What is Required to Make a Last Will Legal?
Video Summary
What is required to make a last Will legal in Florida, your wills must be signed and the presence of two different witnesses. And so, you have to have the person making the Will, which they call the test day tour. And the two witnesses, all of them have to be present while all three of them sign the document. You can have one listed later, it can’t be signed later or whatever else the will does not have to be notarized. Now, most Wills that you see today do have a notarization, but that’s on the proof of Will for the will to be admitted into probate. It must be proved. And, if there’s not a certificate at the time they signed it or self-proving Will, then one of the witnesses need to appear at the clerk of the court and swear that the Will was signed in their presence and the presence of the other witness and the person making the Will. So that’s proving the Will. So, the notarization has to do with the proof of Will. So, if you have all those requirements, well, then the will should be admitted to probate and be it admitted to probate. Sometimes in other States they have what they call a holographic Will, which is a handwritten Will, but Florida does not make any exception for holographic Wills. They require even a holographic Will be signed in the presence of two different witnesses. So, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
What is an Assumption Agreement?
Video Summary
What is an assumption agreement? The assumption agreement is usually involved a real estate transaction, where the buyer is going to take over the mortgage payments of the seller. So, the buyer takes over the payments or assumes those payments and starts making the payments. Now, if you have an assumption agreement with the lender then you have to have all parties agree to that, that the buyer will make the payments. And the lender recognizes the buyer as the new borrower and the new borrower continue is the one that is liable for the loan. However, most lenders do not release the seller or the person who initially made the loan. So, they’ll hold both parties responsible. So, an assumption agreement is between the lender, the person who borrowed the money or the person that’s indebted and the person who’s taking over the loan payments. And that’s what the assumption agreement is. If you have any questions about it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
Are There Any Alternatives to Foreclosure?
Video Summary
Are there any alternatives to foreclosure? Fortunately, yes. And these days and times, and that there’s been a hold put on foreclosures if it’s a federally insured loan. So the first matter that you may want to consider, if you’re going into foreclosure is to contact your lender and see about getting them mortgage modification, and they may be willing to work with you as far as modifying the mortgage, reducing your payments, taking your rearages and put them on a, as I say, the backend of the loan or, including them in the loan amount. In order to do that, you would of course, have to have a job and send them your financial information and your expenses. If that, if you’re an unable to get a modification, you might want to consider what they call a short sale that the mortgage is for more than what your property is worth. You can sell the property and the lenders may take the net proceeds and, and satisfy the loan. Now the property is worth more than what the loan is. Well, then the solution of course, is just to sell the property, pay off the mortgage. And that way you don’t have to worry about a foreclosure action and you can sell your property any time prior to the property being sold at judicial sale. So just because they file a foreclosure action doesn’t mean that you can’t still sell your property. Another approach or another alternative to foreclosure is to do a deed and deed the property back to your lender. The lender must agree to do that. As far as that’s concerned is called a deed in lieu of foreclosure. If you’re also none of these work above and, and you want to work with your lender, in particularly if there’s a second mortgage, then you can work with your lender. As far as a stipulations concern that they take back the property. However they don’t seek a deficiency judgment, meaning if their property is worth less than the mortgage, they don’t try and sue you for the difference. So those are some of the alternatives to foreclosure. If you have any questions, you can give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
Where Does the Money Go if No Beneficiary Is Named On My Deceased Spouse’s Bank Account?
Video Summary
Where does the money go if no beneficiary is named on my deceased spouses bank account? The bank does not release the money to anyone without a court order. If it remains dormant for a long period of time, they may eventually turn it over to the state as unclaimed property, depending on the size of the bank account. You can go to the court if it’s less than the amount of your spouse’s funeral bill and ask the court to disperse it to you. If you paid the funeral bill, that’s called a distribution without administration need the death certificate and you need the paid funeral bill, as well as the bank account statement. If it’s less than $10,000, there’s another procedure for small estates, wherein you could have the money dispersed to you. If it is larger than that, well, then you would need to go through a probate proceeding and whether there’s a will or not a will. So that would be a probate proceeding. So what happens to the account? Nothing until you get a court order or, you have a probate proceeding and the bank receives instructions to deposit or send you the personal representative, a check. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
What Is a Foreclosure “Rescue” Scam?
Video Summary
What is a foreclosure rescue scam? This is when your house is in foreclosure and you are approached by a company that says, well, we will take care of this for you. We will take care of making the payments and get your mortgage paid off. We need for you to go ahead and sign a contract, agreeing to transfer the property to us, or in fact, even filing to have the deed transferred to this rescue company. What they then do is they don’t do anything. As far as the lender’s concerned, they try and find someone to purchase a property for an amount in excess of whatever is owed to the lender. And then if they find that will then you have lost your equity, any equity in the property, and they are entitled to. They keep the money. They may even have you sign a deed, which they hold an escrow, but the scam is they don’t do anything.
They don’t file anything in the court proceeding. They don’t pay the lender anything. And so you’re sitting there thinking that they’ve rescued you from this foreclosure action. And meanwhile, the foreclosure action just continues to roll along and you lose the property in a foreclosure action and your credit is damaged and that there is a foreclosure action. So be aware when someone comes in and offers to rescue you from this foreclosure action, you should contact an attorney about whatever the action is and have that reviewed before you agree to it. And talk to the lawyer about what your rights are and how you can resolve the foreclosure action, either through a, a deed in lieu of foreclosure or an agreement to a short sale, or a stipulation to judgment and a waiver of deficiency. So there’s any number of other alternatives, but be aware of someone that’s going to save you from a foreclosure action. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos