Do A Lot Of People Migrate To Florida To Live There For Part Of The Year Or Perhaps To Relocate Full-Time?
The legal framework in Florida does entice people to retire or live there full-time. The state of Florida offers tremendous personal protections that are appealing to individuals who are older. The most common benefits that Florida offers include no state income tax. No state income tax allows retirees to save money, which is a good reason to relocate if they are living in a high-income tax state. Florida, on the other hand, collects its revenue from state sales tax.
Another reason people move to Florida is for the homestead protection that is offered. While you may not have debt or creditor problems, it provides peace of mind. Your nest egg can be secured from any kind of personal injury claim or other type of claim that could arise during your retirement. No one wants to worry about losing their primary residence or retirement plan.
Florida’s homestead protection safeguards all of the equity in your home. Most states limit the protections from creditors on your homestead or primary residence to a set amount. In Florida, there is no income or home value cap. For instance, if you own a $2 million home, all of the equity is protected from creditors. The same concept applies to a $10,000 home.
Florida also provides credit protection from garnishment and execution on retirement accounts. The last common thing, which most people don’t know about but soon discover after working with our elder law office, is that Florida tends to be more lenient in its Medicaid eligibility requirements. Other states have tougher eligibility requirements, but their care and facilities are probably better because of the stricter requirements for eligibility. Since fewer people are eligible for Medicaid coverage for long-term care in other states, they can provide more robust benefits for those who are eligible. In contrast, the state of Florida is a bit broader in its eligibility requirements for its long-term care planning.
What Are Some Examples Of Scenarios That Occur If Someone Hasn’t Properly Planned Or Updated Their Estate Planning Documents To Accommodate Their Snowbird Lifestyle Or Move To Florida?
If a person hasn’t properly transitioned their idea of estate planning or domicile of their permanent residence to Florida, there are things that could come up that may cause legal issues when settling their primary estate. The laws governing probate, trusts, and estate planning are all state specific. As such, if you were to move from out-of-state, there could be language in your existing documents that has no bearing under Florida law or could cause legal problems.
Provisions in your documents could also be lacking. The law in Florida may treat a situation differently compared to another state. While there are a lot of consistent principles state-to-state, each state still have its own specific nuances. A lot of nuances in Florida revolve around second marriages and how they are treated. The rights afforded to second marriages can be different in other states for surviving spouses. Therefore, how you treat a surviving spouse in a second marriage requires immediate attention.
Another scenario that could arise would be the creation of A-B trusts and family trusts upon the death of the first spouse. This circumstance is very common for states that have estate tax planning or estate tax issues. Florida, on the contrary, does not have an estate tax. The last piece would be how to address the primary residence, which due to homestead laws, will be different from state to state.
As The Elder Law Attorney, What Important Questions Do You Ask When Someone Splits Their Time Between Another State In Florida And Perhaps Plans To Relocate To Florida Full-Time In their Older Years? What Are Some Of The Things That You Ask Them Or Want To Know?
The best thing a person can do to establish their domicile in Florida is to discover how much of a footprint they have in Florida. The general rule of thumb is that if you’re in Florida for six months and one day, that gets you where you need to be. The next matter would be where you vote. Where are you registered to vote? Then, the next question would be: What state issued your driver’s license and plates? I look for questions that show me how much you have detached from the former state. Addressing domicile usually becomes important for an attorney outside of Florida, especially when there are state taxing authorities that would be concerned about your state of domicile. You will want as much proof as possible that you’re an official Florida resident so that your former state will not continue to tax you.
As it relates to long-term care planning, it’s not a concern. For instance, in long-term care planning for Medicaid benefits, you just need to be in Florida and have Florida residence to get Florida Medicaid. There isn’t a particular length of time, it’s essentially one day.
If I Already Have My Estate Planning Documents Created In Another State, Isn’t That Enough? Aren’t All Estate Planning Documents Legal Regardless Of The State You’re In?
A point of frustration for many people is when they spend a lot of time and money creating estate planning documents and then move to a different state. Florida does recognize out-of-state documents. Out-of-state documents are all legally valid as long as they’re executed according to the laws of Florida. For example, a will has to be written, signed, and witnessed to be valid. It cannot be an oral will. Therefore, out-of-state wills are recognized as long as they are not oral. Trouble does not really arise from the execution, but from the out-of-state will’s language.
There are both legal and situational issues when it comes to language in the documents. For wills and trusts, it becomes a technical issue when the will and trust has to be followed in a different state and not in Florida. That requires you to interact with an out-of-state attorney rather than an attorney that you can drive to in Florida. That’s another point of issue that you’d want to address and potentially update if you are looking for a more limited revision to your estate planning documents.
References to state specific statues could also create complexities in estate or trust needs. If the intent and language regarding who gets what and who does what don’t change, the benefit of a review of your existing documents could help the attorney in Florida see how they would be administered or held in the state. In turn, the attorney could describe what it’s going to be like for you and your beneficiaries if you don’t make changes.
It’s mostly behind-the-scene stuff. The attorney’s work is to paint what the scenarios would look like. That’s the question you should ask. Even if I’m happy with all the names in my documents and the percentages of how everything is split up, I should still ask: What specific problems is my family going to run into with how this is worded? In regard to trusts, sometimes trusts don’t have witnesses, but Florida wants trusts with witnesses. That’s a technical issue that doesn’t change anything in your eyes, but it needs to be done to be clean and right on point with Florida law.
If you’re moving to Florida from another state, depending on your age, estate planning documents should be reviewed periodically anyway. You can think of the meeting as a second opinion of the prior attorney’s work. There is value even if you don’t have any changes to names. There is value in having a second set of eyes look over your plans to make sure that you’ve hit the mark with the wording and titles in your documents and accounts. In most cases, the documents will be very close. However, there are some circumstances that warrant an update to out-of-state documents, such as homestead matters, changes in the law, and compliance with applicable laws.
For more information on Elder Law In Florida, an initial consultation is your best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (904) 398-6100 today.
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