The way that it works is that you fund the trust and name a beneficiary who will receive annuity payments for a period of time that you determine when you create the vehicle. If your objective is to receive income personally you name yourself as the beneficiary. It should be noted that your annual annuity payments must not exceed 50% of the value of the trust and be no less than 5% of its value.

In addition to this you also select a charitable beneficiary. This entity will assume ownership of the remainder that is left in the trust after its term expires. This amount must equal at least 10% of the original value of the trust.

There are positive tax implications that go along with creating a charitable remainder unitrust. For one, you could have the trust sell appreciated securities and your capital gains liability could be spread out over the term of the trust. In addition, you are reducing the taxable value of your estate by funding the trust. And you are also entitled to a charitable deduction.

If you are interested in learning more about charitable remainder unitrusts and other useful estate planning tools, simply take a moment to arrange for a consultation with a good Sarasota estate planning lawyer.

There is an estate tax exclusion in place and your family will only be asked to pay the tax if your overall resources exceed this amount. At the present time it is $5.12 million. Anything above this is subject to a 35% federal estate tax.

This in itself smacks of unfairness to many people. Why should the family of someone with say $7.12 million in assets have to part with 35% of $2 million while the heirs of someone with exactly $5.12 million pay nary a cent? These two individuals were clearly in a similar financial situation.

In addition to the above, the estate tax exclusion amount changes all the time. As the laws stand currently the estate tax exclusion is scheduled to be reduced to just $1 million at the beginning of 2013.

So if you pass away on New Year’s Eve this year with $5 million your family pays nothing. If you pass away the next day, $4 million of your legacy will be subject to the tax, and the rate is scheduled to rise to 55% at the end of this year.

The above leaves many people scratching their heads, but whether it is fair or not the estate tax is a reality. There are however ways to reduce or even eliminate your exposure, and if you would like to explore them simply take a moment to arrange for a consultation with a good Sarasota estate planning lawyer.

Along these lines, retirement planning is essential. There are no guarantees that you will be able to retire if you don’t take steps to feather your own nest along the way. It can take decades to accumulate the resources that you will need so you must be focused, have a cogent plan in place, and have the discipline to follow the plan through to its fruition.

There is also the matter of incapacity planning. A significant percentage of senior citizens will eventually lose their ability to make sound financial and medical decisions. Under the circumstances a court appointed guardian could take over your affairs if you do not plan ahead by executing the appropriate durable powers of attorney naming your own potential decision-makers.

A third thing to consider would be how you intend to finance long-term care if you do need such care in the future. Long-term care is extremely expensive, Medicare does not cover it, and most senior citizens will eventually require it.

There are undoubtedly certain challenges that go along with aging, but with proper planning you should be able to handle any and all contingencies that come your way. If you are ready to get started, simply take a moment to make an appointment to discuss your future with a good Sarasota elder law attorney.

Exactly how expensive is it to stay in a nursing home or an assisted living community? If you combine the average length of stay with the national average costs involved you could be looking at a figure that reaches or exceeds $250,000.

With this in mind you can see how important is to plan ahead intelligently. One option that is available to you would be to purchase long-term care insurance. This coverage is expensive, but the younger you are when you start to pay for it the more affordable it is. Some people who obtain long-term care insurance later in life take out a home equity conversion mortgage to pay for the premiums.

Another option is to situate your assets in such a way as to be able to qualify for Medicaid. This can however take some long-term planning because of the five-year Medicaid look back period.

And of course, you can simply write a check but to be able to do that you are probably going to have to follow a cogent long-term financial plan for an extended period of time.

If you are concerned about long-term care expenses, the intelligent first step would be to sit down and discuss your options with a licensed, experienced, and savvy Sarasota elder law attorney.

While these accounts can serve a purpose they are certainly not a cure-all and it is a good idea to discuss your estate with a qualified Sarasota estate planning attorney before deciding that payable on death accounts are all you need.

When you create a payable on death account you name a beneficiary or in some cases multiple beneficiaries who would inherit the resources in the account upon the death of the primary account holder. This transfer would take place outside of the probate process which could be a positive.

But, there are some things to consider. One of them is the fact that there no contingencies in place in the event of your incapacity. A well conceived estate plan is going to include the legally binding assertion of your wishes in the event of your incapacity.

In addition, resources that are placed in a payable on death or transfer on death account are a part of your estate and as a result they are subject to the federal estate tax assuming your overall resources exceed the exclusion amount.

The third thing to take into consideration is the fact that many financial institutions will require that you allow for the resources in the account to be split equally if you add multiple beneficiaries. It is quite possible that you would want to leave different percentages to the beneficiaries.

The perils of procrastination are revealed by the case of Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. This is the crime novelist who authored the acclaimed book that was eventually turned into a movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Larsson was very successful financially and it is estimated that his estate was valued at around $40 million when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2004 when he was just 50 years old.

According to reports he lived with the same woman for some 32 years. His closest blood relatives were his brother and father and his girlfriend stated that Larsson was not close to his family.

The matter play itself out in court and in the end the girlfriend got nothing and the entirety of the Larsson estate went to his father and brother.

When you consider the fact that the author lived with this woman since he was 18 years of age you have to think that he would have wanted to provide something for her given his formidable financial capabilities.

This is an example of what can happen when you fail to take action. If you are ready to stop procrastinating and put an estate plan in place the intelligent first step is to sit down and discuss your legacy with a good Sarasota estate planning lawyer.

Most people that are in a position to leave life-changing sums of money to their loved ones are well aware of the value of education. You could make educational opportunities available to the people that you care about, and if you do so while you’re still alive there could be tax benefits to be gained as well.

Each individual is allowed to pay the school tuition of any number of students equaling any sum of money free of the gift tax. So you could reduce the taxable value of your estate while you pave the way for family members to gain the educational foundation that they need to succeed in the world.

Another option would be to create an incentive trust that stipulates that the beneficiary must remain a student in good standing to be able to receive ongoing monetary distributions. Perhaps a lump sum could be made available upon graduation, and you may provide for distributions to match every dollar that the graduate earns on the job to foster a work ethic.

Providing educational pathways can enrich your legacy. If you are interested in exploring this course of action simply take a moment to arrange for a consultation the good Sarasota estate planning attorney.

There was a survey released recently by the MetLife Mature Market Institute that provided some rather eye-opening statistics. The average annual cost for a year residing in a private room in a nursing home in the United States in 2011 eclipsed $87,200, and this is a 4.4% rise over the 2010 figure. The same period of time living in an assisted living community averaged $41,724 and this is a 5.6% increase over 2010.

One alternative to residence in a long-term care facility would be to obtain in-home care. Home health aides can come to you to provide assistance and since you are probably not going to need this help 24/7 the costs will be more palatable. The MetLife survey stated that the average hourly cost for a home health aide that is employed by a licensed agency is $21. Homemakers/companions could be had for an average of $19 per hour.

You could also make modifications to your home to make it easier for you to function with physical limitations. These could include things like handrails, grab bars, motion activated faucets, and automatic door openers.

If you want to be ready for any and all eventualities advance planning is key. The best way to proceed would be to sit down and discuss your future with a licensed and experienced Sarasota elder law attorney. He or she will evaluate your unique situation and create a plan that is tailor-made to suit your needs.

Many people simply assume they will be using a last will to direct the transfer of their assets, but you have multiple options. Various different courses of action may be called for depending on the size and scope of your assets and the form that they are in. The realities of the federal estate tax come into to play here and if you are exposed you must take action to gain estate tax efficiency.

Another thing to take into consideration would be the personal proclivities of the people who will be receiving inheritances. It is likely that you have certain people on your inheritance list that have already demonstrated sound money handling capabilities and you may not have any concerns about these individuals.

On the other hand, you may have someone in the family with a tendency to burn through money quickly. You could protect someone like this by making this individual the beneficiary of a spendthrift trust.

With these trusts you empower the trustee to handle the funds and issue distributions in accordance with the conditions that you set forth in the trust agreement. The beneficiary will have no control over the assets and they will be protected from the creditors of the beneficiary.

A spendthrift trust can give you the peace of mind that you are looking for when you have concerns about an heir. If you are interested in creating one, simply take a moment to arrange for a consultation with a good Sarasota estate planning lawyer.

The most commonly used estate planning document is the last will. This is of course utilized to express your wishes with regard to the distribution of your property after you pass away.

A lot of people have heard of the fact that there is a document that you can execute to set aside financial resources for the benefit of others while you are still alive. Some individuals have heard of the term “living will” and assume that this must be the document.

In fact, it is a living trust that is utilized to act as a vehicle of asset transfer. These trusts are usually created by people who want to arrange for the distribution of resources to family members outside of the process of probate, which can be costly and time-consuming.

What a living will is intended to achieve involves medical matters. People can sometimes be kept alive indefinitely via the use of artificial means when there is no hope of recovery. With a living will you state your wishes regarding these medical procedures.

The best way to wade through all the intricacies of estate planning is to enlist professional advice. If you are ready to do so, pick up the phone right now to arrange for a consultation with a licensed and experienced Sarasota estate planning lawyer.