Same Sex couples

Part 2: The Secure Act – Look at your trust, your beneficiaries, and get it reviewed

March 20, 2020 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

Do I Need to Amend My Trust Because of the Secure Act?

Last month, in our last blog, we addressed the basics of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act’) and how retirement plan beneficiary designations will be impacted for individuals who die in or after 2020. But what if you already set up an estate plan with a trust as beneficiary of your retirement account? Do you need to amend your trust or your beneficiary designation form as a result of the passage of the SECURE Act?

The answer is that it depends on whether the trust is an “accumulation” trust or a “conduit” trust and how you want such retirement accounts to be treated. Generally, in an accumulation trust, assets payable to the trust are to be distributed in the trustee’s discretion. A conduit trust, on the other hand, generally requires that assets must be distributed to the beneficiary – in other words, the trust simply acts as a conduit to deliver the assets to the beneficiary, and the assets cannot stay (that is, cannot accumulate) in the trust. It is possible to draft the trust as an accumulation trust with respect to all assets except retirement accounts, just as it is possible to draft a conduit trust that requires only outright distributions of retirement accounts (leaving the remainder of the funds at the trustee’s discretion).

What happens when your chosen beneficiary, heir or personal representative (PR) dies before you do?

January 17, 2020 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

What if Your Beneficiaries Predecease You?

When preparing a will, people assume that the beneficiaries that they name will outlive them. Unfortunately, testator’s live beyond the life of their beneficiaries all the time. What happens to the gift left for someone who is now deceased?

The original common law understanding was that if a beneficiary predeceases the testator, the specific gift to that beneficiary would “lapse,” and therefore fall back into the residuary estate of the testator. However, in some instances, Florida “Anti-Lapse statutes” may change this result. In Florida, barring any contrary intent appearing in the will, if the devise is to the testator’s grandparent or any descendant of a grandparent, and the devisee predeceases the testator, the devise passes onto the devisee’s surviving descendants. Thus, a lapse is avoided when the specific gift is to the testator’s grandparents or descendant of grandparents. However, a devise to anyone who is not a grandparent or descendant of a grandparent would still lapse if that devisee predeceased the testator, unless a contrary intent appeared in the will.

Four important reasons to update your estate plan and/or your trust documents

December 2, 2019 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

I Already Have a Will; When Should I Update My Estate Planning Documents?

When someone executes a valid will, some people assume that if their wishes do not change, they should never have to revisit their estate plan. However, there are certain common events in life that should cause you to review or update your estate planning documents.

Marriage/Divorce: A surviving spouse is entitled to a percentage of a decedent’s estate, regardless of whether the decedent included the spouse in the decedent’s will. Interestingly, the amount that a surviving spouse is entitled to may vary depending on whether the will was executed before or after the marriage. If you execute a will and subsequently marry, the spouse will receive a share equal to what he or she would have had, had the testator died intestate. This typically amounts to either one-half of the estate (if there are children of the decedent who are not children of the surviving spouse), or the entire estate (if there are no surviving children, or if the surviving spouse and the decedent are the parents of the only surviving children). Fla. Stat, Sec. 732.301 and Sec. 732.102. In either case, this is more than the amount that a surviving spouse is entitled to under the “elective share” which is thirty percent (30%) of the decedent’s estate.

Giving money to a child, a loved one, a relative or a friend – your intentions do matter

July 1, 2019 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

Is it a Gift or a Loan? Your intention matters for your Estate Planning

Have you ever given your child money to help them with school or a car or rent? How about loaning money to a friend? Is the intention to give a gift or a loan? How these transactions affect your estate planning may not be your first thought, but a good estate planner will take these transactions into account.

A transaction is a gift under section 2512(b) of the Code whenever there is a transfer for less than adequate and full consideration. If you never expect the other person to pay you back, then the transfer was a gift. At this stage it is important to remember that a gift should be properly reported on a gift tax return. Now what if you have made a large gift to one of your children during your lifetime, but you would like to treat your children equally upon your death? You may wish to acknowledge in your will or trust the gift you made to your child during your lifetime as an advancement of that child’s share. This would reduce your child’s share by that amount and give that same amount to your other children.

Paternity in Probate bench court – timing is everything, be aware

May 28, 2019 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

Seeking Paternity in Probate: Are You Out of Time?

When an estate enters probate and is being distributed, the distribution is usually between family members. Family members can include spouse, children from the marriage, parent, adopted child, aunt, cousin, etc. If there are issues or questions about the status of these individuals, they are usually litigated after the estate holder passes. But what if you are a child born out-of-wedlock? What status do you have and what rights do you have to the estate?

Under Fla. Stat. § 732.103, any children from the marriage are automatically deemed heirs of the estate, and entitled to a share of the intestate estate. But out-of-wedlock children have to establish paternity if they want to share in the distribution of the estate. But do these individuals have the opportunity to litigate the paternity after the father has passed? The opportunity is there, but it is subject to a statute of limitations under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(3)(b). The statute imposes a four year limitation for paternity actions generally, starting from the date the individual turns eighteen.

May 2017 District Court of Appeals decision impacts Alimony creditors – a blend of family law and estate planning law

August 21, 2017 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

4^th DCA Recognizes Homestead Exception for Alimony Creditors

The Florida Constitution provides powerful homestead protection against creditors. Generally, only three types of super-creditors can breach this protection – (1) government entities with a tax lien or assessment on the property; (2) banks or other lenders with a mortgage originating from the purchase of the property; and (3) creditors with liens originating from work or repair performed on the property.

However, a recent decision by the District Court of Appeal for the 4^th District confirmed a “long recognized” fourth category of super-creditors – alimony creditors. The facts of this case are as follows: Robert Spector (“Husband”) and Renee Spector (“Former Wife”) divorced in 1996, and agreed in a post-nuptial agreement that Husband would (1) pay Former Wife $5,000 per month in alimony until his or her death, or until she remarried; (2) transfer to Former Wife the title and interest in their marital home; and (3) maintain a $750,000.00 life insurance policy for Former Wife’s benefit. Subsequently, Husband was held in civil contempt for “willful and deliberate failure to comply with the alimony provisions” of the post-nuptial agreement and was also denied a bankruptcy petition as alimony arrearages were not subject to bankruptcy discharge.

Prince, George Michael and Carrie Fisher; Estate Planning 101, what are we learning?

August 14, 2017 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS? 6 DO’S AND DONT’S OF ESTATE PLANNING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

At the end of last year it seemed as if every day there was a new report of a celebrity dying unexpectedly. As fans around the world mourned the death of some of Hollywood’s most iconic figures, reports of their estate planning, or lack thereof, also filled the headlines.

Prince: Intestacy and streaming music rights collide

Same Sex surviving spouses, a recent Florida law change

April 6, 2017 | by Chepenik Trushin LLP

Florida same-sex surviving spouses may be added on a death certificate without a court order

In 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its pioneering decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015), holding state laws prohibiting or refusing to recognize same-sex marriages unconstitutional. After Obergefell, Florida started recognizing same-sex marriages and began to list a same-sex surviving spouse on the deceased spouse’s death certificate, where the marriage was lawfully entered into in another jurisdiction. However, the surviving spouse was out of luck if the marriage was entered into before Obergefell, unless the surviving spouse obtained an individual court order approving the correction.

This obtrusive situation has changed for now. In a recent order from March 23, 2017, a federal judge granted a summary judgment to a certified class, ordering that Florida must amend any death certificate without a court order when the decedent was lawfully married to a person of the same-sex at the time of the death. The same judge issued an order striking down Florida’s marriage ban in August 2014. The plaintiffs in this case were two gay surviving spouses, married before Obergefell, who filed the case not only on their behalf, but on behalf of other similarly situated persons as well. The plaintiffs sought to have their spouses’ death certificates show they had been married, but the state argued that Florida law prohibited amending the death certificates without a court order.