrow’s Legacy.” Part 1 - Building a Road Map for Estate Planning and Financial Success Part 2 - Team Building: Original building of estate planning team Part 3 - Risk Management Part 4 - Core Documents ...
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  • Life Insurance Policy Self-Audit

    Clients often ask us about their life insurance policies and their value to their estate plans. We often hear, "Should I go or should I stay?" "Should I keep my existing policies, or should I buy more life insurance to replace the wealth that may be needed in the future to pay taxes and other expenses?" "How do you know if you have too little or too much life insurance for your estate and ...
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  • Proposed Federal Gift, Estate, and Generation-Skipping Tax Exemptions

    Running The "What-If" Scenarios In Step 1 of our Guide to Evaluating Your Tax Exposure , we invited you to know your situation inside and out—what your estate would look like with a 40% or even a 45% estate tax rate. Now, in Step 2, we highlight the importance of “running the ‘what-if’ scenarios” and using flexible strategies within your estate plan. This technique will help you maintain and ...
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  • 2021 WGA Special Report: Guide to Evaluating Your Tax Exposure

    “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” – Benjamin Franklin. If you implemented your tax law action plan this past fall, you likely took one of these initiatives: Left your estate plan “as is” after review and completed your year-end action checklist, Designed and implemented an estate tax freeze, or Transferred your remaining exemptions. The following is a comprehensive guide into the ...
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  • Building a Comprehensive Estate Plan: Risk Management

    Are you exposed? Risk management is an essential part of financial and estate planning. This strategy anticipates potential elements that can devastate your portfolio and your estate - and, more importantly, it covers the important matters that keep you up at night. The following list addresses key risks that should be managed: Property and casualty loss Healthcare concerns Financial decline or ...
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  • Core Documents and Essential Components to a Comprehensive Plan

    An estate plan is not complete without these 6 core documents. It's important to review your six essential estate planning documents every few years to make sure that they reflect your current needs and circumstances. In light of the tax law changes that are anticipated , it is time to take inventory and determine how the Biden Tax Plan will impact your existing plan. Please read more ... Six Key ...
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  • Building a Road Map for Estate Planning and Financial Success

    Welcome to our first of a six-part series on building a comprehensive estate plan designed to protect you and your heirs for many generations to come. Because as we say, "Where today's plans, become tomorrow's legacy." Part 1 - Building a Road Map for Estate Planning and Financial Success Part 2 – Building Your Estate Planning Team Part 3 - Risk Management Part 4 - Core Documents and Essential ...
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  • What Makes a Great Estate Plan: Introduction to our 6-part series

    If you are reading this article, you are probably curious whether or not you are on the right path with respect to your estate and financial plan. Over the 30 years of being in practice, we have built and executed thousands of estate plans. To help you better understand the key elements of an effective estate plan, we have created metrics to analyze our client’s plans and the resulting outcomes. ...
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  • Supercharge your Estate Plan

    While it is clear that 2020 has presented us with many challenges, it is not clear what will take place over the remaining months leading up to an unprecedented election in November. Our goal is to turn these present challenges into long-term opportunities. In this article, we will address a few of the essential factors that will “supercharge” an advanced estate plan. Over the last 24 months, we ...
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  • Important Financial and Legal Documents Are You Ready for a Quick Getaway?

    Are you ready for a quick getaway? Whether going on a vacation or evacuating in the case of a hurricane, being prepared is more than packing suitcases or storing water and supplies. In Part One, we shared our checklist for things to do to prepare for a hurricane and evacuation in the case of an emergency - here we are discussing the important financial, legal and other documents that you should ...
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  • The SECURE Act Special Report

    Create your legacy and shift your tax dollars to your favorite charities while maintaining an income stream for you and your family. After much anticipation, new federal legislation titled, The SECURE Act was recently signed into law on December 20, 2019. Inside of the SECURE Act, one of the big changes is the elimination of a popular tax-deferral strategy known as the "Stretch IRA". Without the ...
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  • Tax Tips for Dealing with YOUR retirement accounts

    Roth it? Really? —— Should I Pay Tax Now on Purpose? Is it time to consider a Roth IRA ? When does it make sense to accelerate your obligation to pay more taxes electively? General answer: NEVER The general rule of income tax planning is to defer income (into the future) and accelerate deductions (into this year) to lower your income tax bill. So, when does it make sense to pay taxes early in ...
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  • Risk Management in Your Estate Plan

    Don't forget to cover your assets! Florida is one of the best states for estate planning and asset preservation. You’ve heard the expression, “a little knowledge goes a long way.” This is very true when it comes to protecting your assets from unforeseen creditors in Florida. While Florida has yet to enact legislation that allows self-settled domestic asset protection trusts, it does have several ...
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  • 2019 Risk Management Self-Audit: Extended Version

    Today’s world presents both new and old dangers to the individual and family. Information technology, now essential to our work and private lives, makes it easier than ever for bad actors to reach out and harm us. A parade of novel financial products bid us to invest, lest we miss out on the next big opportunity, but the modern, algorithm-driven market may tank for reasons the average investor is ...
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  • Long Term Care Insurance - A Changing Landscape

    Long term care coverage is changing..... There are risks in life that are insurable ; for example, premature death (while in good health) or living long enough to require health care services. For premature death, we have life insurance and for health care services, we have long term care insurance. So, which is right for me? Life insurance has been around for over 100 years while long term care ...
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  • Realtor and Estate Planning Attorney's Guide to Real Estate

    Why My Real Estate Attorney Should Practice Estate Planning The general practice attorney or doctor is a thing of the past. Today, the complexities of law and medicine have resulted in specialization. Purchasing a home in Florida should be handled by a Real Estate Attorney who practices Estate Planning. This article is a brief checklist of important estate planning issues affecting the purchase ...
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  • Art Law: It's Not Always a Pretty Picture!

    This is NOT gold, securities or cash, it is “Art”; precious, difficult to value and highly subjective as to taste. Art is the asset class that is often ignored in the estate planning process. Unlike securities, Art rarely has a title to its ownership, therefore, why bother planning for its disposition, simply take it off the wall (or pedestal) and hand it over to your loved ones without a shred of ...
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  • Risk Management Self-Audit: Are You Exposed?

    As you go through the following Risk Management self-audit, examine whether your estate plan thoroughly addresses these essential questions. Have you analyzed how you are going to cover the high costs of long term care? Have you reviewed your long-term care insurance option, including the new combined products such as the accelerated benefit/living benefits options built inside of life insurance ...
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  • How Are You Dealing with the Major New Tax Act?

    A year has passed - what do we do now? a) Sit tight. b) Give, give, give. c) Analyze how the new Tax Act affects you and your family. d) None of the above. e) Procrastinate, NOW! To be honest, we do not know that any one of these answers is best. Obviously, as your law firm, we suggest “c” - analyze the impact of the new Tax Law changes on your personal family situation. In this article, we will ...
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  • Donating Real Property to Charity

    Feel Good and Save a Ton of Taxes Donation of real estate can be very rewarding and provide many benefits to the giver and the ultimate recipients of your charity. If you wish to make a wonderful contribution to a charity of a piece of real property, there are a few pointers that you may wish to know before you get too far down the path. This article will highlight some of the issues and provide ...
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  • It's Time to Think About Taxes: Year End Federal and State Tax Strategies

    While there are many year-end tax strategies that stand the test of time, with the recent changes to the federal tax code, it is imperative to understand which changes provide new opportunities and which changes may bring about unintended consequences. The following is a quick checklist including tax strategies, reminders and immediate action steps you may take to ensure you can start 2019 on the ...
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  • Snowbird Traffic Jam: The Mass Migration to Sunshine Savings

    Whether you’re in it for the sunshine, the savings, or both … It’s a great time to be a Floridian! While the new tax changes make moving to Florida seem like a no-brainer, the ideal conditions are likely to raise red flags for tax authorities. If you are planning to change your domicile to Florida in the coming year, it is critical that all details are reviewed with an experienced tax advisor. ...
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  • A Guide to Smooth Probate Administration Involving Real Estate

    With over 60% of Americans owning homes, it is no surprise that the home is often one ofthe largest assets that someone will own at the time of their death. Consequently, selling or buying real estate from an estate can be very tricky, time-consuming andvery expensive for both parties involved in the transaction. While there are times when a person’s estate is well prepared to avoid the probate ...
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  • Advantages of a Florida Revocable Living Trust

    "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." - Warren Buffet In a similar fashion, most of us spend the majority of our lives carefully and painstakingly accumulating wealth. The last thing we need is an ill-designed plan causing our wealth to flood out faster than it came in. When designing your estate plan, you need ...
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