Do I need a will or a revocable trust in Florida?

Most Florida estate plans include both. A last will directs disposition of your assets and nominates personal representatives and guardians, while a revocable trust can avoid probate, maintain privacy, and provide continuity of management if you become incapacitated. Our Boca Raton attorneys tailor the combination to your tax, family, and asset-protection goals.

What is transfer tax planning?

Transfer tax planning minimizes federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes using strategies such as marital trusts, annual exclusion and unified-credit gifts, GRATs, QPRTs, ILITs, family LLCs, sales to defective grantor trusts, and portability elections.

What is a domestic asset protection trust?

A domestic asset protection trust is an irrevocable trust formed in a jurisdiction that allows self-settled spendthrift protection, shielding trust assets from most future creditors. We also counsel clients on offshore asset protection trusts, protected asset classes, and entity-based planning.

When should I sign a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement?

Prenuptial agreements are signed before marriage and postnuptial agreements after. Both can protect separate property, business interests, and estate plans, and can reduce conflict in the event of divorce or death. Careful drafting and disclosure are essential to enforceability.

Where is your estate planning law firm located?

Gutter Chaves Josepher Rubin Forman Fleisher Miller PA is located at 2101 NW Corporate Blvd., Suite 107, Boca Raton, FL 33431-7343. You can reach us at 561.998.7847.

Estate Planning | Boca Raton Law Firm

Estate Planning

Florida Estate Planning | Wills and Trusts

Our Boca Raton estate planning attorneys assist clients with every element of their Florida estate plan, including:

Preparation of last wills and revocable trusts to implement dispositive desires in a tax-effective manner, and to create appropriate trust arrangements to protect beneficiaries, fiduciaries, and client goals — drawing on decades of experience in drafting, administration, and dispute resolution involving these instruments
Determining the need for, and preparing, specialty trusts to achieve specific tax and dispositive goals
Review and implementation of probate avoidance arrangements
Review and planning for beneficiary designations
Use of joint accounts and payable-on-death (POD) accounts

Transfer Tax Planning

We help clients minimize federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes, including through the use of:

Marital trusts and bequests
Qualified Domestic Trusts (QDOTs) for noncitizen spouses
Annual exclusion gifts and current use of unified-credit gifts, including through gift trusts
Planning to maximize basis step-up at death
Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)
Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs)
Sales to defective grantor trusts and other sale transactions
Use of grantor trusts
Generation-skipping trusts and GST exemption planning
Use of entities such as LLCs and family limited partnerships
Life insurance and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs)
Portability planning between spouses

Planning for Family Succession and Control

We assist clients in planning for family succession of control of businesses and family assets, including through the use of:

Trusts and selection of trustees, trust protectors, and powers of appointment
Family partnerships and other entities
Buy-sell agreements
Business succession plans

Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

We assist persons entering into marriage, or already-married couples, with desired or necessary agreements, including:

Drafting to accomplish personal, business, and tax objectives
Handling negotiation and drafting in a manner that resolves disputes and minimizes conflict between spouses and soon-to-be-married persons
Planning to avoid future challenges to agreements upon divorce or separation

Disability and Incapacity Planning

We assist clients in planning for the possibility of mental or physical incapacity, including through the use of:

Durable powers of attorney, preneed guardianship declarations, and designations of health care surrogates
Trusts to provide for support and transfer of control upon disability
Insurance alternatives

Wealth Protection and Pre-Liability Asset Protection

We help clients reduce exposure of their assets to claims of creditors and others, including through the use of:

Gifts and trusts, coordinated with the broader estate plan
Domestic and international asset protection trusts
Protected asset classes (e.g., annuities, insurance, Florida homestead)
Entities for asset protection (e.g., limited liability companies, charging-order protection)
Probate avoidance strategies

Contact Our Boca Raton Estate Planning Attorneys

Gutter Chaves Josepher Rubin Forman Fleisher Miller PA

Boca Corporate Center
2101 NW Corporate Blvd., Suite 107
Boca Raton, FL 33431-7343

Directions
P. 561.998.7847 | F. 561.998.2642

Jenna Rubin presents at ABA National Symposium

On May 12, 2023, Jenna Rubin presented at the 35th Annual Real Property Trust and Estate Law Section of the American Bar Association’s National CLE Conference in Washington DC. She took part in a panel discussion on “Black Tie Optional: The Eroding Formalities to Creating a Valid Will.”

24 Feb 2022

Article by Charles and Jenna Rubin featured on cover of Florida Bar Journal

An article written by Charles Rubin and Jenna Rubin is featured on the cover of this month’s Florida Bar Journal and can be found here.

27 Dec 2021

Jenna Rubin appointed to ACTEC Fiduciary Litigation Committee

Gutter Chaves is pleased to announce that Jenna G. Rubin has been appointed to the Fiduciary Litigation Committee of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) for the 2022-2023 year.

14 Dec 2021

FBAR Case Reversed – Nonwillful Filing Penalties Based on Number of Accounts Not Reported

Back in 2000, I wrote here about a case where a taxpayer did not report multiple foreign accounts on an FBAR. The question for the court was whether the $10,000 penalty for a nonwillful failure to file meant $10,000 per return not filed, or $10,000 per account not reported on the return. For . . .

22 Nov 2021

Of Spousal Gifts and the Substance Over Form Doctrine

U.S. spouses each have a unified credit that allows for substantial gifting to third parties without requiring the payment of gift tax. What happens if one spouse has assets to be gifted away, but that spouse does not have sufficient remaining unified credit exemption to cover the gift and wants to use the exemption of the other spouse?

At times, the spouses can agree to split the gift for gift tax purposes, which treats 1/2 the gift as coming from each spouse. This allows the unified credit of the spouse not making the gift to be used to avoid gift tax on the 1/2 that such spouse is treated as making. However, it can be an imperfect solution if the spouse with the assets does not have enough unified credit to offset his or her 1/2 of the gift.

Oftentimes, the parties may contemplate having the party with the assets transfer them by gift to the other spouse (a tax-free gift under the gift tax marital deduction), and then the receiving spouse makes a gift to the third party applying his or her own unified credit. The question in these circumstances is whether the IRS will respect the transaction and allow the receiving spouse’s unified credit to be applied to the gift to the third party, or whether it would seek to apply the “substance over form” doctrine to treat the gift as coming from the spouse who transferred the assets to the other spouse and does not have enough unified credit to fully cover the gift.

This is not a black and white issue. On one end of the spectrum. . .