Estate planning 101 from the late Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh was the CEO of Zappos for over twenty years before retiring and taking up a series of different business ventures. Zappos is an online retailer that deals specifically with shoes and clothing on an international sale.…
How can a single parent avoid homestead to protect a minor child? Florida homestead laws are complex, confusing, and enormously important for homeowners with or without an estate plan. Florida homestead law applies to three categories: (1) creditor protection against reaching a primary residence, (2) property tax exemptions and…
What to do with 23 and me? Recent years have seen the rise in ancestry services such as Ancestry.com and 23 and Me. After performing a simple DNA swab, these services provide the subscriber with hereditary and genealogical information that can unlock family history, medical information, and perhaps even long-lost…
Florida’s ‘Dutiful Child’ Exception Throughout life, relationships and priorities often change, necessitating amendment to one’s Last Will and Testament to reflect these changes. However, sometimes these testamentary changes raise questions as to the testator’s motivations for the revisions, leading to a will contest. “Undue influence” upon the testator is one…
Can an Irrevocable Trust be Changed? Trust Decanting under Florida Law You do not have to be a Sommelier to be familiar with the concept of decanting wine. “Decanting”- the pouring of wine from its original bottle into a different vessel- is a technique utilized for two contemporaneous purposes; two…
How does Florida’s Elective Share Affect my Estate Plan? Part One. What is an “Elective Share”? In situations where the decedent’s will has left their surviving spouse very little, or nothing, Florida law protects surviving spouse’s in two major ways: The Elective Share and Homestead. While both of these laws…
Should I disclaim my Inheritance? When It’s Right to Say No Florida law allows a beneficiary to “disclaim” any interest in or power over property that has been left to them. A disclaimer is a legal tool to refuse the acceptance of an interest in or a power over a…
Biden’s Tax Proposal and the “Step-Up in Basis”: What it Means for Your Estate Plan or Trust A commonly utilized tax law in estate planning considerations, known as the “step up in basis,” may be in jeopardy. The “step-up,” derived from section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code, gets applied…
Guardianship: Don’t Believe Everything You Watch on Netflix Netflix’s new sensationalist movie “I Care a Lot,” released this past February 19, 2021, might have you thinking that being a guardian may be the path to wealth and easy money. Although a scammer making a living by successfully requesting the courts…
Bernie’s “For the 99.5% Act”: Is It Time to Start Thinking about Tax Planning? For the year 2021, each individual has $11,700,000.00 of estate tax credit (or $23,400,000.00 for married couples), otherwise known as the “applicable exclusion amount.” For estates that exceed the applicable exclusion amount, the tax rate is…