Can You Use an LLC for Your Florida Estate Planning Needs?
Proper estate planning is important. It can help reduce potential conflicts and litigation related to your estate or trust, especially when you pass away. The idea behind estate planning is to make things easier for your loved ones in the event of your death, you don’t want to complicate matters and have your estate depleted to pay for legal fees. This is one reason some people are incorporating a wide variety of tools in their estate planning. To decide whether or not an LLC makes sense for your situation, you need to speak with an experienced Florida estate planning attorney.
What is an LLC?
LLCs are limited liability companies and are a popular business structure for people all around the country. They combine the benefits of sole proprietorships and partnerships, like simplicity and efficiency, with similar legal protections you’ll find with a corporation. Less paperwork and lower fees are other attractive qualities of an LLC. LLCs can choose how to be taxed — like a partnership or a corporation.
What are the Advantages of an LLC for Estate Planning?
In some cases, membership interest in an LLC may be an asset of your estate, or perhaps you are considering a family LLC that can be customized for an estate plan, which will be the method to transfer your wealth in Florida. Limited liability can help protect your assets against claims from the LLC’s creditors, and it can protect assets of an LLC from creditors of the company’s members.
Forming an LLC may also reduce the risk of complex legal disputes as well. However, if one does arise, it will be necessary to hire a Pompano Beach estate and trust litigation attorney.
Family LLCs will help reduce aggregate tax liability that you would owe for transfers of wealth to your next generation heirs.
Rather than directly gifting assets to your children or grandchildren, or using a trust or will, you would transfer assets through an LLC with multiple members. After you create the LLC, you would transfer assets into it. These would be assets that you intend to give to your heirs. Then, you would set non-voting membership interests in the LLC to your intended heirs. Now they are part owners of the LLC, but you will maintain control of the assets during your lifetime.
It’s important to note that Florida still considers these shares to be gifts, but since there are no management rights, the value will be reduced by a large percentage. Once you pass away, your heirs will have your ownership interests, which includes management rights. From there, they can continue keeping assets in the LLC or close down the company.
Family LLCs can own a wide variety of property, intellectual property, cash, securities, valuable personal property, and real estate. Family LLCs are also useful for Medicaid planning as well. This is because income-producing assets can be held in a family LLC, and it won’t count towards the asset test to determine eligibility.
Contact a Florida Estate and Trust Litigation Attorney
If you have questions about estate planning tools, or are in the middle of a dispute, contact a Pompano Beach estate and trust litigation attorney at the office of Mark R. Manceri, P.A. today to schedule an initial consultation.
Mark R. Manceri, P.A. is a boutique law firm that specializes in Estate, Trust and Guardianship litigation. These matters include Will and Trust contests involving lack of capacity, undue influence, forgery, improper execution and tortious interference...