White, Crouch & Mills, P.A.

03/31/2020

As business and individuals around the world are doing their part to combat this global pandemic, we would like to offer our services as well and do our part. Therefore, we would like to use the skills that we have and offer Health Care Directives to all healthcare personnel in the Gainesville area at no charge. We will also be offering our services to Three Rivers Legal Services, Inc. to provide Health Care Directives on a pro bono basis to those who qualify with Three Rivers. Their toll free number is 866-256-8091.

Our office number is 352-372-1011. We are proud to do what we can for the brave men and women who go to work in the hospital everyday to fight this virus. Thank you.

12/23/2019

“Some financial advisers worry a few of the changes can hurt savers — such as incorporating annuities in 401(k) plans and eliminating the rule that lets account beneficiaries stretch distributions across their lifetimes.”

Be like Santa and check your beneficiary designations not once, but twice. With the passing of the SECURE Act, an IRA can longer be taken out over a beneficiary's lifetime. It now must be taken out over 10 years.

What does that mean for you and your beneficiaries? Let me explain with an example: Taxpayer Tammy has a traditional IRA, so her IRA is funded with 1 million of pre-tax dollars. This means that when Taxpayer Tammy turns 70.5 years old, she is required to begin taking out her Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). She is taxed on the RMDs at her marginal tax rate (because the traditional IRA is funded with pre-tax dollars). Taxpayer Tammy dies, naming her son, Billy Beneficiary, as beneficiary of her IRA. Billy Beneficiary currently has taxable income of $80,000, placing him in the 22% tax bracket.

BEFORE the SECURE Act, Billy would have received an inherited IRA that could have been stretched over his lifetime. He would have to take RMDs based upon his age according to a Table* in the Internal Revenue Code.

NOW with the passage of the SECURE Act, Billy Beneficiary must take out the entire IRA over 10 years. Billy also has to pay tax on the distributions he receives from the traditional IRA. Therefore, instead of the IRA growing and benefitting Billy throughout his life, the IRA will place Billy into a higher tax bracket because of the taxable IRA distributions. So, if Billy takes out $100,000 each year for 10 years, he now will have $180,000 of taxable income placing him in the 32% tax bracket. As stated above, Billy Beneficiary used to be in the 22% bracket, however Billy is now in the 32% bracket because the RMDs are compressed to 10 years instead of over his lifetime.

Part of our role as estate planning attorneys is to make sure beneficiary designations are properly made. Doing so, we are able to advise you on a few strategies to deal with the new SECURE Act. Make an appointment today!

*Table 1 - Single Life Expectancy, Appendix B, Publication 590-B

What the bill includes, and what it may mean for your future

10/25/2019

Happy Estate Planning Awareness Week! Celebrate by checking out this week's blog.

Enjoy!

In 2008, Congress recognized the need for the public to understand the importance and benefits of estate planning by passing House Resolution 1499, which designated the third week of October as National Estate Planning Awareness Week. Nevertheless, according to a 2019 survey carried out by Caring.co...

10/04/2019

There are lists of reasons to update your estate plan, but here are two common planning mistakes that cost families big because they weren't addressed.

08/30/2019

If you have taken the “one and done” approach to your estate plan, you should think again. In addition to changes in the law, or people moving in and out of your life, there are many other reasons to update your will.

08/27/2019

"It could take many, many years before anybody gets a penny of this"

07/26/2019

This week's blog revisits discretionary trusts. Enjoy!

If asked “where would you like your assets to go after you pass away” the reply likely made would be, “to my spouse and then my children.” Simple as that, right? Wrong. It is not only important to think about the “where” or “who,” but also the “how,” that is, how will your assets...

05/17/2019

Check out this week's blog on discretionary trusts!

There are many reasons why leaving assets outright to a beneficiary is not the most ideal method of distributing assets. To list a few, maybe a beneficiary has a high risk job such that exposure to lawsuits is prevalent in the beneficiary’s line of work, or it may be the case that a beneficiary is...

03/15/2019

We recommend updating/revisiting your estate plan approximately every five years for a multitude of reasons. However, sometimes there is an immediate need to update an estate plan. Take this scenario, what if the individual you have named in your will to act as your personal representative has passed away? Hopefully you named a successor personal representative, but maybe you didn't or maybe the successor has moved or has also passed away. The same goes for a trustee you have named in a trust. Impactful life events such as a marriage, the birth of a child, or the death of a loved one are times where a review of your estate planning documents is advised. Check out this week's blog for more!

Estate planning is the process of developing a strategy for the care and management of your estate if you become incapacitated or upon your death. One commonly known purpose of estate planning is to minimize taxes and costs, including taxes imposed on gifts, estates, generation skipping transfer and...

02/12/2019

At some point, you probably have thought about where you desire your assets be distributed upon your passing and if I asked you that question today, you would most likely have a quick, confident answer. What if I followed up your response with: how, why, and when? Specifically, how would you want your assets to be distributed? Why would you want your assets to be distributed that way? When would you ideally want your assets distributed, at your death or distributed much later on? With those questions in mind, consider asset protection as an element to your estate plan. If you could choose between leaving your assets subject to being taken away as opposed to leaving your assets in a manner that would have them be protected from lawsuit, bankruptcy, or divorce, I could assume you would choose the latter. That is what I mean by asset protection in your estate plan. Check out the blog to find out more!

Much of estate planning has to do with the way a person’s assets will be distributed upon their death. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. From smart incapacity planning to legacy planning, there is a lot that goes into crafting a comprehensive estate plan. One important factor to consider i...

01/21/2019

Think of the person that you would want to be the guardian of your minor children should you pass away. Now, think of the person that you would want to have manage the assets that you leave to your minor children. Maybe you envisioned the same individual and maybe you did not. The important point is, the person who you appoint as the guardian of your minor children and the person who you appoint to manage the assets that you leave to your minor children do not have to be the same person! Consider also "how" you would want your assets left to your minor children. For example, if you were going on a trip for a weekend, I'm sure you would leave instructions to a babysitter on how you desire for your children to be cared for during that time. Expand that example to decades and consider what instructions you would want to leave to a guardian or a trustee for both the care of your children and for the appropriate management of your assets for the benefit of your children. Check out the blog for further insight!

Deciding on a guardian for your minor children may very well be the most vexing decision you’ll make regarding your estate planning. Not only must you trust the appointed guardian to raise your children as you’d want them raised, but you also need that person to be financially responsible with y...

01/11/2019

From Florida's homestead laws to multi-member LLCs, there exist multiple options and layers to asset protection when designing an estate plan. Certain professions carry more liability than others and a career as a physician is an example of one of those professions. As a physician, you have gone through medical school, specialized, gone through residency and eventually have established a successful medical practice so wouldn't it make sense to have an asset protection forward estate plan? Your estate planning documents (will and trust) should synchronize with your asset protection goals and vehicles to ensure an all around successful plan. For instance, maybe a separate business entity would be beneficial to isolate assets from you individually. If your asset protection needs call for it, you should to understand the difference between single and multi-member LLCs (an no, it is not just the number of members). Once established, your estate plan must take into account your LLC (or other business entity) in order for proper business succession planning. What also must be taken into consideration are the different types of accounts and plans, such as retirement and life insurance, to ascertain what protections those accounts are providing to you and whether such plans fit your needs. Asset protection is a major component of estate planning and the right level of asset protection is dependent upon your profession, your family circumstances, your assets, and your goals. Check out the blog and think about what asset protection goals you might have.

The practice of medicine is a fulfilling and altruistic profession fraught with the risk of liability.  It’s not just medical malpractice claims (although those are certainly scary enough), but also the entire scope of risk from being in business, including employment-related issues, liabilities ...