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On February 1, 2025, President Donald Trump terminated Rohit Chopra’s tenure as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Early on the morning of February 3, 2025, the CFPB issued a press release noting that recently-confirmed Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent had been...
When crafting an individual estate plan, you should consider whether a Revocable Trust is right for you. Below is an analysis of an artificial fact pattern and the estate plan I would recommend based on that fact pattern. For a more concise and technical explanation of the benefits of a Revocable...
When creating trusts for estate-reduction purposes, nothing compares to the Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust. This type of trust is referred to by the acronym “IDGT.” Called by some as an I-D-G-T and others a word that rhymes with “digit,” the IDGT is an excellent tool for reducing the value of...
Account changes by a loved one are often done in secret, and direct evidence of undue influence is rarely available. In cases where manipulation has led to changes in a beneficiary designation that have caused you harm, the claim typically hinges on whether there was a confidential relationship...
The benefits of a Revocable Trust are three-fold. Firstly, assuming that the Revocable Trust is properly funded with all of a person’s assets, a Revocable Trust helps avoid a state’s probate procedure, which can be costly depending on the state’s specific procedure. Secondly, a Revocable Trust is an...
Most Florida residents are aware that Florida has a homestead exemption law, but there is more to it than one might think. There are actually three different sets of laws in Florida that deal with the homestead. One of those is the “save our homes” exemption. The save our homes exemption limits how...
For many clients, the inclusion of revocable and/or irrevocable trusts as part of their overall estate plan is an important feature. Revocable trusts can allow for probate avoidance and estate tax planning, whereas irrevocable trusts can be useful for leveraging the use of gift and estate tax...
On August 21, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced an enforcement action against Fay Servicing, a nonbank mortgage servicer, for alleged violations of federal mortgage servicing laws and non-compliance with a 2017 CFPB order. As part of this action, the CFPB has imposed a...
On February 16, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued revisions to its supervisory appeals process. The Bureau’s supervisory appeals process has not changed since 2015, and the Bureau’s announcement notes that these new revisions “broaden the Bureau officials eligible to evaluate...