A Proactive Approach to Estate Planning as a Family - Legacy Assurance plan Of America
legacy Assurance Plan of America - A recent probate case from Florida reinforces several important lessons about estate planning. The case involved the estate of Sharonda Butler, a 28-year-old woman who lived near Fort Lauderdale. A man on a motorcycle, going somewhere 81 and 95 miles an hour in a 30-mph zone, lost control of his bike and hit Butler. A year and half later, Butler died as a result of the injuries she sustained in that crash. Butler had no estate plan. This, by itself, is the first estate planning lesson of Butler's tragic death. No matter how young you are, you're never too young for an estate plan, because no one knows what tomorrow will bring.
legacy Assurance Plan of America - A recent probate case from Florida reinforces several important lessons about estate planning. The case involved the estate of Sharonda Butler, a 28-year-old woman who lived near Fort Lauderdale. A man on a motorcycle, going somewhere 81 and 95 miles an hour in a 30-mph zone, lost control of his bike and hit Butler. A year and half later, Butler died as a result of the injuries she sustained in that crash. Butler had no estate plan. This, by itself, is the first estate planning lesson of Butler's tragic death. No matter how young you are, you're never too young for an estate plan, because no one knows what tomorrow will bring.
After Butler died, her father went to court and asked to be appointed as the administrator of his daughter's estate. Butler had no will or trust and, and under Florida's intestacy statutes, the father was her only heir at law. Nevertheless, the trial court rejected the father's request. He took his case to the state appeals court in West Palm Beach. He lost again. Why? Because the father had a felony conviction on his record, and Florida law says that being a convicted felon makes you 100% ineligible to be an administrator of an estate in that state.
Perhaps Butler did not want her father to manage her estate affairs. But, perhaps she did. Laws like the Florida one barring felons from administering estates are meant to be good ideas in the majority of cases. They are, like many broad rules, not perfect in all situations, though. Some convicted felons are people who made foolish choices, paid their debts to society and reformed their lives to become responsible members of the community. If, in Butler's case, she did trust her father and would have wanted to have him administer her affairs, the statute would have worked to absolutely block her from making that appointment using the probate system.
Perhaps Butler did not want her father to manage her estate affairs. But, perhaps she did. Laws like the Florida one barring felons from administering estates are meant to be good ideas in the majority of cases. They are, like many broad rules, not perfect in all situations, though. Some convicted felons are people who made foolish choices, paid their debts to society and reformed their lives to become responsible members of the community. If, in Butler's case, she did trust her father and would have wanted to have him administer her affairs, the statute would have worked to absolutely block her from making that appointment using the probate system.
While most families may not have to worry about dealing with a loved one's past felony conviction, laws restricting who may serve as the adminstrator of an estate go beyond just convicted felons. In some states, merely being an out-of-state resident disqualifies you from managing a probate estate. This leads to the second estate planning lesson of Legacy Assurance Plan: that estate plans that avoiding probate may offer you both greater control and greater flexibility. Revocable living trusts are one such option. Trusts are considered contractual creations, and the law gives you much more latitude with the decisions you make with them. There are comparatively few restrictions that the law imposes regarding the person (or people) you name to serve as a successor trustee of your trust.
So, if you have a situation where the person you most strongly prefer as the manager of your affairs and distributor of your wealth after your death may not be eligible under your state's probate and/or intestacy laws, you may want to give even greater consideration to avoiding probate by using a revocable living trust. With the trust, you may be able, not only to save time and stress, but also to maintain an even greater degree of control over how your estate will be handled after you've passed.
legacy Assurance plan of America - Many people, when they choose to create an estate plan, do so, at least in part, because they value the ability to have control over their wealth (and what happens to it) after they are gone. One aspect of this control is communicating whom you want to manage, and distribute, your wealth after your death. Estate plans centered around a last will and testament are subject the laws governing the administration of probate estates, including those laws' limitations on who may serve as an executor/personal representative. While those limitations may not impact all families, they will impact some. If you use an estate plan with a revocable living trust, you may not have to worry as much about these restrictions because the law regarding trusts gives a trust's creator much wider latitude in terms of who may serve as trustee. This, in turn, may give your family you greater flexibility in terms of assigning the person you most desire to handle the