How Do You Avoid Probate For Florida Property?
Video Summary
How do you avoid probate for Florida property? Well, let’s first talk about how the property is titled first. Let’s talk about personal property, such as bank accounts, and also the relationship of the parties. If you’re married, you just put the assets and your joint names as husband and wife, that would be particularly if you want your husband or wife to receive it upon your death. So that would be the easy answer to most of it. And that would avoid probate when the first spouse passes away. And particularly if you have all the assets titled as husband and wife, if you’re by yourself then the options, as far as bank accounts are concerned, you can set those up as payable on death so that they would pass to the beneficiary, whoever you wanted to go to at your death. The same things with a brokerage account where you have stocks and bonds with Merrill Lynch or any other, ag Edwards or, Raymond James, you can have a designation that says it’s transfer on death or a TOD designation.
I don’t know what this inquiry had to do with real estate, but with real estate if you just have a few people that you wanted to go to equally, we can do what they call a Lady bBrd deed, which is called an enhanced life estate deed. And that’s where you executed deed, conveying the property, who are, you want to receive a debt, your death, but you receive all retain all the rights of ownership during your lifetime. And that way you can sell it, keep all the money. You can change the beneficiary anytime you want. And it doesn’t create a problem for Medicaid. It preserves all your rights as far as homestead property. If you’re dealing with your homestead property and it’s referred to as Lady Bird, deed, and at that’s how it appeared in a treatise, probably 25 or 30 years ago, where the author named all of his documents after famous people and it’s named after Lady Bird Johnson. So if you have any questions about needing to have a lady bird deed prepared will give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Probate, Real Estate, Videos
How Long Does Probate Take?
Video Summary
How long does probate take in Florida? Wow. That’s a loaded question and it’s very hard to give a general answer to that since you need to look at whether there are a well or not, whether we have know how many beneficiaries are involved and what’s the nature of the assets as far as that’s concerned. So to try and give you a general idea, what it is, the rules of court indicate that the probate administration needs to be concluded within one year. If not, you need to file something with the court, explaining to the court, why the estate administration’s taking longer than one year. An example of that in the event, there was any litigation. So if it is a relatively simple administration where the assets and you have the designated beneficiary stocks and bonds and bank accounts or real estate I would usually tell the client that hires me, that you’re probably looking between six to nine months to probate the estate.
And in order to have it concluded and in the assets liquidated or distributed to the beneficiaries, there are several types of probate administration. There is a summary administration. So if there if the assets are less than $75,000 and arrangement have been made to satisfy their creditors you can file a summary administration and have it distributed directly to the beneficiaries. And that proceeding usually only takes about 30 days. Once you file it with the court, when you have smaller estates, there’s other procedures that can be followed where my it’s still a probate proceeding, but you really don’t have to, it’s short form and just submitted to the court. So, I hopefully gave you some idea, some guidance, although I didn’t really answer the question on how long it takes. It depends on the beneficiaries, the assets, and what’s involved. If you have a probate issue or an estate will give me a call and I’ll be glad to talk to you about it at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos
What Is a Geotechnical Exploration Report?
Video Summary
What is a geotechnical report. It’s a report that shows the results of test of the ground and whether or not there’s any problems. Usually it’s done in conjunction with testing for sinkholes. And so the report will show the types of soils, whether or not there’s any open spaces whereby that avoids where the limestone or infrastructure could collapse or, and also says what kind of soils, which would indicate whether or not there’s any debris involved. And usually this is, you usually have this done. If you’re buying, let’s say residential property, if there’s any indication that there’s any cracks in the house that you’re buying, or if there’s any sinkhole activity in the neighborhood, if the neighbor, or, you know, there’s six other sinkhole reported problems in the neighborhood, well, it might do well to go ahead and have this report, have this inspection done, to determine whether or not there’s any sinkhole activity underneath this house.
If it’s vacant property before you build, you may want to go out there and have these tests done and get a report to indicate whether or not there is any problems as far as the soil is concerned. And there are a couple of types of I’m familiar with.. One is a radar, which is not quite as good as whenever they do borings as far as the term, the soils, and also they have another tests where they do tamping to see whether or not the lime rock base is solid or whether it would crack. So, I’m probably not the right guy to call as far as a geo-technical reports concerned. Cause I’m not really qualified to read it. I would just have to take the opinion of whatever’s in the report. But if you, if you’re buying property and have questions about whether you should have a test or not, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. My phone number is (727) 847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
Is Florida Probate Administration Always Required?
Video Summary
Is probate, Florida administration always required? No, it’s not required. Whenever someone passes away, the first matter that you would have to determine as to whether or not you have to probate someone’s estate is whether or not they have any title assets or just in their name alone. So that they’re not jointly held with someone, or they don’t have a designated beneficiary. Many accounts are set up with a payable on death, on your bank account. So those would not have to be probated. Certainly joint accounts would not have to be probated, securities or brokerage accounts that have a transfer on death would not have to be probated life insurance with a beneficiary, doesn’t have to be probated, IRAs and annuities, they all have beneficiaries. So, none of those have to be probated. Also, if the automobiles are going to children or there’s no will, the children can have an automobile to automobiles transferred in their name because they’re considered an exempt asset by going to the property appraiser’s office, excuse me, the tax collector’s office, who is an agent for the department of motor vehicles and have the vehicle titles transferred into their name.
So, a probate administration not necessary unless there are assets that are just titled in the deceit’s name. If you have any questions about this, Give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
How Much Money Can You Make and Still Get Medicaid In Florida?
Video Summary
How much money can you make and still qualify for Medicaid in Florida ,as of January, 2021, the amount comes to $2,382. And this has to do with whenever you’re attempting to qualify for a skilled nursing care, or other Medicaid benefits. There’s a Florida house, a two-part test. And as far as qualifying, not only do you have to meet the income guidelines, you also have to meet the asset guidelines. And one of the big assets that is not considered in the Medicaid formula is your home. If you own a home, that’s not counted as an asset, as far as qualifying for Medicaid. If your income exceeds the $2,380, there is a what they call a Miller trust. It can be set up, so that, say your income is $3,000 and your nursing home bill is 8,000. You can set up a Miller trust and still qualify for Medicaid by having your income paid into the Miller trust and that thereby qualify. So, if you’re looking to qualify for Medicaid, if you give me a call at (727) 847-2288, I’d be glad to direct you or discuss with you your situation. I look forward to your call at (727) 847-2288
- Published in Medicaid Planning, Videos