Estate and Business Planning Legal Blog

 

When a client owns real estate, whether it be commercial or residential, held for investment and/or for income producing purposes, it is critical that the owner be cognizant of the liability issues involved.  Clearly, if a tenant or the tenant's employees, customers or guests are injured on the premises, the injured party will not only sue the tenant but chances are good that he/she will also sue the owner of the property. While it is imperative that both tenants and landlords have sufficient liability insurance policies in place, it all also makes a great deal of sense to further protect oneself.

If an individual owner of real property is sued, the owner's personal assets are at risk.  The relatively simple way to avoid this is to have the property owned by a corporate entity.
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We are all interested in protecting our assets, doing our best, hopefully with the help of an asset protection attorney, to avoid excessive taxation and predatory lenders. During these days of malevolent use of elaborate schemes and sophisticated technology, we should all also be aware of protecting our accumulated worth from scam artists. Those who try to fleece us are happy to use our fear of being defrauded against us. In the guise of helping us protect our assets, they manage to separate us from them. Many such scams not only leave victims with fewer assets, but with serious problems with the IRS that may lead to penalties, fines, and even jail time.
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When you are going through a major life event in your family -- the birth or adoption of a child, marriage, divorce, remarriage, moving, buying or selling property, inheriting or losing a large amount of money, serious illness or injury, the death of a loved one -- you are not likely to be thinking about your estate plan. During such times, emotions run high and priorities are in the immediate present, not the future. Nonetheless, the life-altering events mentioned all necessitate reviewing your relevant documents with an accomplished estate planning attorney.
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Clients often move, especially as they age and desire to be in warm client.  Moving can be an extremely pleasant experience, but there are certain legal and tax considerations that must be attended to.

Perhaps the most important item to consider, when moving out of New York, is the capital gains tax consequences of selling your home here or keeping it.  The tax laws provide that everyone has a $250,000 capital gains tax exclusion for the sale of their primary residence.  For a couple, the exclusion if $500,000.

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What will happen if I can’t take care of my family or myself?

Although most of us would prefer to die peacefully in our sleep after a day of pleasurable activity, the majority of Americans (63 percent) die in hospitals and another 17 percent die in other institutional settings, such as nursing homes, having been incapacitated for some period of time. Unwillingness to face and prepare for uncomfortable possibilities puts us at risk of having decisions made about our healthcare, property, heirs, and finances without our personal input. As a matter of fact, 20 to 30 percent will die without having an advance directive, such as a living will, in place, and most will only be referred to hospice or palliative care too late to reap its benefits.

For
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It has become quite common for clients to list beneficiaries on their brokerage and investments accounts, regardless of whether or not they are retirement accounts. The designation is commonly referred to as a TOD, or transfer on death. With savings, checking and money market accounts held with banks and credit unions, one is also permitted to list beneficiaries, with those usually referred to as “in trust for” accounts.  

Bankers, investment advisors and others actively encourage customers to make these designations.  In some cases they absolutely insist on it and/or they scare their clients into doing so, stating that the probate process is terribly long, expensive, and must be avoided.
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Estate planning is a complex issue, not only legally and financially, but emotionally. Although planning for your retirement may be fun, planning for your possible incapacity and inevitable death can be daunting. Also, it is difficult to be completely rational about such emotionally laden matters.

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Most Floridians have attended, at some point during their Florida residency, one or more seminars given by attorneys, discussing the need to avoid probate in Florida and instead create a revocable living trust.  For the most part, the attorneys are correct.  In general, it is highly recommended that if you are a Florida resident, that you create a revocable living trust in order to avoid probate.  

One of the problems with the aforementioned advice is that while clients create these trusts, they often fail to transfer all of their assets into the trust.  Sometimes, they create the trust and never fund it at all, thus necessitating probate.

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one in five people have special needs which means that a large number of families have a member in this category: child, adolescent, young or middle-aged adult, or elderly person. For special needs individuals who are unable to work or support themselves, the government provides disability income in the form of Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The primary difference between the two is that SSDI is available to workers who become disabled after accumulating enough work credits to qualify for the assistance.

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It is part of the operation of most businesses to become involved in contract negotiation.  Even if you are in a type of business where contracts are not utilized for customers or clients, it is inevitable that when purchasing products or services you will be presented with a written contract. 

 

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There are many reasons why a client would want to leave their retirement accounts (IRA's, 401k's, TDA's, etc.) in a trust for the benefit of their heirs.  For example, if a beneficiary is under the age of eighteen (18), he/she can not legally inherit.  In addition, if the retirement accounts are sizable, most people properly do not want to leave large sums of monies to a young person.  One should also consider a trust if a beneficiary is disabled, so that the assets are controlled and protected.
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