What Are the Tax Implications for My Heirs Under My Current Estate Plan?
Video Summary
What are the tax implications for my heirs under my current estate plan? Well, if you are a Florida resident, whenever you pass away, the state of Florida has done away with the state taxes so that there’s no estate taxes due to the state of Florida. The federal government has raised the estate tax limitation to just under $14 million. So if your assets don’t equal $14 million, well there won’t be any federal estate tax. If you own real estate outside the state of Florida, that state may impose the estate tax on whatever the property is in that particular state. As far as income tax is that beneficiaries do not have to pay income tax on assets that they receive from the estate or trust as a result of your death. Under the Internal Revenue Code, you get what they call a step up basis for the date of death value of the property. By way of example, that if I purchased a property for $200,000 and 2000 and then I pass away in 2025 and the property is worth $400,000, my beneficiaries take the property for $400,000. That’s called a step up in basis. So if they would sell the property for $400,000, there would be no tax. If they sell it for more than the $400,000, the difference between the 400,000 what they sell it for would be long-term capital gains. If you have any questions concerning this, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
What Happens If a Beneficiary Listed in My Will Dies Before Me?
Video Summary
What happens if a beneficiary listed in my Will dies before me? Well, usually a Will, whenever they’re drafted, makes provision to say what happens to the devise where you’re leaving something to someone and says, in the event that the beneficiary dies before me, I direct that this devise either lapse and becomes a part of the residual portion of my estate, or in the alternative goes to their children or such as their children who survived me. Another way that you may see that in a Will is whenever you have several beneficiaries and you say that I leave my estate to two or three beneficiaries and equal shares per capita. What that means is, is then you count the number of heads that are alive at the time of your death, and that’s who would receive it. So if one of ’em would die before you, then the other two out of the three would receive the estate. The other term that is used is per stirpes or strips it looks like, and that means that if one of the beneficiaries would die, it would go to their children or heirs. So that was what happens in the event that you beneficiary dies. Before you do, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
Can A Trust Protect My Assets from Creditors, Lawsuits, Or Long Term Care Costs?
Video Summary
Can a trust protect my assets from creditors, lawsuits long-term care costs? The answer is no. A revocable trust does not protect your assets from any of those, and that you look through the trust to see who controls the asset and who the beneficiary is, and so that it is a myth that many people have that they think if they transfer their assets into a trust that is protected from the claims accreditors. Also, as far as applying for Medicaid, if you need to have long-term care, again, the assets in the trust and the income is considered yours and you have to apply for it. Even the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t require you to get a separate federal identification number if you’re the trustee of your trust. Now, if you set up an irrevocable trust, then that’s a different story. Then it will protect your assets. However you lose control, you can have any control over your assets, and so there’s still a five-year lookback period for if you go into skilled nursing care, but I don’t drive irrevocable trust and that I don’t like the idea you’re giving up control of your assets and what happens to them. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos
How Can I Make Sure My Beneficiaries Receive Their Inheritance Quickly and Smoothly?
Video Summary
How can I make sure my beneficiaries receive their inheritance quickly and smoothly? My suggestion is, particularly if you have a fairly simple estate, it’s how you title your assets with your bank accounts. You can put have it in your name, payable on death, and that’s a POD account and name your beneficiary. So, all they need is your death certificate and they can receive the Aspen. If you have a brokerage account with Merrill Lynch or Raymond James or Schwab or anyone else, you can put a transfer on death, A TOD designation, and that way the assets will pass to your beneficiaries by them presenting your death certificate and they’ll transfer it into your name, into the beneficiary’s name. If you own real estate and you want it to go to your beneficiaries, you can execute what they call a lady bird deed or enhanced life estate deed, which says that I convey the property to these beneficiaries. However, reserve all the rights of ownership during my lifetime, including the right to sell the property, keep all the proceeds, and you can even change who you wish to receive the property at the time of your death. So those are the ways that you can have these assets pass smoothly and without any lawyer interference as far as that’s concerned, or court interference. And so if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos, Wills
Should I Name a Corporate Trustee Like A Bank or Trust Company or an Individual Trustee?
Video Summary
Should I name a corporate trustee, like a bank or trust company or an individual trustee? Well, I believe that corporate trustees or trust companies are very well suited to handle large trust where there’s a lot of assets and it’s a continuing trust, meaning that the trustee is directed to hold the asset, invest it, and give the income or make distributions over a period of time to the beneficiary, such as hold the money until the beneficiary reach his age 35 and only give them income. They need to make investment choices, and they would do a very good job of as far as investing. One of the factors involved with the corporate trustee is their fee schedule and that you might want to check to see what their minimums are and what size of trust they usually like to handle, and that usually they have certain minimums as what it would cost them to handle it. On the other hand, if you have an individual which you trust, or one of your children or a relative who you believe could handle this and you have make provision for your assets to be distributed outright, then an individual may work out just fine and that they can simply marshal the assets or inventory them and then either sell them or turn around and distribute them in kind to the beneficiaries. And so, it’s not that complicated. Sometimes you want to name an individual, particularly if you have a minor or someone, a special needs person, and you want the human element of them to be able to make decisions as if the child or the beneficiary was theirs. So those are some of the factors to look at as far as individual versus corporate trustees. And usually, an individual does not charge the same rate as what a corporate trustee would. My phone number is (727) 847-2288If you have any questions
- Published in LLC's and Corporations, Trusts, Videos