As noted in our last update letter, the Florida Legislature modified the statutory Rule Against Perpetuities by increasing the maximum permissible period from 90 years to 360 years (P.L. 2000-245, amending §689.225). This law, as well as the companion provision allowing both judicial and nonjudicial reformation of trusts (§§737.4031 and 737.4032), will become effective on December 31, 2000. You can now choose the 360 year statutory period for your perpetuities provision. Note, however, that the provision is not effective for an irrevocable trust unless executed after December 31 and is not effective for a revocable trust or Will if the grantor or testator dies prior to January 1. Prohibiting judicial modification and allowing nonjudicial modification are now offered as options if you do not choose the new 360 year statutory period. For simplicity and to ensure consistency, the separate questions on Rule Against Perpetuities for the GST Exempt Trust, the Trusts for Children, and the Trusts for Descendants have been removed--all three trusts are now tied to the savings clause perpetuities provision. Questions 824-825.
As noted in our last update, the legislature made some relatively minor changes effective June 15, 2000 (in P.L. 2000-295) to Chapter 765 dealing with medical and end of life issues. Both the short and long form health care surrogates have been modified accordingly.
You can now draft an irrevocable grandchild's trust using Florida Wills & Trusts. Select "Trusts" at the main menu and then select "Grandchild's Trust." The Grandchild's Trust can be drafted with either Crummey or I.R.C. §2503(c) withdrawal powers. See the "How To" topic "Draft an Irrevocable Trust" for a discussion of how to share data when drafting an irrevocable trust and a revocable trust or stand-alone Will for the same client. Questions 3, 69-72, 476.
A new separate title, "Rev. Proc. Charitable Remainder Trusts," is included with this update. Use this title to generate inter vivos charitable remainder unitrusts and annuity trusts for one life, two lives concurrent, and two lives consecutive under IRS Revenue Procedures 89-20, 89-21, 90-30, 90-31, and 90-32. Notice 2000-37 (2000-29 I.R.B. 118), issued July 17, 2000, invites suggestions for updating these forms. See the "How To" topic "Draft a Rev. Proc. CRT" for a discussion of how to share data when drafting a charitable remainder trust and a revocable trust or stand-alone Will for the same client.
In response to your requests, the Will and trust now provide that if a GST Exempt Trust is included, the GST Exempt Family Trust and GST Exempt Marital Trust are directed specifically to the GST Exempt Trust.
The option of allocating the GST exemption to a GST-exempt trust is now available regardless of the tax formula chosen. Formerly, you had to choose a residuary marital gift if you wanted to allocate GST if the spouse survives. Questions 237-38.
If you are allocating the GST exemption and choose an equalizing gift in trust for the children of any deceased children, the trusts holding the equalizing gifts will now be automatically held under the same terms as the Trusts for Descendants. The option of holding these shares under the terms of the GST Exempt Trust was eliminated; because no exemption will be allocated to these "equalizing" trusts, an inadvertent GST tax could be created at a grandchild's death. Question 261.
The Special Power of Appointment options for the Family Trust, Marital Trust, GST Exempt Trust, Trusts for Children, and Trusts for Descendants have been expanded and standardized. Questions 281-86, 334-39, 385-90, 435-40, 477-82.
In response to your requests, you may now specify the age at which income payments begin if the optional "Payment of Income" provision is included in the GST Exempt Trust, Trusts for Children, or Trusts for Descendants. Questions 363-64, 412-13, 453-54.
You can now create a "list" of successor trustees with only one member. A new follow-up question asks if the member is an individual or a group (e.g., "all of my children, or the survivor of them,"), and the name or description is integrated into the paragraph. Questions 647-48.
In response to your requests, if you choose to include your firm’s address on the cover page of a Will or trust, the street address is now included as well as the city and state. In addition, we have added the document date to the cover page of the trust. Question 884.
The option of having someone sign for an incapacitated client, formerly only available for Wills and trusts, has been expanded to include the certificate of trust, designation of preneed guardian, health care surrogate, living will, Durable Power of Attorney, revocation of DPA, trust transfer deed, assignment, and DPA escrow instructions letter. Questions 875-76.
You can now name multiple attorneys-in-fact in a single Durable Power of Attorney or create multiple DPAs, one for each named attorney-in-fact. The DPA Escrow Instructions Letter has been modified to allow for the possibility of multiple DPAs and to instruct the holder to release the DPAs in order, effectively providing for successor attorneys-in-fact. Questions 958-964, 971-75, 989.
A sample "Separate Writing for Disposition of Tangible Personal Property" is now available as a stand-alone document on the Ancillary Documents menu. Formerly, it was an optional attachment to the "Sending documents" letter. Question 5.
A "Browse" mode has been added to the Exemplar Assistant. "Browse the Outline" shuts down the program's suppression logic and allows you to more easily go to unanswered questions without answering predicate questions. This allows you to create and modify Exemplars without first creating a full answer set. (You will still get asked predicate questions if the answers are necessary to build the question text or choice list for the question you want to answer.) Question 9.
The option of having names automatically converted to ALL CAPS has been expanded to include the client, his/her spouse and children, named trustees, personal representatives, agents, guardians, and surrogates, recipients of specific gifts, and other beneficiaries. Question 81.
In addition to the new and changed topics discussed above, we have changed the instructions in the subtopic "Creating an Exemplar with Selected Answers Only" in the "How To" topic "Create your own templates" to provide a better method for creating these types of Exemplars. No changes were made to the program itself, so if you were satisfied using the prior method you may continue to do so. To view any "How To" topic, select "How To" on the opening menu, select a topic, and click the QHelp button. Press Enter with the topic selected to send that topic to your word processor. Question 10.
Minor changes have been made to document language. In addition, several questions have been reworded or given new or changed choices. Consequently, when you open an existing answer file or Exemplar, you may have to answer additional questions before sending your document to your word processor even though you had previously answered all questions. See "Up_Oct00.flg." "Up_Oct00" is a flag file that flags all new questions and any questions with changed choices or commentary. You can load "Up_Oct00" onto any new or saved answer session or Exemplar (click Open Flags on the Flags menu, then click "Florida Wills & Trusts" and OK, then select "Up_Oct00" and click OK) to see which questions were impacted by this update. ("Up_Oct00" cannot indicate deleted questions.)
Please continue to send us your suggestions on existing or new products. Contact our Technical Support Department at 1-800-9-LAWGIC (952-9442) or e-mail us at support@lawgic.com.
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This information is not intended to constitute legal advice.
This summary should not be relied upon independent of consulting the Lawgic software.