Florida is an ideal location for a beachside vacation home or condominium. Many northerners or “snowbirds” like to make their way south every winter and enjoy all that south Florida has to offer. Excellent restaurants and weather make Florida a primary location for vacation homes. Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm…
Some individuals have a will and also have a revocable living trust to distribute assets. Often they are the trustee of the revocable living trust and their children or family members may be the beneficiaries. Why would somebody do this? Won’t their assets pass under the will when they die?…
As Florida lottery ticket sales increase so do the dreams of winning. Scratch-off ticket sales for the week ending March 4, 2012 in Florida, exceeded $60 million, the highest level of sales achieved since the Florida Lottery launched its first ticket in 1988. Some winners plan ahead by attempting to…
Florida is famous for its unique attributes. The state is known for having plenty of sunshine, ocean breezes and its “snowbirds”, or its senior citizen residents who return to Florida every winter to take advantage of all the Sunshine State has to offer. Florida has retained the highest percentage of…
Miami-Dade, Broward and West Palm Beach counties are home to some of the finest art in the country. Alongside the many fine art galleries located in South Florida there are private art collectors and individuals who own valuable and sometimes extensive collections. These collections make up part of their estate…
For same sex couples, having effective estate planning documents and correctly titled property is very important. Without documents expressing the wishes of the couple, there may be undesirable results in the event of a death or serious illness of a partner. If the couple’s wills are not executed properly, upon…
What if an accident or illness made it impossible to manage your financial affairs? Would your loved ones have to go to the Dade County or Broward County courthouse to get the authority to handle your affairs? No one likes to consider such grim possibilities, but the truth is that…
The living will is an important estate planning tool. Because this form of “will” is used while an individual is still alive (but no longer able to make decisions) it is dubbed the “living will.” The purpose of a living will is to allow you to make decisions about life…
In addition to utilizing a trust to provide for your family, you can also create a trust to benefit a charitable organization. To qualify as a charitable trust, the benefiting party must be a charity pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Naturally, such entity must operate solely…
In Florida, the intent of a settlor (the person who creates a trust) proves extremely important with respect to the handling of the trust’s assets. Florida Probate Code section 736.1101 states that “[t]he intent of the settlor as expressed in the terms of the trust controls the legal effect of…