Who Does An Assignment Of Benefits Benefit, Me Or The Insurance Company?
Video Summary
Insurance companies advise against assigning the benefits of the life insurance policy and the question is whether or not that’s for their benefit or for your benefit. Well, the assignment is usually you’re assigning it to someone to pay a bill or for some reason why you’re assigning it or you’re selling that benefit. And so if you’re selling it to somebody, well that means they’re making a profit. So I believe that the advice not to assign the benefits under the life insurance policy or any insurance policy is probably a pretty good idea not to do that unless you consult with an attorney as to why you’re doing it and if you have any other choices. I see that it is probably a pretty good idea to assign life insurance benefit to a funeral home, however, to pay for a funeral. If you do not have the necessary funds to pay to have someone buried and you were left to be the beneficiary and you want your loved one to be buried, well I think that’s a pretty good assignment. And then you can always see about recovering the cost of the funeral if there’s an estate proceeding.
So if there are other circumstances wherein you’re assigning the life insurance policy, you need to probably consult with an attorney as far as why you’re doing it and whether or not it’s advisable. I’m not sure why the life insurance companies or the insurance companies tell you not to assign it, but I think that that’s pretty good advice until you talk to an attorney to determine whether that’s in your best interest or whether or not you have any choices in the matter. If you have any questions about that, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
Do I Need A Lawyer To Establish An LLC In Florida?
Video Summary
Do I need a lawyer to establish an LLC in Florida? The answer to that is no.
You can go on the Secretary State’s website and it’s very easy to establish an LLC. However, the problem with that is once that you establish it, who is the owner of this LLC, what you need to go along with your LLC is what they call an operating agreement, which sets forth who the members are and their particular percentage interest. It’s analogous to having a corporation and you don’t have any shareholders, so who owns the corporation? So it’s easy enough to set one up. However, who owns it once you have it established, who are the members, and so that’s where you do need a lawyer to set up an operating agreement designating who are the members, which is the membership interest in the LLC.
So if you would like me to set up an LLC or prepare an operating agreement for you, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in LLC's and Corporations, Videos
How Can I Protect My Children’s Inheritance Of My Home If I Have Creditors?
Video Summary
How can I protect my home for my children and their inheritance if I have creditors? Well, under our Florida constitution, your home is protected from creditors. It’s called homestead and that’s a different part of our Florida constitution than when you file for homestead exemption, but you have to be a Florida resident and your residence must be less than a half an acre if inside the city limits and less than 160 acres outside a municipality.
And if you’re a resident of Florida and you pass away, then the property will pass to your children unless direct it to be sold under your will, or you can leave it to your children and your creditors will not have a claim against it even if they have a judgment against you, it will not attach to your homestead property. The word that’s used in the Florida constitution is this exemption from for sale of your creditors of your home in nours or passes through to your children. So your home is protected from creditors during your lifetime so that you don’t have to worry about credit card companies coming in and getting a judgment and taking your home and neither do your children if you even have judgments.
There is an exception, of course, in the event that the federal government has a lien, a tax lien, or a judgment against you, they can take your home and you cannot protect it from the claims of the United States of America. But your home is protected if you go through a bankruptcy, you can exempt out your homestead property and reaffirm your mortgage debt and preserve it; or if it’s paid for, you may even be able to keep it out of bankruptcy and be protected from the claims of creditors, and then whenever you pass away, it’s not subject to any judgment you have against you when it passes through to your children. You do have to leave it to your children or their heirs or grandchildren in order for them to get this exemption from the claims of creditors.
If you have any other questions about your homestead property and your creditors, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
What Is A Joint Trust And Can I Establish One?
Video Summary
What is a joint trust and can I establish one? A joint trust is whenever usually husband and wife sign a trust agreement. Thereby you’ve gotta have two people, of course, to have a joint trust, particularly whenever they own all their assets jointly, and it’s not – you just need to contact an attorney to be able to establish a joint trust.
If the purpose of the joint trust is to avoid probate, you can do that through titling your assets as husband and wife and that way you avoid probate when the first one passes away. If the purpose of the joint trust is to establish a… who you want to receive the asset when both the husband and the wife passes away, that is very, very remote on a simultaneous death, and I really don’t recommend it on that basis.
Also if you do set up a joint trust, do not put your homestead property into a joint trust. There’s all sorts of problems that are associated with that. Also joint trust destroy what they call tenancy body entirety is to give you a certain amount of protection from creditors if there is a judgment against either husband or wife under Florida law. So I am not a big fan or I don’t usually recommend folks to set up joint trust. I think you can title your assets so that they can go to the survivor rather than having a joint trust. If you don’t want your assets to go to your spouse, you have a prenuptial agreement; you have a second marriage or something like that; then I suggest you have separate trust, one for the husband and one for the wife as far as that’s concerned. And again, not putting the homestead property in either trust.
So if you have any questions about establishing a trust, joint or otherwise, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. Thank you.