Protecting Your Assets from Creditors with an Estate Plan
By Spiro Verras
Can a trust shield my assets from creditors?Estate planning includes deciding how to manage property, provide for loved ones and address foreseeable risks. Asset-protection planning considers lawful exemptions, ownership arrangements, insurance and appropriate trust or entity structures. It requires...
Cutting a Relative Out of Your Will
By Spiro Verras
Choosing who will receive your property is personal. A decision to leave less, or nothing, to a relative may reflect financial needs, prior support, a difficult relationship or other circumstances. Clear, thoughtful planning can help express that decision while respecting the legal rights that may...
Estate Planning: Is My Will Enough?
By Spiro Verras
A will is an important part of many estate plans, but it performs a specific job. It directs probate property at death and can nominate a personal representative and a guardian for minor children. It does not by itself authorize someone to help with your...
Creating an Educational Trust
By Spiro Verras
Helping a child or grandchild pursue an education can be a meaningful part of your estate plan. An education trust lets you set aside property under instructions that reflect the opportunities you want to support. It can also give a trustee flexibility when a student's...
Estate Planning for Business Owners
By Spiro Verras
A business often represents years of work, relationships, and responsibility. Estate planning for its owner should address who will own the business, who can manage it, and how a transition will be funded if the owner becomes incapacitated or dies. Those decisions are easier to...
Make Estate Planning Part of Your New Year’s Resolution
By Spiro Verras
The start of a new year can be a useful moment to take stock of your plans. Alongside financial and personal goals, consider whether the people you trust have clear instructions about your care and your property. You can begin with a conversation; you do...
Lessons From Celebrity Estate Planning Disputes
By Spiro Verras
Celebrity estates can bring ordinary planning questions into public view: who will receive property, who will administer it, how unusual assets are valued, and what happens after a beneficiary dies. The useful lessons come from those questions, not from assuming that every dispute proves someone...
Estate Planning and Your Retirement Account
By Spiro Verras
Retirement accounts deserve their own place in an estate plan. The beneficiary form usually controls who receives an account at death, while tax rules determine how the money can be withdrawn. Your will, trust, account agreement, and beneficiary designations should be reviewed together.
When does a...Exploring Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs)
By Spiro Verras
A family limited partnership can provide a structure for owning and managing a business or investment assets together. It may also support a succession plan, but the benefits depend on the legal structure, the partnership agreement and how the arrangement is actually operated.
Understand the entity...Estate Planning and Second Marriages
By Spiro Verras
A second marriage can bring new relationships and new planning responsibilities. You may want to provide for your spouse while preserving an inheritance for children from an earlier relationship. A coordinated plan can make those intentions clearer and reduce avoidable uncertainty.
Understand Florida's default inheritance rulesFlorida...