Who owns the personal possessions of a deceased person?
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Who owns the personal possession of a deceased person? The probate code provides that the surviving spouse is entitled to $20,000 of household, personal property furniture, furnishings things such as that, plus, two motor vehicles. So if you have a probate proceeding that is considered exempt property, unless the property’s been specifically devised, if there’s no surviving spouse, well, then it goes to the children of the decedent and that they’re entitled to the $20,000 of furniture and furnishings and the two motor vehicles. The usual scenario that I hear, however, someone passes away. They don’t, the only thing that that’s available are the automobiles and, and the household furniture and furnishings. And, even if they have a will, they’re not going to go through probate because everything else is already was jointly owned or had been transferred outside of probate with the beneficiary.
So that present the problem, a functional family, you can get the children together and they can have the automobile transferred into their names or designate who they wish to have the automobile transferred to, on the furniture and furnishings. They can sort it out amongst themselves. When we have a dis functional family it’s problematic because it’s sort of the, I call it the U-Haul effect, whoever gets there first with the U-Haul wins because you don’t have a probate proceeding and if items are missing well, how do you prove what’s missing? What was given away beforehand? And furthermore, what’s the value and, and who took, who hauled it off. So in my career, I’ve never had a probate proceeding just for untitled personal property. So, hopefully you can work this out if there’s no probate proceeding amongst those files or the children. So if you have any questions about exempt property, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
What if I do not like my neighbors landscaping?
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What if I do not like my neighbor’s landscaping? Well, there’s nothing that you can do about your neighbor, landscaping, or the way that they maintain their property. Is it, if it does not violate your, your restrictive covenants in your homeowner’s association, if the landscaping does well, then you can urge the homeowner’s association to take action, to have it corrected, or you under the restricted covenants could file an action to have it corrected, or you could see if it violated any of the county ordinances as far as that’s concerned, but otherwise it’s just something you have to live with. As far as your neighbor’s concerned, sort of like there’s no restriction on how, what color do they paint their house? If they painted some gosh awful color? Well, you just need to close your eyes when you pull in your driveway every day. So, I don’t know that’s sort of a neighborhood dispute, but if you have any questions you can call me at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
What Are the Drawbacks of a Living Trust?
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What are the drawbacks of a living trust? Well, the biggest drawback that I see the living trust is that it’s a complicated document. And then once you sign it you have to rely upon what the lawyer tells you. It says, rather than you’re trying to understand 16 or 17 pages of legal jargon. I always ask folks why they want to set up a trust. And if the simple reason for this is to avoid probate, I go through and I ask them, well, what assets do you have? And that’s simply a matter of real property, some bank accounts and a brokerage account. Those can be, we can avoid probate through titling. If you just have a, a couple of beneficiaries, if you wanna set up a trust because a person is disabled and you want them, a special needs trust.
So they don’t receive the money. Well, that’s a good reason to set up a living trust. Another good reason to set up a living trust is if you need to protect the beneficiaries from spending all the money, if they’re, either have some addiction problems, or they’re not good money managers, you want their money to be held until they reach a certain age, although they may receive the income. One of the other disadvantages of a living trust is the cost to set them up in that’s usually there more expensive. I would also do not unless under severe duress ever set up a joint trust between husband and wife. I still do, but it’s usually it’s not needed particularly to avoid probate. And also you don’t want to put at your homestead property, your home into a joint trust. It creates problems as far as when the first spouse passes away. So if you have any questions about setting up a trust, give me a call and (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos
Why Is a Title Review Important In A Real Estate Transaction?
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Why is a title review important in a real estate transaction? Well, the obvious reason to me is that you want to know whether or not there’s any liens on the property. Also, you want to confirm who the actual owner of the property is, and does not take someone at face value saying that they own the property particular if you’re buying it. So #1, a title search would be done. And certainly in Florida, I would recommend that you obtain title insurance. So, a complete title search would be done to determine the ownership and what liens or in conferences there are against the property, if there’s any outstanding bills, any judgment liens, any wild deeds or, someone has attempted to transfer the property. So those are all in important and almost every real estate contract will provide that to the buyer or seller would be paying for title insurance. So that they’re assured that they’re getting marketable title to the property and that there are no outstanding judgments or liens of against the property are none that they’re aware of or any unsatisfied mortgages as far as that is concerned. So if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
If I Have a Living Trust, Should I Also Have a Will?
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If I have a living trust, should I have a will answer? The question is yes, those are called Pour- Over wills, meaning that your will says I leave whatever assets that I may have that are just titled in. I name to the trustee of my trust, the trust, then the trustee designates who the beneficiaries are, what I have found over my career that sometimes trust are set up and are fine and dandy. They designate who all the beneficiaries are, but for whatever reason, the assets of the decedent are not titled into the name of the trustee. And so there must be a probate proceeding to have the assets transferred to the trustee so they can be distributed to the beneficiaries. So without a will leaving it to the trust, well then the assets would pass to the children or the heirs of the decedent, which is probably not the same as the testament scheme or who you wanted to receive these assets as, as a result of executing a trust. So that is a real good reason to have a will. That leaves everything to the trustee and your trust upon your death in the event. So that any assets that you have in your name alone will go to your trustee to be distributed to your designated beneficiaries. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos, Wills