Palm Beach Estate Planning Blog

One of the primary duties of a Palm Beach executor is gathering all of the decedent's property. In most cases, he or she can look to the estate-planning documents for clues as to what property there is and where it may be located. However, if a plan fails to include the digital assets, then matters could get more complicated.

Most people have at least some small online presence, but they may not think it is important to account for that presence in estate planning documents. Many Palm Beach residents are tech savvy, but still consider only physical assets as those that need to be dealt with upon death. Believe it or not, even a Facebook or Twitter account will require some sort of disposition after death.

If you have agreed to become the executor of someone’s Florida estate or the trustee of his or her trust, you have assumed a fiduciary role whether or not you realize it. While you may have many fiduciary duties depending on the specific provisions of the will or trust in question, your most important duty is to always manage and disburse the estate or trust assets for the benefit of the beneficiaries or heirs. They are the people for whom you serve as fiduciary.

As a fiduciary, you are not required to perform your duties perfectly at all times. Fiduciaries are human beings, and humans make occasional mistakes. No one will blame you or sue you if you make an inadvertent arithmetic error or if one of your investments of estate or trust assets fails to live up to its expectations. The beneficiaries or heirs can only sue you if you deliberately do or fail to do something that is not in their best interests. That is the classic definition of breach of fiduciary duty.

Many in Palm Beach and across the country were saddened by the recent death of music legend Aretha Franklin. It's surprising that someone of her status and wealth did not even have a will. Without at least that document, the administration of her estate will likely be challenging. The challenges her surviving loved ones face may make it clear why wills are important for every adult no matter how many assets exist.

Without a will, Franklin's estate will be subject to the intestacy laws of her home state. That means that it will be up to the state to determine who inherits her estate. In addition, taxing authorities may receive a significant portion of her estate since no efforts were made to reduce the amount of her taxable estate.

As Palm Beach residents begin their estate planning, they will more than likely be confronted with numerous decisions to make. If it turns out that one or more trusts would work best for a particular situation, then one other decision will need to be made -- whether to make a trust revocable or irrevocable. The trust creator needs to decide whether it would be more advantageous to be able to change, modify or terminate a trust rather than not be able to do so.

Revocable trusts are quite popular. People like the idea of retaining more control over the trust and the assets in it. This provides the ability to fix any mistakes or tweak the trust provisions while the grantor (the trust creator) is still alive. One of the major downsides to a revocable trust is that the IRS, creditors and possibly an ex-spouse retain the right to come after the assets in the trust since the grantor remains the owner. However, this type of trust still provides privacy, the ability to avoid probate and the ability for someone to immediately take over in the event of incapacity.