Clearwater, Florida Estate Planning Blog
Are Assets Left to Your Child Via Your Trust Protected from Your Child’s IRS Tax Liens? It Depends…
As discussed in a prior blog, many individuals do not want creditors of their son or daughter to be able to access the benefits that they leave in trust for their son or daughter. Whether a creditor can “attach” a child’s interest in the trust property depends on how...
Questioning Language of Crescenzo Case…
As you know, last week, this author published a blog on the Crescenzo case. A well, known, very respected probate and trust litigator and good friend, Andrew B. Sasso, responded to me with some thoughts. As this author is not a litigator, clarifications are always...
Beneficiary Designation Divorce Legislation Passed
Under current law, provisions of a will or trust which affect the spouse are void upon divorce or annulment of the marriage. For example, if W (former wife) received anything under H’s (husband) will or trust, W would be treated as predeceasing H subsequent to the...
Portability of Estate Tax Exemption
Many of you already know that under the 2010 Tax Act surviving spouses can take advantage of their deceased spouse’s unused federal estate tax exemption. What was not clear is how and when to do this. Because of the confusion the Internal Revenue Service (the...
Is Your LLC Interest Protected From a Creditor?
A recent case illustrates the difference in the protection afforded debtors who own an interest in a Multi-Member Limited Liability Company (“ MMLLC”) versus an interest in a Single Member LLC (“SMLLC”). In Pansky v. Franklin & Associates, P.A. , a law firm...
Portability… How Valuable Is It?
Each United States resident is subject to the federal estate and gift tax and is entitled to a $5.450 million applicable exclusion amount (“AEA”) (often called the Unified Tax Credit or the basic exclusion amount) which reduces their federal gift and estate tax....
File Portability Election Late? Is There Relief?
The concept of portability has been discussed in a prior blog. What happens if a surviving spouse does not file the portability election timely? The spouse is potentially losing a savings of over $2 million in estate taxes! Relief for filing a late portability...
Gifts to Grandchildren.. Watch out. There is ANOTHER Tax to Consider!
While we may have heard of the estate tax and, of course, the income tax, many of us have never heard of the generation transfer skipping tax (GSTT). This tax is imposed on gifts to grandchildren and was imposed to prevent very wealthy families from keeping assets in...
A Caveat… Do You Have to Follow the Form?
A caveat, authorized under Florida law, is filed with the court by a creditor or interested person to ensure that the creditor or interested person has an opportunity to object to the will and receive notice of probate proceedings. The probate rules provide specific...
Beware… the IRS “Secret” Lien
Many attorneys rely exclusively on the Internal Revenue Code as the “bible” for tax law. However, many other provisions in the United States Code apply to taxes and one is the “secret lien”, secret only because there is no filing or notice other than Section 3713 of...