Author Archives: David Toback
How To Disinherit Your Children
According to Florida law, the probate courts must follow the instructions in a legally valid will admitted to probate. Except for surviving spouses claiming an elective spousal share, disinherited family members cannot override the testator’s wishes except by proving that the will is legally invalid. This means that it is possible to disinherit your… Read More »
Can Your Irrevocable Trust Sell Your House?
Revocable trusts are great for indecisive people, but only irrevocable trusts are capable of conveying the full benefits of trusts while you are alive. When you establish a revocable trust, the property in the trust still legally belongs to you, and you are still responsible for paying taxes on it; a revocable trust only… Read More »
Letter Of Wishes: The Most Underrated Estate Planning Document
When you make your estate plan, your main motivations are love for your family and concern for their wellbeing. This is why you have frank discussions with your doctors about what might go wrong with your health in the future and what the treatment options are, and you list your instructions in a healthcare… Read More »
Life Is More Expensive For Single Seniors
In some ways, being single is awesome; every happily divorced person or confirmed bachelor will tell you this. There is no one to find fault with your taste in food or entertainment or your state of cleanliness. Despite this, loneliness is terrible for you. It is possible for unmarried people to be socially connected… Read More »
The Art Of Crashing Your Own Bucket List After Party
Estate planning, when you take it seriously, is an exercise in figuring out what matters the most to you and also in realizing how little control you have over what other people do, especially when you are no longer around to voice your displeasure or to dangle incentives in front of them. In your… Read More »
Your 401(k) Account Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving
It is easy to find online content about leaving your boring job behind and living a life of adventure as an entrepreneur or a digital nomad, but you would be wise to regard this content as idle escapism. If you have a 401(k) account, then you will have the last laugh, or most likely,… Read More »
What Does It Mean When You Say That An Estate Is An Independent Entity
“Entity” is one of those concepts that it is hard to wrap your mind around even after you define it. The definitions that fit on a flash card leave more questions than answers. An entity is something that exists. Is it the same thing as a being? A substance? A thing? If you take… Read More »
Estate Planning For Lonely People
Loneliness kills, but what happens after lonely people die? If you are close with some members of your family but estranged from others, you have one set of concerns at the forefront of your mind as you build your estate plan. If you love all your children equally, but some of them are demonstrably… Read More »
Can A Trust Make Your Estate Plan More Complicated?
The content pages about trusts on the websites of estate planning law firms make it sound like a trust is a magical solution to all your estate planning worries. They give the impression that a trust makes your property invisible to creditors and just accessible enough, but not too accessible, to the intended beneficiaries…. Read More »
The Equivocal Estate Plan
You have probably heard that, when it comes to estate planning, you can never put too much thought into the details. The more meticulously your medical advance directive describes the treatments you do and do not want, and the more carefully your will describes each item of property that it leaves to each family… Read More »
