The holidays are often synonymous with the idea of traditions. Traditions are those little rituals that are passed down from generation to generation. For many people, traditions give a sense of unity, warmth and closeness. Oftentimes their consistency represents security.
That can be a little disconcerting if you’re in the midst of or have recently been through a family breakup. The traditions that you made the effort to cultivate in years past, might be turned upside down by the new realities of shared custody. For example, it may be that the children have always spent Christmas Eve with you at your parents’ house. Or maybe you always made cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving while you all watched the Macy’s parade together. Perhaps the children have never been away from you on the holidays.
These rituals that once provided comfort can easily become a sticking point for divorced (or divorcing) parents. The reality is that your traditions will probably have to change in order to incorporate both parents and their extended families. Here are a few tips to make the coming months a little easier for everyone:
1. Don’t be afraid to start new traditions with your children based on your custody agreement. For example, if you don’t have custody of your children on Thanksgiving, create a new day-after-Thanksgiving meal, followed by a game night. Invite your family and make it into a fun event that your children will look forward to every year.
2. Take the time to explain some of the new plans to your children so that there are no surprises. Children are more adaptable than we often assume. Sure, they might miss some of the old traditions but they don’t need things to stay exactly the same. What really matters most is that they sense that they are loved and that they feel secure in the midst of this time of transition.
3. Be sure to review your custody order ahead of time. If you have a custody agreement, check it now. It is very common for holidays to be rotated annually. Be prepared to stick to the plan, right down to the drop off time and place. If your custody order is ambiguous or you can’t remember who had which holiday last year, communicate with the other parent and see if you can reach an agreement so there is no confusion on the actual holiday.
4. If you would like to request a change because of special circumstances, make your request early on. One of the keys to insuring that custody arrangements are tension-free is for parents to communicate with each other and plan the holiday well in advance.
5. Never put your children in the middle of any holiday disputes. If you and your ex cannot reach an agreement as to who will have the children on Christmas, don’t put the children in the awkward position of asking them where they want to be or letting them know how distraught you feel about the situation.
The best gift you might give your kids this holiday season, might just be the peace you convey and the tone you set during this time of turbulence and change in your family traditions.
Along with the countless other things a start-up has to deal with when setting up a company, there is the major decision of how the company should trade legally. Establishing it correctly at the outset is crucial and could eliminate many issues along the way. It could also have profound implications for the financial future of a start-up and the company.
Essentially there are four types of business structure:-
• Sole trader
• Partnership
• Limited company
• Limited liability partnership
A sole trader is someone who conducts a business or trade and has made no arrangements to be any of the other three types of business format. There is no mandatory central registry of sole traders so your affairs are entirely private. All the profits are counted as personal taxable income, the business assets will be personal property and the amount of tax payable is the same whether or not money is drawn out of the business. The owner is personally liable for any business debts or any other legal claims that may arise, such as product liability.
A partnership is where two or more people agree to trade as a unit and are essentially “sole traders” who share the profits and losses. There is no mandatory central registry of partnership businesses so again affairs are entirely private. It is imperative for the partners to draw up a partnership agreement that governs the conduct between them and deals with matters such as sharing profits, responsibilities and terminating the arrangement. Each partner may find they are personally liable for the actions of the other partner.
A limited company is a legal creation which is established in law and governed by the Companies Acts.
The registration process for a limited company is called Company Formation. It is advisable to use a company formation agent or an accountant to ensure the company is set up correctly.
Limited companies are registered at Companies House where a live database of all UK limited companies is kept and they are a distinct and separate entity from their owners and the people who run it. It has its own status for taxation, financial and general legal purposes.
An off the shelf company is a limited company that has been pre-registered with a name and company number and can be used to trade immediately.
The crucial difference between a limited company and a sole trade / partnership is the protection from personal liability for business debts. Unless a personal guarantee is signed or there is fraudulent trade, a limited company is “limited” in the sense that its owners are not liable for its debts. Some people see a limited company as an insurance policy, especially for a new or a high risk business. Many people have lost their savings and other assets because they started up not “being limited”.
On the flip side, unlike a sole trader who can draw money out of the business without incurring a tax charge, a company director would have to be paid under PAYE (including benefits such as a car or healthcare) and the shareholders are rewarded by means of a dividend, subject to the regulations.
Below is a summary of the pros and cons that are typically cited when considering forming a limited company.
Advantages
• Shares of the business can be given to others e.g. family or friends
• It may be easier to attract investors
• Obtaining bank loans may be easier
• There are no higher rate tax bands
• In the event of a partner leaving or dying it is easier to continue the business
• It is easier to sell the business
• There is a better public perception if a company is Limited
• It can assist in the protection of a name
• People have more confidence in the business if they can check your company on the public records at Companies House
• Subcontractors and agency workers may find it easier to obtain work using a limited company
Disadvantages
• The preparation of annual accounts will probably cost more than a sole trader
• The public can check up on certain aspects of a business
A limited liability partnership is hybrid of a partnership and a limited company. The LLP is registered at Companies House and is treated like a limited company in most respects but the profits are divided amongst the partners who pay tax on their own share at the rate appropriate to their circumstances. An LLP must have a minimum of two partners and one of the partners can be another limited company. It is a flexible creature but has not proved to be particular popular for small businesses.
As a general rule you should discuss your choice of business format with a qualified accountant prior to commencement – it will be money well spent. In most cases the limited company route is the safest option if one has any concerns whatsoever regarding a potential liability, but ultimately the consideration of risk is but one factor in a decision that may be based on many variables.
Whatever you choose we wish every success.
Source: from www.sme-blog.com to The Small Business Blog
Have you ever wondered why Halloween is such a widespread, holiday favorite? Free from a lot of the tradition and family expectation that accompanies other major holidays, it’s the one time of the year that seems to bring out the kid in all of us. From young to old, Halloween seems to appeal to everyone. It gives all of us an excuse to don a costume and have some fun. Don’t believe us? Just check out the I Love Halloween Facebook page, now boasting more than 2.25 million followers.
But for all of its spooky fun, Halloween also comes with its fair share of pitfalls. No one wants their Halloween festivities to be marred by an accident. Whether you are hosting a party for friends or leaving the light on for trick-or-treaters, it’s important to take a few precautions to insure that your home is safe for the influx of visitors. For example, if someone trips and falls on your dark sidewalk or brushes up against your candle-lit pumpkins, you could be held liable. But, we’ve got you covered! Here are five precautions you can take before those ghosts, ghouls, superheroes and princesses start knocking on your door.
- Clear your walkway. Make sure the path from your driveway or the sidewalk to the front door is free from obstruction. Most children are so excited that they aren’t paying careful attention. In addition to clearing a path, you can also help prevent trips and falls by repairing loose porch railings and uneven walkway stones. Also, check to ensure that your spooky decorations don’t obstruct the walkway.
- Clean up your yard. Take extra precautions to rake leaves, remove dead branches, trim overgrown landscaping and fill in large holes. Also, consider storing any gardening tools and hoses a safe distance from walkways. If you add spooky yard decorations like tombstones or inflatables, make sure these decorations are well-lit and easily seen.
- Keep your property well lit. If you have a long driveway or walkway, turn on your regular outdoor lights so trick-or-treaters can easily see the path to the door.
- Ditch the candles. Replace the candles in your pumpkins with LED tea lights and your luminaries with string of lights along your path. The US Fire Administration warns that open flames can catch costumes on fire, as well as decorations.
- Confine your pets. The constant stream of trick-or-treating excitement and commotion could stress your pet. Avoid a Halloween pet mishap by keeping them in a separate room, away from open doors and small children.
With these five precautions in place, you can enjoy a fun Halloween AND keep your neighborhood trick-or-treaters safe!
Embarking on a new business venture or project can often be a difficult and stressful period for a business owner. This can often be made even worse due to a lack of sufficient planning to guide them through the turbulence. In my many years in business I’ve learnt than nothing is more important than planning for success (and failure, see this post here).
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from careful planning. Don’t think that just because you own a small business that you shouldn’t set aside time to plan. There are times when planning becomes essential, especially if you need to prove to a lender that your business makes financial sense from an investment point of view.
This brings us to the first aspect of successful planning which is writing specifically for the audience it was intended. If you are producing an internal plan just for yourself than it is fine to create something loose and informal because you will understand the intention. However, if your plan contains specific instructions for employees to follow then you will have to write in greater detail to avoid misunderstandings.
Don’t make assumptions when writing a plan. Instead, you should try to research things in as much detail as possible. This will involve developing a complete understanding of the marketplace in which your business operates and an in-depth knowledge of the competition.
It is essential that all of your sums add up. because anything that is incorrectly costed has potential to throw the rest of the plan completely off-track. Bad financial estimation is one of the main causes of planning failure.
When it comes to actually implementing a plan, make sure that there are specific dates for the completion of each section. This is important because it helps you to evaluate the success of the project at various different stages along the way. Remember that you are not bound in any way to the plan and if necessary you can then make changes as you go along and circumstances change.
When I talk about business planning, though, I don’t mean reams of paper that takes you hours to write; instead use good business planning software, or tools, to allow you to briefly and concisely put the necessary points down somewhere always accessible.
Source: from www.sme-blog.com to The Small Business Blog
October. The rest of the country might be sipping Pumpkin Spice Lattes and watching the colors change to oranges; but around here, it’s a time to THINK PINK! Pink ribbon, that is.
According to the American Cancer Society, Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States (other than skin cancer). Nearly all of us know someone whose life has been turned upside down by a breast cancer diagnosis. The good news is that since the pink ribbon’s adoption a symbol for the breast cancer cause in 1992, awareness has skyrocketed and millions of women are surviving the disease.
What can you do to THINK PINK this October? We have two suggestions.
First, be informed. Take the time to learn about breast cancer and early detection. The American Cancer Society website is a wellspring of information and has links so that you can consider volunteering and donating to the cause. As well, the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation has information about events specific to the Orlando area.
Second, let Breast Cancer Awareness Month serve as a reminder to all of us that sometimes bad things do happen. Despite our best efforts, sometimes the unthinkable diagnosis becomes a reality. When those moments do come, we can’t underscore enough how important it is to have an estate plan. Estate planning is not just for the wealthy. It’s for those among us who have any assets at all. It’s our opportunity to make sure our finances continue to accomplish our goals even after we pass on. It’s also a gift to the family and friends we leave behind.
This first-hand testimony from the Forbes website continues to inspire us as we serve our clients and seek to insure a smooth transition for families who are grieving. The author outlines her personal story of handling her father’s estate after he died from colon cancer. She shares that “The most unexpected financial lesson my father taught me came after he passed away. I am the executor of his estate. My dad was always a planner, but the things he did to make this process easier are amazing. I feel compelled to share them with just about everyone I know.” (To read her full, inspiring story yourself, check it out at Reader Story: What My Father’s Death Taught Me about Estate Planning.)
We realize that estate planning is never an easy topic. For one thing, it’s personal. For another, it feels a little morbid. Conversations about the details surrounding death take a lot of courage. But, they can also help avoid surprises, lead to better financial planning and promote family harmony.
Divorce is not the most fun thing in the world. There’s usually hurt and sometimes anger, which is to be expected. The divorce process can either go easily with mutual respect, or it can create bitter feelings and hurt everyone who is involved. Divorce does not have to be, nor should it be a destructive process. If it is, you can alienate the children.
During a divorce that involves child custody disputes, one or both parents can attempt to distance the child from the other parent. It can be a indirect attempt by a parent, such as making subtle negative comments about the other parent in front of the child. One parent will often criticize the other parent, trying to instill anger and extinguish the child’s bond with the other parent.
At times, one parent will inform the child about the divorce process and the struggle between both parents. One may roll her eyes at something the other parent said, or blame the other for not trying to make the marriage work. Children should not have to deal with these adult emotional topics or ever be forced to pick sides. When parents invoke these emotions of resentment toward the other parent, it can have lasting effects on a child. The child may develop separation anxiety or use the same techniques for dealing with relationships as an adult.
Signs of Parental Alienation Syndrome
Not all children show the same signs of parent alienation; however, many children do develop some type of resentment, hostility or desire to stay away from the other parent. A young child may cling to one parent and avoid the other parent. An older child may develop sleep disorders or have anger issues.
Other signs of alienation syndrome include:
- Having trouble forming close relationships
- Feelings of vulnerability
- Conflicts with authority
- Withdrawing from social situations
- Developing psychological dependency
- The Difference Between Alienation and Preference
Though parental alienation syndrome does occur in some divorce cases, there’s a difference between a child feeling alienated from a parent and preferring to live with the other parent. Some children may feel closer to one parent because of similar interests or because that parent is the primary care provider in the home. Though children may have a parental preference, they still want to spend some time with the other parent.
Parental conflict takes its toll on the child, resulting in the child choosing one parent over the other just to end the conflict. When children are caught in the middle between conflicting parents, they may align with one to remove themselves from the situation, even if they have no problems with either parent. An alienated child aligns with a parent because of deliberate parental involvement.
Children sometimes suffer the most during the divorce, but parents can decrease their children’s anxiety and make the process easier for them. The children are losing a unified home and must deal with the stresses that come with having divorced parents. Understand the signs of parental alienation, and keep the children’s best interests in mind to avoid any further hurt that comes with the divorce.
Corporate scrutiny over the past few decades has shown us the rising importance of non-profit partnerships. However, many non-profits fail to secure valuable corporate partnerships because they don’t frame it the right way. Here are some things a non-profit need to do to form a successful corporate partnership:
- You want to be clear on the reason you want to partner with them. What’s your charity’s goal and how could corporate partnerships help you achieve it?
- Let the corporation you are trying to partnership know what’s in it for them. That’s not to say that all corporations are self-centered and don’t care about helping children or funding autism research. You just need to put it in terms of the benefits to them, rather than overwhelming them with another problem there is in the world. Let the corporation know how they can be the solution to a problem, how they can be the hero.
- Identify areas of your charitable work that companies are likely to find interesting. A homeless charity may have a project that enables people to learn new skills so they can gain employment. This is very likely to appeal to companies because they understand the value of employment and it could offer some interesting volunteering opportunities for their employees.
- Show the corporation how working together will increase their customer community engagement. Only then will the company commit the time, creativity and resources required to raise your profile and scale your social impact.
- Offer to help co-create branded content using different media, you can position the partnership as a way to ease this burden while enhancing the company’s reputation.
As with any relationship, once the benefit to the other party is clear they will more readily share their time, expertise and resources. Without such an approach, the best of intentions and heart-felt commitment can fall on deaf ears, leaving both parties and the community at large at a loss.
Online legal document services offer an enticing bargain. Most people realize that they need an estate plan to manage their affairs if something happens to them, but having estate planning documents drafted by an experienced attorney can be expensive and time consuming. Furthermore, in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and when many people can accomplish nearly anything while in the comfort of their own homes, the idea of having your estate planning documents online is very attractive to the average person. For these reasons, many consumers are now questioning whether it is possible to skip the attorney fees and use a low-cost website to prepare estate planning documents. The short answer is that, yes, it is possible, but it is not recommended. You could save a few bucks now, but later may end up creating an expensive and frustrating mess for your family. Unfortunately, most people do not realize what they are getting themselves into with an online document service. This is because those online services have spent millions of dollars trying to create the impression that their services are similar to, or even equivalent to those of an attorney. They put lawyers in their commercials, hire celebrities to promote them, and tout stories of people who have successfully used their documents. Yet, all the marketing in the world cannot erase the simple truth. Those online services are not law firms, and the people who create them typically are not lawyers. Online services cannot give legal advice. Instead, they are “document assistants” – a term that various states use to define service providers who type your information into generic form documents. In other words, a document assistant is like a mindless typing robot who enters your information into a form, whether or not it makes sense and whether or not it is a good idea. If you are stuck or need advice, they cannot help you. If you make a huge mistake, they cannot warn you. In fact, it would be a crime for them to warn you. It does not matter if the person working on your documents via one of these service providers is an estate planning genius. That person is simply not allowed to give legal advice. Think of it this way: a person needs a state bar license in order to give legal advice, just the same way that a doctor needs a license to write a prescription. Giving legal advice without a license is very much like selling drugs without a prescription-it is a crime. To combat this, these companies design their generic forms so that even without legal advice, it is hard to make mistakes. That may seem like a good thing. However, the best way to make sure that your documents do not do anything wrong is to make sure they do not do or accomplish anything at all. Essentially, these documents become do-nothing, one-size-fits-all generic documents. That leads to the next problem with the online services. These document assistants cannot even promise you that the documents will work because they are not licensed attorneys, which means they cannot promise a particular legal result. Many clients are excited to learn that they can leave assets to a special needs child without jeopardizing government benefits; or that they can protect a child’s inheritance from frivolous lawsuits, divorce or bankruptcy. A well-designed estate plan ensures that your resources get where you want them and that they are used in the way you instruct. Estate planning is about creating legally enforceable provisions that do what you want done. These online document services cannot promise you any of that. They cannot promise you that you will achieve your goals. They cannot point out opportunities or other options beyond what you have selected, and they cannot warn you about hidden hazards. Really, all these document services can do is save you a few bucks. However, these document services play a clever price game, too. Most of these online services investigate what an attorney would charge for similar documents and then use that information to determine their pricing. These comparisons are misleading in a variety of ways. First, online services compare the price they charge for a single document to the price that an attorney charges for an entire estate plan, which typically includes numerous comprehensive documents. More importantly, there is no way to compare the prices of what you get from an online document service to what you get from an attorney, because they are not offering nearly the same thing that you would get from an attorney. If a fast-food restaurant told you that you could order their $1.79 “salad in a box” instead of paying $20 for a fancy restaurant salad bar, you would instantly recognize the faulty comparison. A wilted clump of lettuce in a plastic clamshell is not anything like an all-you-can-eat salad bar with every conceivable ingredient, made fresh and eaten in a nice environment with an attentive wait staff. Yet, most people recognize this faulty comparison because most people have experience with restaurants – both good and bad. They know how to judge quality, and they understand the “you get what you pay for” concept. But, when it comes to legal services, most people don’t have the experience to know better. If your estate plan is faulty or you do something wrong when drafting your own documents using an online service, you will never know. But, your family will know. If your estate plan doesn’t work properly, your family could end up paying the price and cleaning up the mess after you have passed away. Your estate plan is the box that carries your entire life savings. It is just not worth the risk of damaging your life’s work just to save a few bucks. The attorneys at The Orlando Law Group represent and prepare estate planning documents for individuals throughout Orlando, Waterford Lakes, Altamonte Springs, Winter Garden, Lake Nona, St. Cloud, Kissimmee, and throughout central Florida. If you are dealing with an estate planning issue or are looking to establish your own estate plan, please reach out to our office at 407-512-4394, fill out our online contact form. If you have questions about anything discussed in this article or other legal matters, give our office a call at 407-512-4394 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a consultation. We have an office conveniently located at 12301 Lake Underhill Rd, Suite 213, Orlando, FL 32828, as well as offices in Seminole, Osceola and West Orange counties to assist you.
Over the last two decades, the percentage of couples divorcing in their 50’s and 60’s has risen from three to almost thirty percent. Sociologists have a term for people in their 50’s and 60’s who are divorcing. They coined the term “gray divorce”. Baby boomers are living longer and more of them are divorcing. This impacts not only their retirement and income, but also other important areas of their life. If you’re over 50 and considering a divorce, keep these things in mind before you put yourself in a stressful and financial hardship.
The Children
It doesn’t matter how old they are, they can be grown adults, with families of their own; consider their feelings and emotion when you are contemplating a divorce. A divorce can damage your family’s harmony and create an unnecessary divide if it’s not handled carefully. The two of you may not be married anymore, but you will always be your children’s parents.
Alimony
In long marriages, a spouse is entitled to permanent alimony. It’s not actually a permanent though. Permanent alimony usually lasts until either spouse dies or the receiving spouse remarries. In some states, if the receiving spouse lives with someone else and has a supportive relationship, it can affect the alimony arrangement. The alimony payments also can be restructured after the supporting spouse retires and lives off a retirement fund.
Financial Assets
Couples who have been married for a while, have likely accumulated assets together. It can be a home or retirement accounts or other investments, most people want to keep the home as part of the divorce settlement. Keeping the house doesn’t always put you in a better position after the divorce. In most cases, a house continues to have unexpected expenses, which may or may not affect its future value. As for retirement, it’s possible to split one spouse’s retirement account or 401(k) through a domestic relations order.
Life and Health Insurance Policies
Some couples, during their marriage, purchase a life insurance policy, which goes to the supported spouse after the divorce. If the supporting spouse dies, the supported spouse gets the insurance payout. After a divorce, you may not want your ex-spouse being the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. You may find yourself in a position to take out a new life insurance or health insurance policy. Unfortunately, at a later stage in life, there may have pre-existing conditions that raise the costs of obtaining a new life insurance policy. Health insurance may also cost more after 50, so look into a replacement health insurance policy soon after the divorce.
Social Security Benefits
Social Security benefits can help the lesser-earning spouse after the divorce. In fact, the lesser earner can receive Social Security benefits based on the higher earner’s work record. However, the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years, and the lesser earner must be 62 or older. Even if the higher-earning spouse has not applied for Social Security benefits, the lesser-earning spouse can collect the benefits if the couple has been divorced for a minimum of two years.
The two main classes of digital assets are 1) any online account that requires a username and password; or 2) any file stored in places including an individual’s computer, mobile phone, server, local DVD or CD-ROM, SD card or at online storage sites.
Online Accounts
If the client is the only person who has access to her online accounts, then what happens when she dies? Much of the concern involves the rights of the online company, which were granted when the individual initially accepted the account’s Terms of Service (TOS). Several issues to consider for online accounts requiring a username and password include the following:
- The TOS Agreements of most popular online companies rarely, if ever, allow for the immediate or automatic transfer of the account to the personal representative.
- Without access to a decedent’s bank and investment accounts, a trustee or executor will have difficulty obtaining necessary information for meeting the requirements of the underlying will and trust.
- Without access to a decedent’s email, blog or website, the personal representative may not even be aware of certain ongoing obligations, especially with more transactions occurring online only.
Digital Files
Files on an individual’s computer are difficult Digital estate planning enough to find, depending on the individual’s levels of organization or disorganization. The personal representative’s job can become exponentially more difficult if the important data is stored offsite. Additionally, there are two main kinds of digital files to consider:
Client-Created Files – including scanned financial files, address books, and digital photos, but can also include valuable business documents or intellectual property.
Client-Purchased Files – including music, videos and e-books bought during the individual’s lifetime. In the typical TOS, the seller only grants the individual buyer a non-transferable license to use the work “for life.”
Steps You Can Take Now
Make a list of all digital assets. This should be a comprehensive list of all of your online accounts and data files, including email accounts, websites, hard-drives, important Word and Excel documents, online storage accounts, and social media accounts.
List wishes for each asset. For local hardware containing data files, this can include leaving the asset directly to a specified heir. For online accounts, this can include:
- Shutting down the account
- Doing nothing
- Archiving contents on CD or DVD
- Creating an auto-response on the account; and/or
- Forwarding all messages to another place
- Choose the person who will receive each asset
- Provide access and control to the recipient
A new law in Florida relating to members of the military states that if a parent is activated, deployed, or temporarily assigned to military service on orders in excess of 90 days, the parent may designate a family member, a stepparent, or a relative of the child by marriage to engage in time-sharing on the parent’s behalf.
So if the parent in the military designates a grandparent to time-share in his or her stead, the court would enforce such a designation. The Florida Supreme Court has consistently held all statutes that have attempted to compel visitation or custody with a grandparent based solely on the best interest of the child standard to be unconstitutional.
Under current Florida law, a grandparent may file a petition and obtain visitation rights as to a grandchild when it is in the best interest of the child and one of three conditions have been met:
- The parents’ marriage has been dissolved
- A parent has deserted the child or
- The child was born out of wedlock and the parents never marry
A court is allowed to consider a number of factors when it determines what is in the best interest of the child. None of these factors are decisive or irrefutable in and of themselves. A court will not likely make a decision regarding grandparent visitation based only on the presence or absence of one factor. The court will look at the presence or absence of all of the following factors before making a ruling:
- The willingness of the grandparents to encourage a close relationship between the child and parents
- The length and quality of the relationship between the grandparents and child before the divorce
- If the child is old enough to express a preference, that preference will be considered
- The mental and physical health of the child
- The mental and physical health of the grandparents
- Any other factors the judge wants to consider
What happens when one of the child’s natural parents remarries and the stepparent adopts the child? Florida will not automatically terminate any grandparent visitation rights just because a natural parent remarries and the child is subsequently adopted by the stepparent. However, a Florida court can still terminate the grandparents’ visitation rights if it believes that continued visitation with the grandparents is not in the child’s best interests. Before a court decides this, though, it must hold a hearing and allow the grandparents an opportunity to be heard.
A new law in Florida relating to members of the military states that if a parent is activated, deployed, or temporarily assigned to military service on orders in excess of 90 days, the parent may designate a family member, a stepparent, or a relative of the child by marriage to engage in time-sharing on the parent’s behalf.
So if the parent in the military designates a grandparent to time-share in his or her stead, the court would enforce such a designation. The Florida Supreme Court has consistently held all statutes that have attempted to compel visitation or custody with a grandparent based solely on the best interest of the child standard to be unconstitutional.
Under current Florida law, a grandparent may file a petition and obtain visitation rights as to a grandchild when it is in the best interest of the child and one of three conditions have been met:
§ The parents’ marriage has been dissolved;
§ A parent has deserted the child; or
§ The child was born out of wedlock and the parents never marry.
A court is allowed to consider a number of factors when it determines what is in the best interest of the child. None of these factors are decisive or irrefutable in and of themselves. A court will not likely make a decision regarding grandparent visitation based only on the presence or absence of one factor. The court will look at the presence or absence of all of the following factors before making a ruling:
§ The willingness of the grandparents to encourage a close relationship between the child and parents
§ The length and quality of the relationship between the grandparents and child before the divorce
§ If the child is old enough to express a preference, that preference will be considered
§ The mental and physical health of the child
§ The mental and physical health of the grandparents
§ Any other factors the judge wants to consider
What happens when one of the child’s natural parents remarries and the stepparent adopts the child? Florida will not automatically terminate any grandparent visitation rights just because a natural parent remarries and the child is subsequently adopted by the stepparent. However, a Florida court can still terminate the grandparents’ visitation rights if it believes that continued visitation with the grandparents is not in the child’s best interests. Before a court decides this, though, it must hold a hearing and allow the grandparents an opportunity to be heard.
People who are normally kind and in tune with their emotions revert to fighting children, figuratively, sometimes literally, scratching, punching, and pulling each other’s hair. Even where there is no obvious conflict, it seems that nearly every family has some amount of tension permeating just beneath the surface as they address family inheritance issues.
Stories of families in conflict at the death of a loved one are regular fodder in the media. It is easy to mock them; they look ridiculous, and it all seems so petty. We wonder why people just can’t get along. But, after some study I have learned that what appears as greed and pettiness are really symptoms of survivors’ struggle to feel loved and important. The fight for money and things – Dad’s golf clubs, Mom’s necklace – is not about the object or the money itself, but about what they symbolize: importance, love, security, self-esteem, connectedness, and immortality.
The old saying that “money makes people do funny things” doesn’t do justice to the real problems and root causes of family conflict. Money is not the core reason that fami¬lies fight; money is how we keep score in the fight for the intangibles of love, approval, and primordial survival. Money and possessions also help allay the fears of those left behind. When families fight, greed is rarely the principal motive.
The feuding family members can always trace their problems back several years, if not all the way back to childhood. For some, the trouble starts with the involvement of non-family. It is clear that inheritance conflict doesn’t come out of the blue; it is a continuation of long-term relationship problems that resurface upon the illness or death of a loved one. And they aren’t just about money or greed; they are about more, much more. But what is it that so often drives people to wage war against their own flesh and blood over a loved one’s estate?
There are five basic reasons why families fight in matters of inheritance:
- Humans are genetically predisposed to competition and conflict.
- Our psychological sense of self is intertwined with the approval that an inheritance represents, especially when the decedent is a parent.
- We are genetically hardwired to be on the lookout for exclusion, sometimes finding it when it doesn’t exist.
- Families fight because the death of a loved one activates the death anxieties of those left behind.
- One or more members of a family has a partial or full-blown personality disorder that causes them to distort and escalate natural family rivalries into personal and legal battles.
These sources of family conflict are not mutually exclusive; in most cases, some combination of the five elements present themselves in a combustible cocktail of family rivalry and conflict.
A significant number of inheritance disputes also involve testators and beneficiaries who come from dysfunctional families, are mentally ill or addicted, or suffer from one or more of the four Cluster B personality disorders as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV): antisocial, borderline, histrionic, or narcissistic.
Despite the tensions and rivalries that naturally exist in all families, family conflict is not inevitable. As family coun¬selors we can help families overcome the natural tensions that tend to pull them apart in order to preserve their most valuable asset: family itself. We can counsel our clients on the pitfalls of various courses of action, dissuade them from provisions that are punitive, encourage them to mend fences while family members are still alive, and promote planning that leaves a legacy of love.
More than just scriveners, clients look to their estate plan¬ning counsel to advise them on what is fair and customary. We use our legal and personal skills to document their wishes while being sensitive to the needs of those left behind. Special care must be taken to not upset long-held roles when allocating personal and financial assets and in appointing fiduciaries. We can also protect our clients from predators from within the family and without who are most likely to manipulate and abuse. In short, we can make a difference. Our clients are also good teachers, instructing us on the importance of family, the transience of money and things, and the shortness of life.
When you meet with your Estate Planning lawyer, initially, they may ask you some of these questions: “Do you own a home?” “Do you own a business?” “Are you married?” The fact gathering necessary in an initial interview does not always allow the sort of leisurely chat friends would have over coffee. It’s important for your lawyer to gather the basics in the initial meeting, if no open ended questions are asked then assets important to your situation can be overlooked.
For example, approximately 4.2 trillion dollars is held today in 401(k) and other defined contribution plans. For public sector employees, a defined contribution plan may include a 403(b) or 457(b) plan. The amount of assets held in defined contribution plans is projected to grow in the future given that in the private sector and possibly even the public sector, a regular pension or defined benefit is going the way of the Dodo bird. While going forward employers may still provide matching or non-matching contributions to an employee’s account, the trend is clear that fewer employees and retirees in the future will be able to depend on a monthly pension check.
A 2009 study by human resources consulting firm Hewitt Old 401k Estate Planning Associates (now Aon Hewitt) concluded that 29 percent of former workers leave their 401(k) with a previous employer. This amounts to a huge sum of assets held by American workers that can be overlooked if you are asked only “do you currently have a retirement account?” The same study also stated that two-thirds of employers report that the company 401(k) plan is the primary retirement savings vehicle for employees. Clearly then gathering information regarding an old 401(k) plan is an important step in assessing your unique situation.
Determining the existence of an old 401(k) becomes even more important in the context of trust administration and probate. If you are a surviving spouse or beneficiary of someone who was not the plan participant, knowledge of the 401(k) can be even more diminished.
Your lawyer will need to ask you open ended questions about your history to discover unclaimed 401(k) assets. If your old employer no longer exists because of dissolution or merger, there are other ways your lawyer can use to find that information.
Up to date beneficiary designations are critical and you should review them at a minimum upon the major life events of birth, death, marriage, and divorce. Helping discover whether any 401(k) assets are unclaimed facilities a discussion about current assets and whether those beneficiary designations are also up to date.
It’s almost summer again, at least it’s starting to feel like it in Florida. Kids look forward to summertime; having fun, outdoor activities and most importantly, no school. While all that usually comes with summer break for kids, depending on the circumstances, it can be a hard time for kids of divorced parents.
Typically, children are with one parent or the other for longer periods of time over the summer than during the school year. In summer time, regular schedules and habits change. It’s this change up in routine and scheduled parent time that can produces anxiety for children and concern for parents.
Below are some tips to help separated and divorced parents make a smooth transition from a school year schedule to summer vacation time and make it stress-free for everyone.
Discuss vacation plans early. Before you book the cruise or pay the deposit on summer camp for the kids, talk to your former spouse about plans to enroll children in summer programs or taking vacation trips. That way everyone can make plans and their schedule work time and also gives children a clear understanding of how their summer break will be spent. By taking care of this sooner rather than later, it allows time for parents to identify and resolve any schedule concerns that might arise in the planning process. Good advance planning will help reduce frustrations later. Be as flexible as
Communicate about schedule changes. Good communication is key in order to keep the peace and also respect as the foundation of a healthy post-divorce relationship. Clear communication about schedule changes minimizes surprises and ensures you know what’s happening in your children’s lives. If talking to your ex-spouse in person is too stressful, consider using email to stay up to date and also a shared online calendar. However, DO NOT use your child or children as messengers of schedule and vacation updates. Planning and scheduling are adult concerns, especially in co-parenting arrangements. Work to maintain a respectful tone in your communications, and use thoughtful negotiation to resolve any conflicts.
Be positive. Your children will remember the example of your attitude and mirror your behavior with your ex-spouse. Do your best, at all times, to never speak ill of your former spouse in front of your children and avoid asking them to take sides or favor one parent’s or home over the other. In order for your children to grow and thrive as adults, they should feel free to love both parents equally. A child should never feel badly or confused about wanting to spend time with the other parent at any time of the year, vacations included.
Have fun.When you were a kid, I’m sure you looked forward to summer break, spending time with family, friends and unscheduled play time. By creating the space and opportunity for these types of situations, you’ll be positively creating those same types of memories for your own children. Spending summer vacation time with each parent, is simply part of the scheduling process that the adults must properly manage. What your children will remember is how they felt and what they experienced through their parents’ interactions with each other.
Though summer vacation may require additional planning and communication with your ex-spouse, it can also be a time that you create special memories that will last forever. Cooperating and be flexible with your former spouse for summer plans and remember to put the kids first.
As Veterans age, they must face many long-term care and elder law issues, such as finding ways to pay for home care, assisted living or nursing home care. While Medicaid may pay for nursing home stays, it may not pay for assisted living or home care. This is where the Veterans Administration Pension or also called the Aid & Attendance program can benefit a family.
Through proper planning, a family can bring upwards of $2,000 per month into the family of a married veteran, around $1,700 for a single veteran, and around $1100 for the surviving spouse of a veteran. However, there are certain rules and hurdles to receiving the benefit.
The program benefits Veterans who need assistance with basic daily activities such as bathing, eating, or dressing. To qualify for the benefit a veteran must have served 90 days of active duty, one day during a period of war, and then meet an income test and an asset test. The periods of war that a veteran must have served one day during include World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf conflict.
The asset test for a veteran, or the surviving spouse of a veteran, is just a general guideline. The general guidelines are that a married couple must have less than $80,000 in countable assets while a single veteran or surviving spouse of a veteran must have less than $40,000 in countable assets. These figures can be adjusted down for life expectancy. If a veteran is over in assets, a VA accredited lawyer can counsel prospective clients on different legal strategies to help the veteran in qualifying.
The last hurdle to maximize the benefits for a veteran is the income test. Basically, a veteran, or the surviving spouse of a veteran must have unreimbursed medical expenses that equal or exceed their income. Unreimbursed medical expenses potentially include home care, assisted living in a protected environment, nursing home costs, prescription costs, and incontinence supplies. Typically, if a veteran or surviving spouse is receiving home care, or residing in an assisted living or nursing home facility, they will qualify.
A Buy-Sell agreement is pertinent to many different types of businesses. Today we will just talk specifically about doctors. Medical practices are different from other businesses, because there is usually a lot of income made, and it’s not a family business that you can pass on to your heirs, unless of course they become doctors as well.
Definition of a Buy-Sell Agreement – A buy-sell agreement is nothing more than an executed contract where all the owners agree as to how the practice will be valued at the time of one of the partner’s death or disability, and how the stock ownership will be purchased. Without such an agreement in place, an accident could bring a thriving business into the middle of a complicated legal proceeding.
Benefits of a Buy-Sell Agreement – Some physicians who see themselves as healthy and not susceptible to accidents also stand to benefit from such arrangements. Think of a younger and older doctor joining forces, the terms of how to purchase the other party’s interest out in case of a mishap can be negotiated from the beginning in fairest terms for both sides.
Just as in any type of business, it is essential that the practice carry on, even in the event of one or more of the partnering physicians not being able to practice medicine anymore. Any industry must have a continuous, orderly manner of conducting its practice. The medical one carries a burden that reaches beyond financial gains or losses. A patient wants to have the comfort of knowing that their physician’s office can easily and without hassle continue a treatment that needs to be followed closely.
A physician’s asset lies in his knowledge and experience. A doctor’s set of skills is hardly something that can be passed on to heirs. Because the sweat equity will have generated some income stream, it is only fair that a financial pay-out be agreed upon for the family members that would be left behind.
In the event of an incapacity or premature death of one of the key physicians, their early exit can force a practice to associate itself with unwanted seed capital. Having seen this happen on more than one occasion, I can tell you this is not a position you want to find yourself in. A Buy-Sell agreement would prevent finding yourself in such predicament.
The necessary components to a Buy-Sell Agreement – There are many workings within a successful implementation of a Buy-Sell agreement. The first one is to make sure to have it funded. This translates to having a reputable insurance policy in place. The premiums you end up paying to have this contract in place will well be worth its weight in gold. Not all Buy-Sell agreements are created equal. Some key clauses you want to ensure your attorney includes in it are: The cost of buying out the partner’s share in case of incapacity / death, a provision to buy out the ownership interest over time in the event of insufficient capital, the care of the family members left behind, and early buy-out options. These are just some of the issues you will want to address.
Parents do not like to think about needing a guardian for their children. Unfortunately, we have no control over the time of our deaths but we do have control over whether we plan for them.
A very important part of your estate plan is the nomination of a guardian for your minor children. If, before your death, you do not choose the person or persons you believe would be suitable guardians of your children, then after your death the judge is left to guess who you would want to care for your children.
The nomination of a guardian is a straightforward aspect of any family’s estate plan and is best made in your Last Will and Testament. It can be as basic or detailed as you want.
Here are 10 Tips to consider when selecting a guardian to nominate for your children:
- Make a Long List of Potential Guardians. When trying to identify the right people to serve as guardian, make your initial list of potential guardians very broad. Consider all of your extended family members, as well as friends and neighbors.
- Make a List of Possible Guardian Characteristics. Make a list of all the possible characteristics that your child’s guardian might have, and then rank the importance of those characteristics to you in light of your personal beliefs and your child’s needs.
- Rank the People on List #1 Using the Characteristics on List #2. Analyze each of the potential guardians in light of the personal characteristics that you deem important. You might be surprised to learn that a close friend is actually better suited to raise your children than your sister is.
- Once You Have Narrowed Your Choices Down, Talk to Them. While your sister may truly love your children, talk to her about the responsibility it would involve and make sure that she would accept if the situation arose. If you are not 100% confident that she would, add another person to your list of nominees so there will be someone to take her place should she decline.
- Nominate Only One Person at a Time. While it might seem to make sense to nominate both your sister and her husband as your child’s guardian, consider naming them one at a time. This avoids issues in the event they are not able to agree on a decision relating to your child.
- Nominate More Than One Successive Guardian. Consider that your first choice for a guardian might not be able or willing to serve at the actual time a guardian is needed. Name as many successor guardians as you are comfortable with, who would serve in the order listed.
- If You Nominate “In-Laws,” Consider Potential Life Changes. If you should choose to nominate your sister first and her husband second, consider whether you would still want him to serve if he and your sister were separated or divorced at the time of your death and instruct accordingly.
- Do Not Let Disagreements Between You and Your Spouse Stop You from Nominating a Guardian. If you and your spouse disagree, you should respect the other’s opinion but each prepare your own nomination. Should you die simultaneously; the court will simply have to decide which nomination is in the child’s best interests. This is far better than the court having no indication of what either of you wanted. Moreover, if the person nominated by your spouse is unable or unwilling at the time to serve, then that person will not even be considered.
- Consider Naming A Guardian of the Person and A Guardian of the Estate. Duties over your children’s care and their financial resources can be split between two different people if you believe that is in your child’s best interests to do so.
- Make Sure Your Nomination is Legally Valid. Florida law requires that persons being nominated meet certain legal requirements. The law also requires that the nomination of an initial or successor guardian be made in writing and witnessed by at least 2 credible witnesses over the age of 18, neither of whom has been nominated as the guardian. The best place to make this nomination is in your Last Will and Testament with the assistance of an experienced estate planning attorney.
Everyone seems to know that estate planning something that you should do, but they are either unaware of what crafting a complete estate plan entails beyond just having a Will drafted, or they choose to put off having their estate planning documents prepared until it is too late. It can be uncomfortable to talk about what many people mistakenly believe estate planning is all about — dying and the resultant loss of control. Or you may think that estate planning is just for the wealthy or elderly.
For example, many young, single people who do not have a lot of money or any children often believe they do not need an estate plan because they do not have much to leave to anyone, thinking that because they do not have much, they do not have an “estate.” However, this is a misconception-everyone, which rich or poor, old or young; has an estate. Creating an estate plan would help your parents pay for your funeral and burial, as well as make sure that your parents can access your assets if something happens to you, which could include your bank account, personal possessions, or life insurance policies.
A comprehensive estate plan typically also includes health care directives such as a Living Will and a HIPAA Release, which can be a great gift to your parents or guardian in ensuring that you are cared for per your wishes and that they can receive all necessary medical information to make any important decisions on your behalf.
As uncomfortable as it may be, planning for the future after we pass away is something we and our family members or friends are all going to have to deal with at some time, especially if we have heirs or a spouse that we will leave behind. You do not have to be rich or elderly to plan for your belongings and money to go to whom you choose when you pass away. An experienced estate planning attorney can help you protect your family and your assets and can also help you protect your life and your legacy.
First, what is estate planning? Estate planning is the process of creating documents that legally determine how your prized possessions will be distributed after your death, including who inherits what assets and who controls the distribution of assets.
A typical estate plan will include, but is not limited to:
- a Last Will and Testament that is the primary document regulating your wishes as regards inheritance and guardianship;
- a Trust that relates to protecting assets for the benefit of yourself and/or specific persons;
- a Living Will (also called a healthcare directive and proxy or designation of healthcare surrogate) that specifies your intent as regards decisions on your physical well-being and end-of-life arrangements respectively;
- a HIPAA Release that allows the individuals you have named as surrogates or alternates to have your medical records released to them;
- a Power of Attorney that enables a trusted Agent to make financial decisions for you in the event that you are incapacitated;
- a property deed, such as an Enhanced Life Estate Deed, to allow for the transfer of your property without the need for probate proceedings; and
- for parents with minor children, a temporary guardianship document that names a trusted adult to care for minor children in the event of your incapacity.
It is easy, and even natural, for the average person to think of estate planning as a somewhat melancholy area of law, which is not necessarily untrue. Estate planning deals with the often uncomfortable and sad topic of death, which is a topic that most people avoid dealing with until it is absolutely necessary. However, estate planning is more than just talking about death and what happens after death. Here is what estate planning attorneys really do:
- We make sure the right people care for our client when the client cannot do so themselves, such as when our clients are incapacitated or determined unable to make decisions on their own.
- We place our clients’ wishes and personal goals for their estate as our top priority.
- We ensure the right people care for our clients in the event that they become ill or incapacitated, and we ensure that their loved ones are cared for in the event of our client’s passing.
- We provide our clients and their families with the peace of mind that their assets and personal possessions will be taken care of and in the right hands after they pass away.
- We work to assure our clients that their wishes and personal goals for the administration of their estate will be followed.
- We safeguard and make certain that our client’s legacies — monetary and moral — are passed along to the client’s loved ones.
We believe it is important to reframe how the average person thinks about estate planning. It is not solely about death and administering assets – estate planning is about protecting the legacies of our clients for years to come, and ensuring the our clients’ wishes are followed and that their loved ones are properly cared for. It is an essential mission which we do not take lightly. We are proud to serve our clients each and every day in protecting their legacy by establishing an estate plan that is comprehensive and accounts for each of our clients’ wishes.
The attorneys at The Orlando Law Group represent and prepare estate planning documents for individuals throughout Orlando, Waterford Lakes, Altamonte Springs, Winter Garden, Lake Nona, St. Cloud, Kissimmee, and throughout central Florida.
If you are dealing with an estate planning issue or are looking to establish your own estate plan, please reach out to our office at 407-512-4394, fill out our online contact form.
If you have questions about anything discussed in this article or other legal matters, give our office a call at 407-512-4394 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a consultation. We have an office conveniently located at 12301 Lake Underhill Rd, Suite 213, Orlando, FL 32828, as well as offices in Seminole, Osceola and West Orange counties to assist you.
It’s important to know what debt collection agencies can and cannot do. Knowledge is power, and that’s true for any situation. Not only can you use your knowledge of these laws to protect yourself from harassment, but if a collector violates one of these laws, you may be able to: use the violation to negotiate a better settlement, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protectin Bureau or the Federal Trade Commission, or sue the collector.
The FDCPA (15 U.S.C. §§ 1692 to 1692p) requires that a collection agency make certain disclosures and prohibits the collector from engaging in many kinds of abusive or deceptive behavior. Here are some collection actions prohibited by the FDCPA.
Communications With Third Parties – A collection agency can’t contact third parties about your debt. There are a few exceptions to this general rule. Collectors are allowed to contact:
- Your attorney. If the collector knows you are represented by an attorney, it must talk only to the attorney, not you, unless you give it permission to contact you or your attorney doesn’t respond to the agency’s communications.
- A credit reporting agency
- The original creditor
- Collectors are also allowed to contact your spouse, your parents if you are a minor, and your codebtors. But they cannot make these contacts if you have sent a letter asking them to stop contacting you.
Communications With You – A debt collector’s first communication with you must tell you that they are attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained from you will be used for that purpose. In subsequent communications, the collector must tell you his or her and the collection agency’s name.
A collector cannot contact you:
- At an unusual or inconvenient time or place—calls before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. are presumed to be inconvenient
- Directly, if it knows or should have known that you have an attorney.
- At work if it knows that your employer prohibits you from receiving collections calls at work.
Harassment or Abuse – In general, a collection agency cannot engage in conduct meant to harass, oppress, or abuse. Specifically, it cannot:
- Use or threaten to use violence
- Harm or threaten to harm you, another person, or your or another person’s reputation or property
- Use obscene, profane, or abusive language
- Publish your name as a person who doesn’t pay bills list your debt for sale to the public
- Call you repeatedly
- Place telephone calls to you without identifying the caller as a bill collector
It’s important to know what debt collection agencies can and cannot do. Knowledge is power, and that’s true for any situation. Not only can you use your knowledge of these laws to protect yourself from harassment, but if a collector violates one of these laws, you may be able to: use the violation to negotiate a better settlement, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protectin Bureau or the Federal Trade Commission, or sue the collector.
The FDCPA (15 U.S.C. §§ 1692 to 1692p) requires that a collection agency make certain disclosures and prohibits the collector from engaging in many kinds of abusive or deceptive behavior. Here are some collection actions prohibited by the FDCPA.
Communications With Third Parties – A collection agency can’t contact third parties about your debt. There are a few exceptions to this general rule. Collectors are allowed to contact:
- Your attorney. If the collector knows you are represented by an attorney, it must talk only to the attorney, not you, unless you give it permission to contact you or your attorney doesn’t respond to the agency’s communications.
- A credit reporting agency
- The original creditor
- Collectors are also allowed to contact your spouse, your parents if you are a minor, and your codebtors. But they cannot make these contacts if you have sent a letter asking them to stop contacting you.
Communications With You – A debt collector’s first communication with you must tell you that they are attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained from you will be used for that purpose. In subsequent communications, the collector must tell you his or her and the collection agency’s name.
A collector cannot contact you:
At an unusual or inconvenient time or place—calls before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. are presumed to be inconvenient
Directly, if it knows or should have known that you have an attorney.
At work if it knows that your employer prohibits you from receiving collections calls at work.
H Harassment or Abuse – In general, a collection agency cannot engage in conduct meant to harass, oppress, or abuse. Specifically, it cannot:
Use or threaten to use violence
Harm or threaten to harm you, another person, or your or another person’s reputation or property
Use obscene, profane, or abusive language
Publish your name as a person who doesn’t pay bills list your debt for sale to the public
Call you repeatedly
Place telephone calls to you without identifying the caller as a bill collector
You should be aware of the perils of using social media during a divorce or will be involved in a court case for custody, co-parenting and assets. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, personal blogs and tons more online sites are a part of pretty much everyone’s lives these days. All social media establishes a record of communication. Social media allows us to put details of our lives on display where others can see it, share it and comment on it.
Regardless of how casual or informal your social media posts may seem, these posts and comments can be obtained and used against you in divorce or custody proceedings. This applies to Facebook updates, tweets, photos and information posted through any other social media site. Also, your emails and text messages, ones to and about your ex-spouse, are now admissible as evidence in court.
You should count on the opposing counsel to be checking out your social networking sites and the activity you post there. Social Media sites have become important resources for guiding questions asked during divorce proceedings. Many attorneys also conduct a Google search of all parties.
You may think you have set your profile, message or post to private, but it still has the potential to spread to as large a community as you can imagine. One thing to consider when putting information on social networking sites is that you can’t remove it. The entry is permanent, even if you delete it.
Before you post to a social media site consider these points:
- Evaluate your emotions before writing anything. If you’re frustrated or angry, don’t post any comments or pictures.Think about what you would want your children and family to have access to in the future.
- Once you post, your privacy is breached and you can’t take it back.
- Unfriend or block your soon to be ex-spouse and common friends to prevent damaging online communications.
- Check and change your privacy settings. Remember, your ex-spouse’s legal team can find and view everything posted on social media through research an discovery regardless of privacy settings. Every posting, even deleted ones, are permanent.
- Assume your posts are also under review, hold back from online behaviors that may be viewed as unfitting during divorce proceedings: flirting via chats, active profile on dating sites, texting while driving, drinking around the kids or any pictures showing you in a negative light.
The United States offers many educational opportunities for citizens of other countries. Educational visas, also known as student visas, give non-immigrant students from other countries the ability to stay in the United States long enough to enroll in and finish an educational program. When the program is finished, the international student must return home.
The type of education sought in the United States determines the type of student visa required. There are three types of student visas: F-Type, M-Type, and J-Type. International students working on academics (high school and college, for example) must apply for an F-Type visa. Students who will attend vocational schools must complete the M-Type student visa. Finally, students participating in foreign exchange programs complete the J-Type student visa
Before applying for a student visa, an international student must first be accepted into an academic institution in the United States. They must go through the same application process as U.S. citizens.
After being accepted into a U.S. academic program, international students should immediately make an appointment with the consulate to attain a student visa. Quickly making the appointment gives students plenty of time to receive the visa before school starts. The meeting usually requires payment of a fee and a personal interview. Issues to discuss during the interview include whether or not the international student wants to work while residing in the United States and if the student plans to bring a spouse and children as well.
International students must submit several documents to the consulate. These documents include an F-1 or M-1 certificate of eligibility, an online non-immigrant visa electronic application, an international passport, a photograph, and receipts for all fees paid.
Several important factors weigh heavily in any application for a student visa. These include the applicant’s residency abroad, intention of returning to the resident country upon completing the curriculum, and sufficient financial support. Other documentation that may be required includes old transcripts, diplomas, and standardized test scores.
The law surrounding getting and keeping a student visa can be complicated. Tthe facts of each case are unique. If you need help with your Student Visa, give us a call and we can help you, at The Orlando Law Group.
Estate planning for blended families is complex and it requires a watchful eye and a delicate touch. Clients in blended families should understand that there are important additional issues unique to them that must be addressed, like how to properly provide for their spouse without accidentally disinheriting their own kids. If there are minor kids, planning for their custody adds further complexity.
A blended family can make estate planning more complicated. For example, you may want to leave different inheritances to biological children than you would to stepchildren, or to protect your biological family’s inheritance in the event your spouse remarries.
A solid estate plan can help you prepare for these or other scenarios. With so many kinds of blended families, it makes sense to put in place a plan that directs your assets to the people you choose, rather than possibly to someone you don’t know or don’t necessarily want as a recipient.
Understandably, many couples will be inclined to procrastinate, uneager to revisit past relationships. But reaching a successful outcome to their estate planning demands that they plan with an eye toward the past as well as toward the future. An experienced estate planning attorney can help facilitate those potentially painful conversations.
Potential pitfalls
Blended families without an estate plan may run the risk of scenarios like the following:
- An ex-spouse inherits the former spouse’s bank accounts, home, or retirement assets, even though the former spouse has willed them to his children.
- One child inherits the family home, even though the home was promised to another child.
- A spouse dies before his new wife and leaves his estate to her; when she dies, she leaves the assets to her children, not to his.
Prenuptial agreements
A prenuptial agreement can be a good way for parents who are remarrying to specify which of their assets they’d like to earmark for their children. For example, a prenuptial agreement can help couples designate college savings they each have put aside for the children from their first marriage. A postnuptial agreement, signed after the couple has taken their vows, is less common but could work the same way.
By law your filing status is determined as of the last day of the calendar year. You are considered unmarried for the whole year if, on the last day of the tax year, you are unmarried or legally separated from your spouse as determined by a divorce or separate maintenance decree.
So if your divorce became official in December, you can’t file as married even if you were for most of the calendar year. Your filing status will be either single, or you can claim “head of household”.
Sometimes couples in the middle of a divorce may qualify for filing as single or head of household. In order to do so, you must meet the following criteria:
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- You have lived apart from your spouse for the last six months of the tax year
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- You have paid over half the cost of maintaining your primary residence
- You must be able to claim your child or children as your dependents according to the rules for children of divorced or separated parents
- You have to file a separate tax return from your spouse, even if you are still legally married
Dependents
A child can only be claimed on one tax return – you can’t both claim the same kid as a dependent. This may present a problem if you are divorced or separated. You can claim your child as a dependent on your tax return if the divorce decree names you as the custodial parent.
If you have more than one child, you may choose to split the dependency of the kids up between the two parents, which is allowed even if both kids spend the same amount of time with each parent.
Child Support
Child support is always tax-neutral, meaning unlike alimony it doesn’t affect your taxes in any way. It is non-taxable income to the person receiving it and it is not tax-deductible by the person paying it. In some cases, you or your spouse may be paying both spousal and child support.
Itemized Deductions
For itemized deductions, such as charitable contributions, you would generally be able to claim the expenses you paid individually and half the expenses that were paid from a joint account while you were married.
Legal fees and expenses involving personal matters are normally not deductible, but you can deduct the portion of fees paid to divorce-industry professionals for tax advice or for help in getting spousal support. Additionally legal expenses related to the taxpayer’s business are usually deductible. If you own and operate a privately held business and incurred legal expenses related to that business during the divorce process, then those expenses may also be deductible.
If you divorce in the middle of a tax year, your judgment or settlement agreement should clearly define how income earned and expenses paid during the marriage are to be reported. This helps to ensure filing accuracy and avoid inconsistent returns. If for some reason the income earned and expenses paid during the marriage is not clearly detailed in the divorce agreement, you should consult with your former spouse when preparing your tax return to avoid IRS issues which will impact to both your return and that of your former spouse.
Rules Regarding Confidentiality
Employees have a Section 7 right to discuss wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with fellow employees and other nonemployees, including union representatives. The confidentiality provisions of employee handbooks can thus violate the law if not artfully prepared. Rules prohibiting the discussion of the “terms and conditions of employment” are not allowed, while rules that prohibit the disclosure of legitimately confidential employer information are acceptable.
The following is a sampling of the confidentiality rules deemed unlawful:
- Do not discuss customer or employee information outside of work, including phone numbers and addresses. The prohibition of disclosing “employee information” was impermissible.
- If something is not public information, you must not share it. Again, this prohibition is too broad and thus unlawful.
- The following is a sampling of the confidentiality rules deemed lawful, as each did not reference employee information, were not overly broad, and did not contain language that would reasonably be construed to prohibit Section 7 communications:
- Unauthorized disclosure of “business secrets” or other confidential information.
- Do not disclose confidential financial data, or other nonpublic proprietary company information. Do not share confidential information regarding business partners, vendors or customers.
Rules Regarding Employee Conduct Toward the Company and Supervisors
Employees have a Section 7 right to criticize or protest their employer’s labor policies or treatment of employees, both while at work and in the public forum. While rules banning “insubordination” are generally permissible, rules that amount to a blanket ban of “disrespectful,” “negative,” “inappropriate,” or “rude” conduct toward management might be unlawful, depending on the context. By contrast, the same language aimed at employees’ conduct toward co-workers, clients, or competitors is lawful because employers have a legitimate business interest in having employees act professionally and courteously toward non-management individuals, subject to certain caveats discussed below.
The following is a sampling of rules dealing with management deemed unlawful:
- Be respectful to the company, other employees, customers, partners, and competitors.The inclusion of “the company” made this rule impermissible.
- Refrain from any action that would harm persons or property or cause damage to the company’s reputation. The report maintained that this rule (and others like it) was unlawfully broad because it could be reasonably read to require employees to refrain from criticizing the employer in public.
By contrast, the following were lawful:
- No “rudeness or unprofessional behavior toward a customer, or anyone in contact” with the company. Again, this is acceptable because it did not mention “management” or “the company.”
- Each employee is expected to work in a cooperative manner with management/supervision, coworkers, customers, and vendors. Here, the emphasis of the rule is the performance of the employees, as opposed to the communicative components of employment. It was thus permissible.
Rules Regarding Employee Conduct Toward Fellow Employees
In addition to employees’ rights to discuss their terms and conditions of employment and/or criticize their employers’ labor practices, employees also have a right to argue and debate with each other about unions, management, and the like. Thus, when an employer bans all “negative” or “inappropriate” discussions among employees, without further clarification, such rules can be reasonably read to prohibit discussions and interactions that are protected.
The following is a sampling of unlawful “employee-employee” conduct rules:
- Don’t pick fights online. Far too broad.
- Show proper consideration for others’ privacy rights and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory, such as politics and religion. Discussion of unionization would likely be chilled by this rule because it can be an “inflammatory” topic.
- Do not send unwanted, offense, or inappropriate emails. This rule was too vague and overbroad.
By contrast, the following were lawful:
- Do not make inappropriate gestures, including visual staring.
- Threatening, intimidating, coercing, or otherwise interfering with the job performance of fellow employees or visitors. This simply requires that employees be respectful and cooperate with their co-workers.
- No harassment of employees, patients, or facility visitors. Harassment is distinct from contentious communication.
Rules Regarding Use of Company Logos, Copyrights, and Trademarks
Though copyright holders have a right to protect their intellectual property, company rules cannot prohibit employees’ fair protected use of them. The easiest example of this is an employee’s right to use company logos on picket signs, leaflets, etc.
The following is a sampling of rules deemed unlawful because of over-breadth:
- Do not use Company logos, trademarks, graphics, or advertising materials in social media
- Company logos and trademarks may not be used without written consent.
By contrast, this rule was lawful as it simply requires employees to respect copyright laws:
- Respect all copyright and other intellectual property laws. For the employer’s protection as well as your own, it is critical that you show proper respect for the laws governing copyrights, fair use of copyrighted material, owned by others, trademarks and other intellectual property, including the employer’s own copyrights, trademarks, and brands.
When a couple decides to divorce, sometimes one spouse moving out right away is not an option, for financial reasons, or to wait until the marital house sells. Though this living arrangement certainly would not work in all relationships, it can if the terms of the divorce are amicable enough to last another few months under the same roof.If you are considering living with your soon-to-be ex-spouse during a divorce, here are a few ground rules for the potentially uncomfortable situation.
Talk About Your Budget
Since financial disagreements are one of the main reasons that people split up, be sure to handle this situation cautiously. Sit down with your ex to determine the financial obligations that you share. If both of you work and earn similar incomes, then consider dividing the financial burden equally. However, if one of you earns significantly more than the other one does, then you’ll need to negotiate. While preparing for divorce, create a manageable budget for the time that you’ll remain in the same residence.
Share Responsibilities Amicably
Once you and spouse have decided to dissolve your relationship, be sure to share household responsibilities while you are living in the same home. Allocate the chores fairly and plan a time to do them. Decide where each of you will sleep, and be considerate of each others’ personal space. In fact, try to think of your ex as a roommate. For instance, wash the dishes that you use, and don’t eat food that the other person purchased. Be mindful of the time that you spend in the bathroom and share the home’s common family areas.
Come up with a Parenting Plan
When you’re preparing for divorce, you’ll need to organize a parenting schedule. Decide which days each of you will have full responsibility of the kids. If you have an infant or a toddler, then you will need to decide who will take care of feedings, oversee baths and get up at night with the child. Be sure to share school drop offs and pick ups as well as the responsibility of transporting children to and from after school activities. A parenting schedule will help your children adjust to the separation, and it may make it easier for them to shift households once you and your ex no longer live together.
Have Separate Rooms
It can be easy to fall into old habits, but do not sleep together. The intimacy is likely to be confusing, and if one of you would like to reconcile the relationship, then your eventual permanent separation will be even more devastating.
Don’t Bring Home a Date
To make your living situation function more smoothly, do not bring a date home while you are living under the same roof with your soon-to-be ex-spouse. Once you are divorced, it’s fine to date, but be considerate of your ex’s feelings.
When you carry out basic living considerations and exercise patience, you and your ex can continue living together while getting a divorce until your finances and emotions permit you to move on to the next phase of your life.
A clear plan for the transfer of assets is crucial to the success of any estate plan. But our best plans will fall far short of expectations if the trusts are never properly funded.
Here’s an analogy: If the trust is the car, the funding is the fuel. Without gas in the tank, that beautiful sedan with the precision engine is just metal on four wheels. It’s not going anywhere. The same holds true for an estate plan. Until it’s properly funded, the plan is just a plan – a plan that can’t be executed. Like the car with the needle on empty, it’s not going to take you anywhere.
With basic wills, most of the funding happens after death through the probate process. By contrast, a trust can – and really should – be funded while the trust maker is still alive. With proper trust funding, you can be assured that your designated assets will be governed by the terms of the trust agreement. Without it, assets not properly transferred to the trust will generally fall to probate.
Proper trust funding involves moving assets that are in your name and retitling or reassigning them to the trust. These assets fall under three main categories:
1. Personal property and real property with title (home, car, boat, etc.)
2. Non-titled property (computer, furniture, artwork, tools, etc.)
3. Property that passes by beneficiary designation (life insurance, 401(k), etc.)
In certain instances such as incapacity, the General Durable Power of Attorney can be useful in funding a trust. This ancillary document allows the agent acting under Power of Attorney to transfer assets or update beneficiary designations. Additionally, where property remains in the individual’s name at the time of death, the Pour-Over Will can be a “last step” measure to redirect the assets into the established trust. These special instances, however, underscore the importance and the advantage of acting early to properly fund a trust. By doing so we greatly diminish the need for the Durable Power of Attorney and eliminate any need of the Pour-Over Will.
The time right after a divorce can be tough. You are essentially starting a new chapter in your life. Moving on after divorce can be adifficult concept for many people. It’s important to stay optimistic and keep good friends around you, a support system is crucial atthis place in your life.
Here are a few tips that will certainly allow you to get back to the normal, happy you:
Grieving is Important
After your divorce has been finalized, you may find yourself emotionally unprepared for the aftermath. If you haven’t given yourselftime to mourn the small things, it will be hard to move on. You need to allow yourself time to grieve after a divorce. By recognizing that you have made the best decision for you and your family, however, you will ultimately be able to continue on with your lifewithout any baggage.
Be Upfront With Your Kids
You may understandably be anxious about divorce and how it will affect your children. In nearly all instances, it is best not to dance around the issue. Explaining the divorce to your kids openly and honestly will surely win you a tremendous amount of respect. When you let them know that you will remain an essential part of their daily lives, you will be decreasing their fears and allowing them to also move on. By continuing to attend their football games, ballet recitals, and other important life milestones, you’ll be showing your children that they are still mean the most to you.
Keep an Eye on Your Finances
When moving on after divorce, you may find yourself at first struggling with finances. If you are a newly single mom or dad, sticking to a budget during the week will give you enough cash to relax a bit with the kids on the weekend. In fact, there are a broad array of divorce support groups that will help you with your financial planning. While child support will often come into play, you should do whatever you can to put yourself on sound financial footing going forward after a divorce.
Date Responsibly
When starting over after divorce, you are going to want to have company. By reentering the dating game, you’ll be on the fast track to companionship. Friendship itself can be exceedingly rewarding. Try to choose dating partners who will treat your kids with respect. While some potential matches may be put off by divorce and children, others will be perfectly thrilled to meet your kids. In the end, you should plan your steps carefully when starting over after divorce. Through honesty, optimism, rigorous financial planning, and divorce support groups, you’ll feel refreshed and reinvigorated. Having accepted things as they are, you can begin constructing a wonderful new life.
If you’re recently divorced, you’ll need to change most of your legal documents. I know, paperwork is the last thing on your mind, but it will avoid frustrating situations down the road.
Here are seven legal documents you should change as soon as possible after your divorce papers are signed:
1. Powers of Attorney
Besides updating your will, you’ll also need to update your living will to give power of attorney to somebody other than your ex-spouse. If you’re incapacitated for any reason, whoever has medical power of attorney will be able to make healthcare decisions for you, which can have life-changing consequences.
2. Property Titles
You’ve probably already settled on who owns what, but you still need to finish updating legal documents like car and house titles to prove ownership. Whether you’re moving or staying, you’ll need your ex-spouse to sign the documents to renounce ownership.
3. Social Security and ID Cards
If you’ve finished changing your name after a divorce, it’s time to contact the Social Security Administration to update your government records. Failure to do so could make it more difficult to take out future lines of credit or receivebenefits after you retire. You’ll also need to update your driver’s license and other ID cards to reflect your new personal information.
4. Last Will and Testament
Most married couples leave their estates to each other and their children. Updating your will is inexpensive, fast, and easy compared to writing a new one, and you can remove an existing beneficiary and change the executor in the blink of an eye.
5. Beneficiaries
You’ll need to go through all of your financial accounts and change your beneficiaries. While you’ve likely already changed your bank accounts, you’ll still need to change your investment and retirement accounts. If you plan on changing your name after a divorce, update your accounts with your new personal information.
6. HIPPA Forms
HIPPA forms authorize the release of your medical information to select individuals, and if you received medical treatment while married, you likely designated your ex-spouse as your contact. You’ll need to contact each hospital and medical practice individually to change every HIPPA form you’ve ever signed.
7. Medical Authorization and Treatment Forms
These forms allow doctors to provide medical treatment to your underage children if they’re not accompanied by you or another legal guardian. You’ll want to update them to make sure babysitters, teachers, and other caretakers have the legal authority to seek medical treatment if necessary.
In addition, you’ll want to change your utility, television, Internet, and other personal accounts to give yourself sole ownership. If you’re moving out, you won’t want to pay your ex-spouse’s bills. Most of these accounts can be changed quickly with minimal paperwork.
Updating legal documents should only take a month or two after completing your divorce. This simple step will make your life much easier. The fewer loose ends you leave, the fewer headaches you’ll need to deal with in the future.
Whenever an Independent Trustee may distribute assets to or for the benefit of a beneficiary, our Trustee may appoint the property subject to our Trustee’s power of distribution in trust for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries of any trust created under this instrument under the terms established by the Independent Trustee. Any trust established by the Independent Trustee and funded by the exercise of the power granted under this Section must meet these requirements:
- The trust must not reduce any fixed income, annuity, or unitrust right provided by this trust instrument to any beneficiary.
- The trust must provide for one or more of the beneficiaries of a trust created under this instrument.
- The interests of remainder beneficiaries of the trust created under this instrument must not be accelerated under the terms of the new trust.
We request the Independent Trustee consider including a provision in the new trust that permits our Trustee to distribute as much of the trust principal to the beneficiary of the trust as an Independent Trustee advises so that the beneficiary’s estate can utilize the basis increase allowed under Internal Revenue Code Section 1014 after the beneficiary’s death without causing an increase in the federal estate tax.
An Independent Trustee may not use the powers granted under this Section to extend the term of the new trust beyond the period of perpetuities provided under the governing law of this instrument.
Any trust created under this provision must not contain any provision that, if applicable, would cause the trust to fail to qualify for the marital deduction or charitable deduction, fail to qualify any gift to the trust for any gift, estate, or generation-skipping transfer annual exclusion, or disqualify the trust as a qualified subchapter S corporation shareholder.
If any beneficiary holds a presently exercisable right to withdraw property from this trust, that right may not be defeated by the exercise of the Independent Trustee’s powers granted under this Section.
The Independent Trustee’s powers granted under this Section are not diminished by the revocability or subsequent irrevocability of the trust created under this trust.
The Income Tax Reduction Trust is a type of trust specifically authorized by the Internal Revenue Code. These irrevocable trusts permit you to transfer ownership of assets to the trust in exchange for an income stream to the person or persons of your choice (typically you, your spouse or you and your spouse) for life or for a specified term of up to 20 years. With the most common type of Income Tax Reduction Trust, at the end of the term, the balance of the trust property (the “remainder interest”) is transferred to a specified charity or charities.
Income Tax Reduction Trust also reduce estate taxes because you are transferring ownership to the trust of assets that otherwise would be counted for estate tax purposes.
An Income Tax Reduction Trust can be set up as part of your revocable living trust planning, coming into existence at the time of your death, or as a stand-alone trust during your lifetime. At the time of creation of the this trust you or your estate will be entitled to a charitable deduction in the amount of the current value of the gift that will eventually go to charity. If the income recipient is someone other than you or your spouse there will be gift tax consequences to the transfer.
Income Tax Reduction Trusts are tax-exempt entities. In other words, when a Income Tax Reduction Trust sells an asset it pays no income tax on the gain in that asset. Therefore, after a sale the trust has more available to invest than if the asset were sold outside of the Income Tax Reduction Trust and subject to tax. Accordingly, Income Tax Reduction Trust are particularly suited for highly appreciated assets, such as real estate and stock in a closely held business, or assets subject to income tax such as qualified plans and IRAs.
While the Income Tax Reduction Trust does not pay tax on the sale of its assets, the tax is not avoided altogether. The payments to the income recipient will be subject to tax.
At the end of the term of an Income Tax Reduction Trust, the remainder interest passes to qualified charities as defined under the Internal Revenue Code. Generally, any charity that has received tax-exempt status through an IRS determination qualifies, but this is not always the case. It is also possible for you to name a private foundation established by you as the charitable beneficiary.
Divorce is not the most pleasant experience. It represents an end to something that was once, presumably happy, and the process can lead to hurt feelings. When there are children involved, they may feel isolated and confused.
There is often times heartbreak and there may be a lot of pain, but going through a divorce doesn’t need to be a battle or leave both parties feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.
There are three divorce options in the State of Florida that are designed to make getting a divorce easier. Most importantly, having an amicable divorce can protect your children through an otherwise difficult time and save you time and money.
The three types of amicable divorce options are:
1. Divorce Through Mediation
Mediation helps each spouse to come up with their own unique resolutions rather than seeing what the court imposes. This type of divorce is a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to formal litigation, which costs a lot more money and can take a few months or more.
Divorce through mediation can assist with different kinds of disputes, such as child custody arrangements and co-parenting or dealing with dividing marital property. The benefits of mediation include:
- A more time-efficient and cost-effective process than a traditional divorce
- A less-expensive alternative to court trials and hearings
- A confidential process with no public record of the mediation session
2. Uncontested Divorce
Terminating the marriage within days instead of weeks and months, is a benefit of an uncontested divorce. It costs much less than a contested divorce, and both parties can create agreements that work for their situations rather than leaving it up to the judge to decide. Both parties must agree with every issue of their marriage, such as custody and visitation, alimony and child support. The parties sign a Marital Settlement Agreement, which must then be approved by the court before it becomes part of the divorce decree.
Collaborative Divorce
Similar to the uncontested divorce, is the collaborative divorce. Both parties have to agree to the issues of their marriage and decide to bypass a typical litigation. This type of divorce places the children’s best interests first, and both spouses work together with their attorneys and a mediator to reach an agreement on all the issues related to the divorce. A collaborative divorce is obtained by the following steps:
- Both spouses must agree to the collaboration before starting the legal portion of the process. Afterward, the parties establish a participation agreement, which outlines the commitments in the divorce.
- The spouses and their attorneys sign a contract that commits to resolving the issues related to the termination of marriage without going to court. Everyone involved works together to arrive at a mutually acceptable settlement.
- Both parties act in the best interests of the children to promote positive relationships with the divorcing spouses and to minimize any emotional effects.
If either spouse ignores the participation agreement and pursues outside legal representation or court, the collaborative attorney must end his or her representation of the client.
Estate planning increasingly includes some form of charitable giving. During the last three decades, wealth ballooned in the United States, but affluent clients tended to increase their charitable transfers more than their family inheritances. According to John Havens of the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy: “Reports from the IRS indicate that charitable giving increases at every level from the lowest level estate to the highest level.” He also notes: “When an estate’s value exceeds $20 million, the percentage going to charity virtually doubles and the percentage given to heirs goes down.”
A few statistics (with their sources) will highlight the depth of charitable involvement and its impact on estate planning:
- 65% of American households give to charity.
- Americans gave $298.3 billion to charities in 2011, a 3.9% increase over 2010.
- 98% of high net worth households give to charity.
- In 2010 there were 161,873 donor-advised funds that held $30 billion.
Not only are charitable transfers increasing, but also wealthier Americans are getting more involved in philanthropy themselves. According to a 2003 study, 83% of affluent Americans did volunteer work. The increased involvement of affluent Americans in charitable work also seems to be increasing their lifetime charitable gifting. Affluent Americans also are encouraging their heirs to become involved in charitable work.
These wealthy taxpayers are not just giving to charity. They are making sure that the gifts are handled in ways they approve. As a consequence of the scandals in numerous charities and the increasing “hands-on” management style of many donors, clients increasingly want to retain in themselves and/or their family the future direction of charitable transfers. Clients want to provide for charitable transfers that will leave a legacy for society and a legacy that will impact their heirs.
The common bond between today’s donor and the 20th century philanthropists is the desire to transmit family values and social responsibility to successive generations. This dual goal has resulted in not only a dramatic growth in charitable donations but also the development of “retained control” charitable-giving approaches.
If you have a revocable living trust, you probably named yourself as trustee so you can continue to manage your own financial affairs. But eventually someone will need to step in for you when you are no longer able to act due to incapacity or after your death. Because successor trustees have a lot of responsibility, they should be chosen carefully.
If you become incapacitated, your successor will step in and take full control of your finances for you—paying bills, making financial decisions, even selling or refinancing assets. Your successor will be able to do anything you could with your trust assets, as long as it does not conflict with the instructions in your trust document and does not breach fiduciary duty.
After you die, your successor acts just like an executor would—takes an inventory of your assets, pays your final bills, sells assets if necessary, has your final tax returns prepared, and distributes your assets according to the instructions in your trust.
Your successor trustee will be acting without court supervision, which is why your affairs can be handled privately and efficiently—and probably one of the reasons you have a living trust in the first place. But this also means it will be up to your successor to get things started and keep them moving along. It isn’t necessary for this person to know exactly what to do and when because your attorney, CPA, and other advisors can help guide him or her, but it is important that you name someone who is responsible and conscientious.
Successor trustees can be your adult children, other relatives, a trusted friend and or a corporate trustee (bank trust department or trust company). If you choose an individual, you should name more than one in case your first choice is unable to act. They should be people you know and trust, people whose judgment you respect and who will also respect your wishes.
When choosing a successor, keep in mind the type and amount of assets in your trust and the complexity of the provisions in your trust document. For example, if you plan to keep assets in your trust after you die for your beneficiaries, your successor would have more responsibilities for a longer period of time than if your assets will be distributed all at once.
Also, keep in mind the qualifications of your candidates. Consider personalities, financial or business experience, and time available due to their own family or career demands. Taking over as trustee for someone can take a substantial amount of time and requires a certain amount of business sense.
Be sure to ask the people you are considering if they would want this responsibility. Don’t put them on the spot and just assume they want to do this. Finally, trustees should be paid for this work; your trust document should provide for fair and reasonable compensation.
