By Joseph E. Seagle, Esq.

👋 Happy Friday! This week is National Estate Planning Awareness Week which occurs during the third week of every October. Congress created it in 2008 to help the public understand what estate planning is and why it is such a vital component of financial wellness.

❗️Situation Awareness: Yesterday, mortgage rates fell to the lowest point this year. We’re seeing a lot of refinance activity and HELOC closings.

1 big thing: Fannie Mae CEO exits as IPO talk heats up

Florida business owners and practice-leaders face tight capital, shifting real-estate dynamics and rising lending costs. Now a federal move in the mortgage-finance world demands attention: the potential IPO of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—once again under serious consideration, this time with a possible early-2026 launch.

Vision: A seismic shift in housing-finance strategy

Fannie Mae’s CEO abruptly resigned early this week, triggering chatter of a potential IPO of the government-sponsored entity (GSE).

Regulator Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William J. Pulte has confirmed the U.S. government is exploring a public offering of roughly 5% of Fannie and Freddie, which combined are valued at $500-$700 billion (and potentially more). 

While earlier reports targeted late 2025, recent commentary indicates early 2026 is a more realistic timeframe—allowing more time for structural, regulatory and legal hurdles to be addressed. 

For Florida-based professionals—realtors, practice-owners with real-estate portfolios, lenders—it’s not just housing policy: this is about how credit flows into your circle.

Traction: Step-by-step how it could affect your operations

• Mortgage guarantee and secondary-market changes: Since Fannie/Freddie guarantee ~$7-8 trillion in mortgages, any shift in their status or entrance of private-capital investors may ripple into underwriting, liquidity and rates. 

• Real-estate value and borrowing strategy: For a dentist buying clinic property, or a lawyer acquiring a multiunit office, changes could mean tighter credit or higher rate floors if the market interprets the IPO as reducing government backstop.

• Timing advantage: If the IPO moves forward in early 2026, the window to lock in favorable terms and secure real-estate-oriented financing maybe narrower than typical.

People / Process / Data: What your team should track now

• People: Your finance or strategic-planning team should monitor FHFA, Treasury and Congressional developments—these will drive timing, structure and regulatory guardrails.

• Process: Review your debt stack and property-financing road-map. Scenario-plan: What if underwriting becomes more conservative or guarantee fees rise?

• Data: Track guarantee fee (g-fee) changes, mortgage origination volumes, home-ownership trends in Florida, and commercial/property-loan spreads. These signal how the IPO might shift cost of capital for your practice or property acquisitions.

Takeaway for Florida professionals: Whether we’re discussing a physician expanding into new office space, a dentist buying a nearby building, or a lawyer leveraging real-estate to protect assets, your financing ecosystem is tied to Fannie/Freddie’s health. A structural move like their IPO could tighten liquidity, raise costs, or shift underwriting norms, impacting your growth strategy, real-estate timeline and financing options.

What to watch & what to decide now: Keep an eye on legislation or formal announcements from FHFA and Treasury—timing is now pointing toward early 2026. Consider proactive decisions: revisiting financing plans, locking in favorable terms, securing alternatives (non-GSE lenders) or accelerating property acquisitions before market-conditions shift. The broader theme: when giant mortgage-finance institutions move, even smaller Florida practice-owners feel the tremors.

2. Florida legislators introduce property tax change bill

Florida property-tax proposals (HJR 357, rebates, homestead changes) could reshape local revenue, operating costs for small businesses and licensed practices and force strategic moves for growth, staffing and real-estate decisions.

Vision — what’s being proposed (and why it matters).

The Florida House has surfaced several sweeping options: a proposed constitutional amendment (HJR 357) that would create a $100,000 assessed-value exemption, alongside separate proposals for targeted rebates and broader moves pushed by the governor to sharply reduce or even eliminate homestead property taxes. These are framed as taxpayer relief amid fast-rising bills, but they would shift billions of dollars in revenue away from counties and cities unless the state replaces the funding. 

Traction — practical steps for business owners and practices.

1. Revisit your operating budget assumptions: expect upward pressure on fees or new special assessments where local governments lose property-tax revenue. 

2. Reprice or renegotiate leases now. Landlords and small commercial landlords will react quickly to revenue gaps—lease escalation clauses, CAM charges and pass-throughs could change.

3. Lock in insurance, permitting and infrastructure costs that could be reallocated locally (affects clinics, law firms, small manufacturers).

People / Process / Data — team, systems and metrics to watch.

Measure net operating income and margin sensitivity to a 5–15% rise in local non-property fees. Update hiring forecasts and cash-runway models; practices with high fixed costs (medical, dental, legal) should build a 90–120 day liquidity buffer and run scenario stress tests. Also track county budget calendars—schools and public safety cuts are politically sensitive and can create local service disruptions. 

Takeaway for Florida entrepreneurs & licensed professionals. Relief for homeowners may arrive, but the tradeoff is fiscal uncertainty for local services and new cost vectors for businesses. Read your lease, stress-test cashflow, and consider short-term hedges (fixed-rate leases, service-level agreements, contingency reserves).

What’s next. Watch committee language and funding offsets this winter—ballot language (if any constitutional change advances) and state budget plans will reveal who actually pays. Decisions made now on leases, staffing and capital projects will determine who thrives through the transition.

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3. When it’s critical to create or review your estate plan

Estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy—it’s for anyone who wants control over their assets, family, and future. Life changes fast, and so should your plan. A stale will or an outdated trust can lead to unnecessary taxes, family conflict, or even litigation.

Why it matters: Florida’s estate laws, homestead protections, and probate procedures evolve regularly. For instance, small tweaks in how a trust or homestead is titled can mean the difference between asset protection and exposure. As families grow and assets diversify, periodic reviews are essential—not optional.

Key moments to act:

• Major life changes: marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, moving to a new state, or loss of a loved one.

• Asset updates: buying or selling property, acquiring a business, or inheriting wealth.

• Health shifts: new medical conditions or aging parents.

• Law changes: federal or Florida estate tax updates, homestead rule changes, or trust law amendments.

• Every 3–5 years: even without big life changes, routine legal checkups keep your plan compliant. And consider reviewing every year if your estate is large or if you have complex family dynamics, such as a blended family from multiple marriages.

Key takeaway: If your estate plan hasn’t been reviewed since your last major milestone — or since before the pandemic — it’s time. Laws and relationships change, but your wishes should remain clear and enforceable.

The bottom line: Your estate plan should be a living document that grows with you. Working with a Florida estate planning lawyer ensures that your will, trusts, and asset protection strategies align with today’s laws and tomorrow’s goals.

4. Why employee engagement is your growth bottleneck

Employee engagement isn’t a perks problem; it’s a productivity and retention problem that silently stunts entrepreneurship and business growth. Patrick Lencioni’s short fable, The Truth About Employee Engagement, shows that employees quit meaning, not spreadsheets, and that fixing engagement directly boosts small business management and team alignment. 

The core diagnosis (short): Lencioni identifies three root causes of miserable, disengaged jobs: anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurement. If team members feel unseen, that their work doesn’t matter, or that progress can’t be measured, engagement collapses along with traction. 

What founders and leaders can do — fast, actionable

• Name people, not roles. Meet weekly, learn one non-work fact about each direct report, and start every 1:1 with “what I need you to know about me this week.” Builds visibility and trust (cures anonymity).

• Connect work to Vision. Show exactly how a task maps to the company Vision and a current Rock, when people see how their daily work advances a Rock or even the company’s Vision, relevance and motivation spike.

• Measure what matters. Replace vague feedback with one clear metric per role and a 30/60/90 day dashboard. Measurement creates momentum and makes accountability real. If employees don’t know the score, then how can they know if they’re “winning” each week?

How this ties to EOS thinking: These steps align with the Entrepreneurial Operating System: clarify Vision, set focused Rocks, and enforce Accountability via simple scorecards, reinforced vision and core values, and a transparent accountability chart. Use the EOS meeting pulse to keep relevance and measurement visible every week.

Takeaway (apply now): Pick one team, pick one Rock, and fix one metric this quarter. Small, consistent actions compound into big business growth, stronger leadership, and healthier team alignment. It doesn’t take beer kegs in the breakroom and ping pong tables in the lobby to engage employees — just acknowledgment, relevance, and a scorecard.

We hope you found this helpful — any feedback is appreciated and can be shared by hitting reply or using the feedback feature below.

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Be on the lookout for our next issue! 👋