The new year can be a great time to make resolutions or just to observe the passing of time. But that passage can be a good reminder that none of us are getting younger, and all of us need to have estate plans to protect our loved ones should this year be our last. This article gives you a quick checklist of estate planning tasks to finish by the end of the year or start the next off right, including
If something has changed in your life, from a new job to a new family member, you might need to update your will. An initial brief discovery phone call with our office can help you figure out whether any updates are required.
In that quick call, we will talk about what has recently inspired any updates to your plan. Then if the changes do require possible updates, we will have a full consultation. There, we will discuss in more detail the specific life changes, whether it is new family dynamics, new assets, a change in goals, or an evolving relationship and how to update your will or other tools accordingly. This way, we can make sure that we tailor your estate planning documents to reflect your recent life changes.
In addition to checking in when you are aware of significant changes, it is important to review beneficiary designations annually. After all, your needs, goals, restrictions and assets change year after year, and they may not yet be reflected in your estate plan, such as beneficiary designations for someone you have fallen apart from.
In addition, you also want to make sure that there have not been any mistakes on the part of the third party who is holding your money, such as your life insurance company or a trustee, especially if that person is not a professional. Mistakes can occur, and catching them early can minimize the damage and help avoid potential disasters later if left unnoticed until it is too late.
One of the things that’s really great about living in Florida is that we do not have any state-level estate taxes. So, to minimize estate taxes, we can focus entirely on the federal estate taxes. Estate taxes are those that siphon away some of the wealth you leave behind for your family even after you have paid a lifetime of taxes on them.
To minimize them, we will talk about the different assets you may be leaving behind, especially the value and nature of those assets. We will also go over different estate planning tools, such as certain types of irrevocable trusts that can help you reduce the taxable estate while still leaving behind a legacy for those you love.
Attorney Myrna Serrano Setty is a meticulous and proactive estate planning and trust administration lawyer currently working in Florida. For over two decades, she has helped countless families ensure their estate plans matched their goals, means, and individual situations and reflected their evolving or changing situations, both for long-term measures such as trusts and short-term essentials like powers of attorney.
Did you check and update your estate plan this year? Contact The Law Firm Of Myrna Serrano Setty, P.A. today to schedule a 15 minute free consultation.
Another reason to review your plan at the end or start of each year is to take the time to consider the overall picture of your financial situation. You may have in your mind (and will) that you want to leave your beneficiaries a certain amount of money but end up leaving them just as much in debt if you are not careful.
It is important to consider in what form you are leaving assets for your beneficiaries and to make plans for how debts would be addressed. For example, if you are setting up a revocable living trust to pass on your wealth, it is important to remember that the trustee is responsible for addressing creditors and making sure that debts are paid before distributing certain types of assets to beneficiaries.
Death is not the only risk that we face on a yearly basis, nor the only one estate planning can help you prepare for. Medical emergencies, illness, and accidents can leave us incapacitated and unable to make decisions or financial transitions.
As a result, it is important to keep your estate planning documents updated by making sure that you have placed the right people in charge of important healthcare and financial choices. You also want to make sure that the individuals that you have placed in trusted roles in your estate plans have copies of those documents. That way, in the event of, for example, a medical emergency, your healthcare surrogate knows that they are your healthcare surrogate and has a copy of both your wishes as well as the document that empowers them to act on your behalf.
One estate planning task that people tend to overlook in Florida is forgetting to update their beneficiary forms for things like life insurance and retirement accounts. Those are often set up when you make the account, and if you forget to change them, a large portion of your wealth or savings could go to someone you do not care for or even despise, like a former spouse.
Similarly, people often forget about specific retirement accounts, such as a 401k that they had with their former employer, which they never moved to a different account. Because they never rolled it over, they forget that they even had that account in the first place. You can end up losing it or passing it on to the wrong people.
As a result, it is a good idea to, each year, take a good look at the accounts that you had set up for your retirement with your previous employers and make arrangements to move that money.
Perhaps an example would be the best way to wrap up these yearly tasks. In one recent case, an individual came to our office for help with a durable power of attorney because he noticed that his old one was out of date. Shortly after they executed their durable power of attorney, they had a very serious health event.
Because of their timely action, their family was able to step in and manage their finances, make sure that their bills were paid, and make sure that they were able to do some financial planning to address their family member’s medical needs.
This allowed them to avoid delays in paying bills so that nothing went delinquent or was seized by creditors. The individual who made that power of attorney was able to pay for the care that they needed, and the family was able to avoid court-supervised guardianship, which can be very expensive and time-consuming to set up.
Start the next year off right with Estate Planning Tasks For The New Year; a free 15 minutes consultation is always the best first step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (813) 686-7175 today.
Attorney Myrna Serrano Setty is a meticulous and proactive estate planning and trust administration lawyer currently working in Florida. For over two decades, she has helped countless families ensure their estate plans matched their goals, means, and individual situations and reflected their evolving or changing situations, both for long-term measures such as trusts and short-term essentials like powers of attorney.
Did you check and update your estate plan this year? Contact The Law Firm Of Myrna Serrano Setty, P.A. today to schedule a 15 minute free consultation.
You don’t have to handle probate and settlement on your own. Let The Law Firm of Myrna Serrano Setty, P.A. step in and take the burden of executorship off your shoulders. Call Us Now - (813) 686-7175
