Greater Daytona Area Estate Planning Attorney
If you are a resident of the Daytona area or of Port Orange or of Volusia County or anywhere in the surrounding areas and need estate planning, look no further. There are plenty of registered law firms in these areas who can advise you regarding estate planning.
Estate planning is a way of ensuring that your family is taken care of and provided for even after you are gone. Simply put, it is the legal term used for planning what to do with your assets, property and other valuable belongings after your death.
The earlier you do the planning, the better it is. You would like to be in sound health and mind when you are doing it. You also get to decide who gets what. Properly planning an estate will take care of your taxes as well. Here is a beginner’s guide to estate planning.
Drafting and processing a will
You have to be very thorough when planning your will. A will must cover all your possessions and all sorts of bank and other accounts. Your pension or retirement account should have the name and information of the beneficiary and all other legalities sorted out. Your will should mention clearly who inherits what and how much allowance anyone receives.
A guardian or guardians will have to be appointed for your minor children (if there are any). If your children are too young, you will have to create a trust so that they do not get their share of the entire amount of money or property you are leaving behind for them. A trust ensures that your children continue to receive their inheritance in certain amounts till they reach adulthood or a certain age.
A will has to go through the probate process before it can be executed. The process involves the reading of the will and the time taken to hand over the inheritance to the appointed heirs. The time taken to complete this process can last between 6 months and a year.
Trusts
The probate process of the will can be avoided by creating a living trust. Trusts can have assets as well as money. Trusts take proper care of your estate till they are handed over. Different types of trusts can be created after the name of individual beneficiaries. You can have charitable trusts as well.
Taxes
You need to pay taxes for your planned estate as well. But taxes are not levied on all estates. If your estate is taxable, the taxes should begin to be paid 9 months after your death. But estate taxes keep on changing depending on the government’s policies. You should plan properly with your lawyer regarding ways of minimizing taxes and protecting your assets from taxation. Proper ways of meeting tax demands should also be mapped out.
If you are a resident of greater Daytona and need help regarding estate planning or understanding the laws related to it, do not hesitate to contact an estate planning lawyer in your area today.
To contact Florida attorney Debra G. Simms, P.A. in Port Orange or New Smyrna Beach, FL please call 877.447.4667.
