Dismuke & Waters Legal Blog

Last week, a Florida Supreme Court decision was released highlighting the importance of relying on professional counsel rather than a do-it-yourself Will.  In the Florida case, after countless attorneys' fees were incurred and a journey up the court system to Florida's highest court, the deceased...

Proper estate planning requires coordination of your whole estate. Without a clear understanding of probate and non-probate assets and the proper coordination of the two, your assets will not likely be distributed according to your intent and last wishes. What are probate assets? Probate assets a...

In a previous blog post (What's In A Name?), we briefly discussed some risks facing a business owner when he or she fails to adequately vet and protect a tradename or logo that is critical to his or her business. In short, the impact of such an oversight can be devastating to an otherwise success...

The path that we walk and the choices that we make are reflective of our values.  Most of us as parents and grandparents look at our children and grandchildren and hope that we can instill our beliefs and values into our family members.  We do that in our time together but we can also do that whe...

If it's the trade name of your business – the answer to that question may be “everything!” For many business owners who have toiled for years to establish long-term client relationships and a brand identity for their closely-held enterprise, the value associated with their company name, logo, and...

An old proverb states, “A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” While humorous, we all too often find clients coming to us with problems that have arisen as a result of their self-representation in forming a business, drafting a Will, preparing a premarital agreement, buy-sell agree...

In 2013 information is easily available. The amazing resources of the web are accessible from our computer, tablets, phones and even our cars. If you have a question that needs an answer, there is no need to wait. You can find the answer anytime and anywhere. At parties, friends will talk about w...

As you doubtless know, The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 has just recently been signed into law. It extends many of the 2001, 2003 and 2009 tax cuts, allows Social Security withholding to return to prior levels and increases income tax rates; while for taxpayers at higher levels of income,...

In the immediate aftermath of President Obama's re-election and the potential continuing gridlock between the House of Representatives and the Senate, we offer our perspective on what the situation is, or will be, with respect to income and estate tax planning. On the income tax side, the electio...

With the high incidence of divorce and remarriage, blended families are becoming the new norm. Unlike the traditional nuclear family, there are many aspects of a blended family that require careful and honest evaluation in order to avoid unintended surprises for subsequent spouses and children up...

In five short months, the unified gift and estate tax laws will undergo drastic changes and not for the better. On December 31, 2012, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Jobs Creation Act of 2010 that increased the estate tax exemption to $5.12 million for 2012 and reduced...

As a young professional, life is dynamic. You are likely buying your first home, getting married and starting a family. With these significant milestones comes added responsibility for your new husband/wife, children, pets and debts. Yet, while many young professionals' parents are meeting with u...

After careful consideration and counsel, you have chosen to take advantage of the myriad of benefits a trust can provide you. The hard part is over, right? Not exactly. Often we find that deciding on who will serve as initial or successor trustee for your trust can be just as difficult as or more...

You worked too hard to amass your estate to make simple, avoidable mistakes with your estate plan. Yet, we find that many people, even some of the most affluent, have made or will make one or more of the mistakes highlighted in a recent Forbes article entitled “7 Major Errors in Estate Planning”,...

Wills and trusts are among the many estate planning vehicles that provide a method for disposing of assets and carrying out your wishes upon death. Oftentimes, the difficult choice is deciding which one of the two, or both, is the most appropriate in order to properly dispose of assets in light o...

Under current law individuals are able to give away very large amounts of their assets free of gift tax, but this opportunity may be going away very soon. For that reason, many people are making large gifts now to take advantage of this rare opportunity. Gifting assets to children or grandchildre...

If you've ever stretched something flexible, like a rubber band, beyond its intended maximum stretching point, you know what happens; it breaks if stretched so far that it becomes misshapen. Often the snap of the breaking rubber band can surprise us and hurt. Many estate planning techniques are l...

For many seller/business owners, the sale of their business represents the culmination of years of hard work, personal financial risk, and untold amounts of sacrifice and worry. To some, the sale will be the jumping-off point for other business and investment ventures. For others, it may well rep...

In Part IV of our blog regarding the sale of a business, we take a moment to focus on the need for the seller/business owner to shore up his business management infrastructure. For many closely-held businesses, this is an area in which sellers and purchasers alike are often left wanting. Purchase...

In Parts I and II of this blog series, we touched on how important it is for the seller/business owner to begin putting in place a more sophisticated financial reporting “backbone” at least 3-5 years in advance of any sale transaction. In Part III, we focus on the need to give similar advance con...

In Part I of our blog series, we emphasized the importance of establishing sound financial statements as a pre-cursor to the ultimate sale of a business. However, merely having good financial statements is not, in and of itself, enough. Understanding the financials and using them in a manner that...

For entrepreneurs who have established and grown a successful business, the decision to sell their business is one of the most complex and difficult choices they will ever have to make. Historically, many entrepreneurs start or purchase a business with little to no thought about their ultimate en...

As noted in previous blogs, the passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Jobs Creation Act of 2010 brought about significant changes to the federal estate tax rules. One of these changes involves the concept of “portability” of the federal estate tax exemption betwee...

Frequently initial meetings with clients begin with the client telling us that they have adult children and they want their estate plan to provide for the inheritance to pass outright to their children. They indicate their confidence in their children; say that if they haven't taught their childr...

Many of you may have, or might one day, awaken to a startling revelation: one of your parents is not exhibiting the responsible fiscal oversight of his or her finances. For as long as you have known your parent, there was scarcely a check you could inquire about that they did not only know why it...