Estate Planning South Florida

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Estate Planning South Florida

Call us today at (305) 373-1070 for an initial free consultation to protect your future and legacy.

For those individuals that do not create their own estate plan, a plan is already set up for them. The question then becomes: Do you want to default to the estate plan the system created for you, or do you want to be proactive and take control of your estate yourself?

For example, without proper estate planning you will pay for everything: medical bills, legal bills, Probate, taxes, etc. With planning you can take advantage of the options available to you to minimize what you will pay for health care, legal expenses, and taxes while you are alive and long after you are gone.

The "Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010" offers many opportunities for those with estates that may be facing significant estate taxes. This act provides for the the taxation of gifts during life and death. During the years of 2011 and 2012, taxpayers have a lifetime exemption of $5,000,000, meaning that each taxpayer may give away up to a total of $5,000,000 during life and/or death without gift and/or estate tax. During 2011 and 2012, the maximum gift, generation-skipping transfer(GST), and estate tax rate is 35%. Under current law, property passed on by taxpayers dying in 2011 and thereafter receives a ‘step-up’ in basis to the fair market value of the property on the date of death.

If you do nothing, you will pay the most for everything. To use an accounting analogy, do you want to take the deductions available to you or ignore them and pay more taxes than the IRS requires? Does the IRS call you to tell you there are more deductions available to you or just take the money? The same is true with estate planning. The problem is that most people don't know what options are available to them.

Estate Planning has become a complex area with multiple government agencies conflicting with each other. Furthermore, they keep changing the rules. For example, most people believe that all they need to do is create a will and they are done. Each case is different and if you haven't worked with an estate planner you need to take the time to find out what you don’t know. Call (305)373-1070 to get more information on how to preserve your estate.