Month: November 2019
REMINDER!!! Clocks Turn Back But You Must Go Forward With These Items
The end of the year brings many deadlines and opportunities for planning. Here are a few items to remember: If you are over 70 1/2 and are charitably inclined make use of the qualified charitable distribution. No income to you and a gift to charity. Discussed in a...
Forget to Take Your Required Minimum Distribution from an Inherited Roth IRA?
If you inherit a Roth individual retirement account (“Roth IRA”), you must take required minimum distributions (“RMD”) from the Roth IRA each year after the death of the owner. The RMD is calculated based upon the beneficiary’s life expectancy or 5 years. To...
Save Our Home Cap… Are you Saving Anything?
Most people understand the savings of their homestead tax exemption because the “exemption” is printed on the real estate tax bill but do you understand how the Save Our Home (“SOH”) cap works? Chapter 196 of the Florida Statutes allows each person who has legal or...
Are YOU a Responsible Person?
Most of the time we would like to think we are responsible. However in the payroll tax world that may NOT be good thing. In a business environment if you are an officer, no matter what type of officer, you could be deemed a “responsible person” and if the person in...
Retirement Benefits Received in a Divorce? Are They Protected From Creditors in Florida? You May be Surprised!
Under Florida law, retirement benefits, including individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”) and inherited IRAs (“Retirement Benefits”) are generally exempt from creditors. However, what happens in a bankruptcy proceeding? As the Florida legislature opted out of the...
The Collision Between Dissolution Agreement and Beneficiary Designation
Often, in a dissolution agreement, the parties provide that the wealthier spouse provide a life insurance policy for the benefit of his or her less wealthy spouse to supplement or completely provide for child support and spousal obligations should the wealthier spouse...
Are You Entitled to A Trust Accounting?
As a current or contingent beneficiary of a trust are you entitled to an accounting? It depends for what accounting period you request. This issue was addressed in Hilgendorf v. Estate of Coleman. In 2000, Thelma Coleman (“Thelma”) created a revocable trust for her...
Revised Florida Decanting Statute… Effective July 1, 2018
A revised Florida statute permits decanting for more types of trusts. Unlike the decanting of wine, pouring wine from one container to another container, decanting, for legal purpose, is “pouring” assets from one trust to another, instead of distributing assets...
Personal Representatives MUST be Certain to Notice Ascertainable Creditors!
Under Florida law if you are acting as a personal representative you must carefully review the decedent’s credit cards, mail, etc to be sure that you notice all ascertainable creditors. A recent case, Golden v. Jones,...