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Meet Victor, a vampire who's been around for five centuries. He survived wars, plagues, changing governments, and more than a few angry villagers’ wooden stakes. Along the way, he’s accumulated castles, priceless antiques, and an estate estimated at $52M (he lives large, this Victor!).
If you expect to live forever, an estate plan may seem unnecessary. But, alas, even the undead die (as we’ve seen in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Vampire Chronicles, the Twilight Saga and True Blood), and it’s usually very messy when they do. What would vampire Victor’s ideal Florida estate plan look like?
Living Will and/or Health Care Proxy - short of being killed, all of Victor’s injuries seem to miraculously heal. He probably doesn’t need a living will (to stipulate end of life health-related decisions) or a health care proxy (to identify the individual that would made those decisions should Victor not be in the position to make those decisions for himself).
Power of Attorney – Of course, Victor has multiple properties and assets in his name alone. A power of attorney (to allow a named agent to act on his behalf for financial related decisions) will be important for his love interest to assist while he is in a deep sleep or recuperating from the strong Florida sun. We’d want to have several backups listed in the event that Victor outlives the first five or so folks named.
Last Will and Testament – Victor’s last will should be a pourover will into the trust. We would want to address whether he’s married at the time; does he want his wife to inherit everything? Does Victor have children that are minors? Is his spouse also a vampire? I suspect Victor’s will needs to be updated every 50 years or so to account for his changing circumstances.
Trust – a trust would be a great option for Victor. I’d want to carefully consider the Florida 1000-year Rule against Perpetuities that creates a dynasty trust to make sure we are in compliance. Florida, with no state income or estate tax, offers a highly advantageous legal framework for dynasty trusts.
Memorandum of Disposition – a separate list that Victor can update himself periodically, the memorandum of disposition allows Victor to distribute tangible personal items at his discretion to whomever he desires. His Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, private planes and art collection can go on the memorandum. The only items NOT permissible in this memorandum is real property or cash.
Review of Assets - Even Victor needs clear title to his real properties, and we’d want to make sure that assets accumulated through the centuries have a good chain of title in the deed records for each new identity Victor may have assumed. We would use the a/k/a (also known as) on the deeds to identify the correct vampire.
Beneficiary Designations – Victor’s beneficiaries may have died centuries ago and as every reader of this newsletter knows, THIS IS HOW WE AVOID PROBATE. Making sure each asset has a path is very important. We will need to check Victor’s beneficiary designations to make sure he listed the trust as the beneficiary to avoid constantly updating his human beneficiaries as he outlives them.
Life Insurance - Not the best life insurance candidate, underwriting would probably not approve Victor, but as per usual, it can’t hurt to get a quote from your insurance/financial team.
There you have it folks, we learn that even vampires need love (and an estate plan). We also learn that marriage, divorce, births, deaths, changes in finances, and changes in the law are all reasons to revisit an estate plan (an estate plan isn’t something you sign once and leave gathering dust for 500 years).
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