Florida Probate Litigation Lawyer Blog

For many, the purpose of estate planning is to dispose of one’s property upon death in a manner that ensures that one’s loved ones will be taken care of. While some accomplish this by devising their property in a will to their intended beneficiaries, others take advantage of what are often called “will substitutes.” For example, life insurance policies are one type of will substitute. Unlike wills, life insurance policies do not go to policy beneficiaries via probate, which makes insurance policies potentially useful estate planning mechanisms for tax avoidance purposes. Despite this obvious plus, children of the baby boomers-deemed “generation X” in Jeff Reeves’ article, “Survey: Gen X seriously short on life insurance”-have on the whole not been taking advantage of life insurance as an investment and estate planning vehicle. According to the article, a recent survey by New York Life revealed that on average Americans born between 1965 and 1976 require life insurance in an amount nearly $449,000.00 greater than that which they have opted for. Furthermore, almost 20% of “Generation X” does not have any life insurance coverage, a figure that is up from the 5% reported in 2008.
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A will is an important document for many reasons, the primary one being that it disposes of a person’s property without that person being present to ensure that his or her wishes are being fulfilled. This in part explains why creating a will entails a great deal of formal requirements, designed to (a) impart upon the person creating the will the importance of the document and (b) ensure that the document, which exists well after the testator’s death, represents the most accurate representation of the testator’s wishes.
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As the result of modern advances in technology, more and more children are being born through in vitro fertilization. Another reason for this trend is that a greater number of career oriented professional women are choosing to focus on their careers at ages when, historically speaking, most women were focused on having children. Because many such career oriented women still wish to have families later on in life, they commonly will opt to save their eggs when at their most fertile, so they will not be disadvantaged down the road when they do wish to become pregnant, but might be at an age where traditional biological conception is no longer possible. Additionally, in vitro fertilization can provide infertile couples the ability to have children through donated embryos. While in vitro fertilization can be a great benefit to many families, it also can be the cause of many problems. Some of these problems arise within the legal context of inheritance, which in recent years has been complicated by the modern trend of in vitro fertilization.
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The intersection of law and technology has received heightened attention in recent years due to the increasing importance of social media in our daily lives and the resulting implications for our personal privacy and confidential information. This modern interrelation between law and technology is becoming increasingly important in the field of estate planning, particularly in light of the recent increase in the use of assisted reproductive technologies (“ART”), such as the utilization of in vitro fertilization technology to produce children.
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Oftentimes when individuals hear the term “homestead,” they fail to truly understand the protections that a Homesteaded property brings with it. While any homeowner with a Homestead property surely appreciates the $50,000.00 Homestead Exemption when tax season rolls around, this Exemption is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the expansive, inviolable protections that the Florida Constitution affords the homestead. Under Article X of the Florida Constitution, “a homestead of 160 acres of rural land or one-half acre of urban land and one thousand dollars worth of personal property is to be exempt from execution and forced sale.” While it may not be evident from the plain language of the Florida Constitution, the protections derived from Article X extend far beyond just the tax exemptions and protections from creditors. Understanding these implications-those that benefit as well as those that impede an estate plan-is a necessity in order to create a comprehensive estate plan.
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While many of Tony Soprano’s most iconic quotes are of the NSFW variety, one of his “work friendly” quotes comes to mind in light of the criticism directed towards James Gandolfini’s estate plan: “A wrong decision is better than indecision.” While the benefit of hindsight makes it easy to point out the perceived tax flaws of the last will and testament that Roger S. Haber drafted for Mr. Gandolfini, at least Gandolfini and his attorney made a decision! By seeking legal counsel to draft a testamentary instrument devising his possessions, Gandolfini avoided a fate that has befallen luminaries such as Abraham Lincoln, Pablo Picasso, Stieg Larsson, Howard Hughes, and Bob Marley-dying without a will. Regardless of whether Mr. Gandolfini would have chosen for Uncle Sam to receive such a hefty portion of the fruits of his lifetime of labor, Gandolfini can rest in peace knowing that he was able to convey his feelings with one final act of affection.
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