Should Bank Accounts of the Deceased Person Be Closed Immediately Upon Death?
Video Summary
Should a bank account of the deceased person be closed immediately upon death? First off, we would need to determine whether or not it is a joint account. If it’s a joint account, particularly between husband and wife, I do not suggest that it be closed immediately. The reason for that is if a check comes in a payable to the decedent, you need to have some place to deposit it so that you wouldn’t have to go through a probate proceeding in order to cash the check. If however, the account is just in the decedent’s name, I suggest that you may want to deliver a death certificate to the bank and ask them to freeze the account. You would then need to go through a probate proceeding in order to close the account and collect the proceeds. So, if you have any questions about how to collect the money from, deceased bank account, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos
Do I Have to Report Money Received As a Beneficiary to Probate Court?
Video Summary
Do I have to report money to the IRS for money that I received as a beneficiary of a probate proceeding? First off, let’s talk about a state taxes. The state of Florida has done away with the state taxes. So, there was none, no estate taxes to be paid to the state of Florida. The federal government has raised the federal estate tax limit to $11.8 million. So, if the estate or the decedent’s assets are less than that amount, there are no estate taxes. As far as money that you receive from a probate proceeding, or a probate state, you should not have to pay any income tax on it other than whatever the interest is, or the income from the estate, the personal representative of the estate is required to file what they call a fiduciary tax return or 1041. And then they file that and sign to you as the beneficiary, a K1, the amount of income that you would have to report on your income tax and whether it’s ordinary income or long term capital gains, the personal representative can deduct the expenses of the estate from the income. So that would be a minimum. It could be a minimal amount, but you’ll get a K1 from the personal representative. If you just inherited a bank account, you don’t have to pay any tax on the principal amount you receive. However, if you receive the interest on a bank account as a beneficiary, you would have to report that income on your tax return. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
Can I Take Legal Action If I Have Noise, Dog Complaints Against My Neighbor?
Video Summary
Can I take legal action if I have noise dog complaints against my neighbor? Well, the action that you would need to take would be a nuisance action, and that is, would be very expensive for you to file that also difficult for you to prove. And even once you got an order as far as a nuisance is concerned by the court, telling the person to abate the noise, it’s even difficult to have that enforced since it’s a court order and the persons may be held in contempt to court. So, you do not have an effective legal remedy to take care of the noise complaint with a barking dog. You can certainly call your local code enforcement folks as far as the noise, but really you don’t have a very effective way to do that. Filing an action for nuisance would be very, very expensive and difficult to prove and also difficult to enforce. So, I don’t have a good practical solution or a good alternative to the problem. My phone number (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
How Do I Release a Vehicle Lien?
Video Summary
How do I release a lien on a motor vehicle in Florida? Well, you have to sign a motor vehicle lien release, which is a form that you can obtain from the tax collector’s office. And that their agents for the department of motor vehicles that needs to be signed and given to the to the person who you’re satisfying your lien on their vehicle. You do not sign the lien on the title itself, you sign a lien release, which is a separate form. If you have any questions, I’ll be glad to try and answer those. Probably the tax collector’s office might be a better resource, but I’ll be glad that speak to you. My phone number (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos
How Do I Stop Automatic Bill Payments of a Deceased Person?
Video Summary
How do I stop automatic bill payments of a deceased person? It that’s assuming that the bank account is just in the decedent’s name and there’s not going to be well, whether or not there’s a probate administration or mot. My suggestion is, is to contact the bank, advise the bank of the deceit and that the person is deceased and provide them with a death certificate. And I asked that that the, the account be frozen. Uh, so that is important. If however, the account is in joint names with someone, the co-owner is, is entitled to the money. And so whether or not you want to have that automatic bill payment stopped or not well, or have the account closed, to stop it. That’s a real question that you would need to talk to or reason with or determined with the co-owner, particularly if it’s husband and why.
I don’t suggest a husband or wife, if they have a joint account close the account out when they lose their spouse. The reason for that is if you leave the account open and their joint names, and they get a small check made payable to the deceased person, they can deposit into the joint account and access that check. Otherwise they call and need to say, well, how am I going to cash this check? Because it’s in the decedent’s name. I always ask,” was there a bank account that deposit in?” And the answer is no, you can see where that’s problematic. Particularly one is for a relatively small sum. So, if you have any questions about probate, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.