Sawyer & Sawyer Professional Association

Cary Moss estimates that about 75% of the seniors she meets with leave their first meeting surprised. Some need a full overhaul. Others need two or three documents updated. Nearly all of them had a gap they never saw coming. A Will Keeps Assets in Probate The belief Cary hears most often is that a will keeps assets out of probate. A last will and testament controls assets titled in a person’s individual name with no joint owner or beneficiary, and those assets must pass through probate. Handwritten edits cause trouble too. A retiree who crosses out $10,000 on an old New York will and writes in $12,000 has made a change Florida will not enforce. When a Revocable Trust Makes Sense Cary listens for specific signals. Out-of-state real estate is a big one. A Georgia lake house left under a will requires a second, ancillary probate in Georgia, while a trust can hold that property and avoid probate entirely. Clients who have sat through a parent’s probate often make avoiding it...

Most seniors who sit down with Cary Moss believe their estate plan is in order. About 75% walk out surprised. The most common misconception? That a will keeps assets out of probate. In Florida, a will only controls assets in a person’s individual name with no joint owner or beneficiary, and those assets still go through probate. Cary walks Orlando seniors through six core documents: the last will and testament, revocable living trust, durable power of attorney, healthcare surrogate designation, living will, and HIPAA release. She explains Florida’s two-witness rule and why out-of-state powers of attorney usually need an update. She also shares the story of a client whose handwritten note on an asset spreadsheet failed to protect his four daughters, plus what every 18-year-old needs signed before heading off to college. For anyone unsure their documents still fit their life, this is a clear place to start. In this episode, you will hear: Why having a will does not keep...

Key Takeaways About 75% of seniors who meet with Cary Moss for the first time discover they are either not covered, have the wrong documents, or have a significant gap in their plan — even when they thought everything was handled. A will does not avoid probate. It provides instructions for probate. This is the single most common and costly misconception in estate planning for seniors. Having documents is not the same as having a plan. How accounts are titled and how beneficiary designations are coordinated can completely override what any document says. Florida’s durable power of attorney has unique “special powers” that must be individually initialed — and out-of-state documents almost never include them. For seniors, this is the one document that almost always needs to be updated when moving to Florida. Every adult age 18 and older needs basic estate planning documents. On the day a child turns 18, a parent loses all legal authority to make decisions for them —...

Most people hear “irrevocable trust” and assume the terms are frozen the day they sign. Estate planning attorney Tom Moss says that assumption costs families flexibility they don’t know they have. Florida law offers several ways to adjust an irrevocable trust after the fact. A trust protector can hold the power to amend certain terms when circumstances change, as long as the changes don’t violate tax rules. Florida statutes also allow modification through a court process, provided all beneficiaries are notified and a judge signs off. The third option, decanting, lets a fiduciary take a fresh look at a trust after someone has died and adjust it to fit a situation the original document never anticipated, like a beneficiary who’s since become disabled or fallen into addiction. When Revocable Becomes Irrevocable A revocable trust moves through three distinct phases. While the person who created it is alive and competent, they control everything, file taxes un...

Estate planning attorney Tom Moss joins the show to unpack a myth that trips up a lot of families: the idea that “irrevocable” means locked forever. Tom walks through how Florida law actually allows trusts to adapt, from trust protectors to the decanting process that can rewrite an estate plan after someone passes away. He also breaks down the three phases every revocable trust moves through and the exact moment it flips to irrevocable. The conversation covers Florida’s homestead protections, why families relocating from New York or New Jersey need to rethink their planning, and how the right trust structure shifts for retirees, business owners, and young families building wealth. Tom shares the “light bulb moments” that signal it’s time to revisit an old plan, from a fiduciary who’s passed away to a lawsuit nobody saw coming. In this episode, you will hear: How trust protectors and decanting can modify an “irrevocable” trust af...

Estate planning attorney Tom Moss joins the show to unpack a myth that trips up a lot of families: the idea that “irrevocable” means locked forever. Tom walks through how Florida law actually allows trusts to adapt, from trust protectors to the decanting process that can rewrite an estate plan after someone passes away. He also breaks down the three phases every revocable trust moves through and the exact moment it flips to irrevocable. The conversation covers Florida’s homestead protections, why families relocating from New York or New Jersey need to rethink their planning, and how the right trust structure shifts for retirees, business owners, and young families building wealth. Tom shares the “light bulb moments” that signal it’s time to revisit an old plan, from a fiduciary who’s passed away to a lawsuit nobody saw coming. In this episode, you will hear: How trust protectors and decanting can modify an “irrevocable” trust af...

A Revocable Trust Will Not Protect You From Creditors, and Other Things Florida Families Get Wrong Most people walk into an estate planning consultation with a firm opinion about trusts, usually formed by a TikTok video or a cowboy-hat-wearing stranger on Instagram. The problem is that revocable and irrevocable trusts solve completely different problems, and confusing the two leads families to expect protection they will never get. What a Revocable Trust Actually Does A revocable trust exists for three reasons. First, it lets someone retain full control over assets during their lifetime, without juggling beneficiary designations across multiple accounts. Second, it plans for incapacity. If the person who created the trust becomes disabled, a named successor trustee can step in immediately, with no guardianship court proceeding required. Third, and most commonly requested, it avoids probate. Probate in Florida is a public, court-supervised process, and it is not cheap. The state set...

Revocable or irrevocable? Most families think they already know the answer, and most are wrong. This episode breaks down the real differences between the two trust types under Florida law, starting with the biggest misconception clients bring into the room: a revocable trust does not protect assets from creditors during your lifetime, no matter what a viral TikTok claims. Tom Moss, estate planning attorney at Sawyer & Sawyer, P.A., walks through when a revocable trust makes sense for probate avoidance and incapacity planning , and when an irrevocable trust becomes necessary for genuine creditor protection, Medicaid planning, or providing for a family member with a disability. He explains the tradeoffs in plain terms, using real numbers and specific scenarios pulled straight from his own practice, down to what a $500,000 estate actually costs in probate. Every family makes this trade, whether they realize it or not. In this episode, you will hear: Why revocable and irrevocabl...

Key Takeaways A will does not avoid probate — and on a $10 million+ estate, that distinction alone can cost families hundreds of thousands of dollars in administrative fees. The federal estate tax exemption is now permanently set at $15 million per person ($30 million per married couple), indexed for inflation — but that number alone is not a plan, and the $30 million combined exemption does not happen automatically. Florida’s lack of state income and estate tax is a powerful advantage, but simply buying a home here is not enough to establish legal residency — and aggressive states will look hard at the evidence. Revocable trusts provide zero creditor protection while you’re alive. For married couples in high-risk professions, tenancy by the entirety may actually offer stronger protection than a revocable trust. High-net-worth estate planning requires coordinated communication between your attorney, CPA, financial advisor, and insurance agent — when those professionals...

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! from sawyerandsawyerpa.com https://ift.tt/MCwfhrc via Sawyer & Sawyer Professional Association

Most high net worth families assume that once a will is drafted, their estate is protected. It is not. A will does not avoid probate . It simply tells a probate court what to do with assets after death, and probate itself comes with real costs. For a family with $10 million or more in assets, administrative fees through probate can run into significant sums. A properly funded trust avoids this process. An unfunded one, even if it exists on paper, does not. What the New Federal Exemption Actually Changed The federal estate tax exemption now sits at $15 million per person, or $30 million for a married couple, indexed for inflation. For most families, that number removes the tax question entirely. But estates above that threshold still face a 40% tax rate on the excess, payable within nine months of death. A single person with a $20 million estate, for example, would owe close to $2 million in estate tax.. Married couples must also actively preserve the deceased spouse’s exemption ...

A fifteen million dollar federal exemption sounds like permission to stop planning. Tom Moss, attorney at Sawyer and Sawyer, P.A., explains why that assumption costs wealthy families the most. This episode breaks down what actually changed under the new tax law, why a will never avoids probate , and what happens when an estate crosses that $15 million line at a 40% tax rate, a scenario more Central Florida families are facing as wealth from New York, California, and Illinois keeps moving south. Tom walks through the residency tests Florida actually enforces, the homestead protections families overestimate, and the funding formulas buried in decade-old trusts that can quietly redirect an entire estate. He also covers what a first meeting with his firm looks like and why family dynamics matter as much as the balance sheet. For any family sitting on real wealth, this conversation is the reality check worth hearing before something goes wrong, not after. In this episode, you will hear:...

Key Takeaways A dementia diagnosis does not automatically mean a parent has lost legal capacity — there may still be a window to get critical documents signed, but that window can close without warning. The two most dangerous mistakes families make right after a diagnosis are transferring assets impulsively to “hide” them and downloading generic legal documents from the internet that don’t meet Florida’s requirements. The durable power of attorney is the single most important document in any elder law or Medicaid crisis planning situation — without it, an attorney’s recommendations can be very limited.. Medicaid crisis planning is still possible even after a diagnosis — Florida offers meaningful options for both married couples and single individuals, but the right documents must be in place to implement them. Dementia patients are statistically the number one target for financial exploitation. Practical protective steps — online account monitoring, c...