Best selling author Tom Clancy left an $83 Million estate when he died. Now, there is a probate dispute about who pays the estate tax. If you are a widow or a beneficiary of a Florida trust or a Florida probate, you may want to read this recent article, or ask your Palm Beach probate litigation law firm about the Florida Probate Code’s law on “apportionment“. In this Tom Clancy estate, his widow or surviving spouse has probate litigators arguing in the probate court that the widow should not have to pay $6 Million in estate taxes.
Question for Florida widows, estate beneficiaries & revocable trust beneficiaries: will your inheritance get cut by the estate tax?
Do you have to pay some of the estate tax or will other beneficiaries or inheritances be responsible with paying the estate tax?
Big Probate Dispute: Who pays the estate tax?
- Every Palm Beach estate lawyer from Boca Raton to Jupiter, Florida knows that the issue of who pays the estate tax is an important one.
- Consider this:
- If you have life insurance, do you want the life insurance proceeds to “go” to the beneficiary free of estate tax?
- What about that joint bank account in Delray Beach? Should the survivor of the joint account have to pay estate tax on the Florida bank account?
- What about the Palm Beach Probate? Does the estate pay the estate tax and reduce the family trust or the marital trust?
Florida Revocable Trusts & Instructions On Who Pays the Estate Tax in Florida
- Most Boynton Beach estate planning attorneys write Florida revocable trusts for clients
- The revocable trust “goes” along with a Florida will
- Either, and sometimes, both, the revocable trust or the Florida will will have instructions on who pays the US estate tax
- If the revocable trust or the will DOES NOT have instructions on who pays the US estate tax, or if the trust or will is not clear enough, the Florida Probate Code has a law that tells you who pays the US Estate Tax
- But…………
Question: what if there is not enough money in the Palm Beach probate to pay the estate tax?
Q: what is there is not enough liquidity? (Do you start selling assets and raise cash? Who’s inheritance do you cut? By how much?)
A: then, Florida probate litigators may weigh in on what estate, trust and bank account beneficiaries may have to chip in to pay some of the estate tax. Check out the Florida probate concepts of apportionment and abatement.
Tom Clancy $83 Million Estate and Widow’s Probate Lawyer
Question: want to read more about the legal matters in this multi-million dollar estate? Here is the link to the online article about the estate and probate matters in Tom Clancy’s estate: http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-tom-clancy-83-million-estate-family-tax-dispute-20140918-story.html