How Can We Add an Accessory Dwelling Unit to Our Property?
Video Summary
How can we add an accessory dwelling unit to our property? Well, the first thing you must do is contact your local city or county building and land use department to see whether or not they allow you to add an ancillary unit. That would be the first step. Not all cities or counties allow this, and if they do, they set forth a requirements that you must meet, such as the setbacks and land size of the property, where it’s going to be located as far as using that. And whenever we have an accessory dwelling unit, that means a separate is different than a Mother-in-law apartment, that’s where you have a separate meter and a separate address. So the first stop is to check with the building and zoning department of your particular city or county to see whether or not you can pull a permit and then submit your plans for that if they do allow it and their site plan. If you have any questions about it, please give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
Who Executes My Estate Plan?
Video Summary
Who executes my estate plan? Well, you must execute all the documents to your estate plan since those are all personal decisions that you must make as far as that’s concerned, and you cannot delegate that to someone else. However, if you do have a particular power of attorney that allows them to make some modifications to your estate plan as far as accounts are concerned, well that is an exception to that. But usually your estate plan or simple estate plan consists of a Will where you designate to whom you want your assets to be distributed to secondly, what they call a living Will or a dying declaration that says that you don’t want to be kept on life support under three conditions. And another document is called a healthcare surrogate, which is really, I think, very important. This is where you are signing a document that is a HIPAA waiver that allows the hospital or doctors to release your medical information to a designated person, which is called your healthcare surrogate. And then also, I recommend that you execute a durable power of attorney to someone that you trust explicitly that can act as your agent, particularly in the event you become disabled. It is effective immediately, and some clients are reluctant to have it signed, particularly if they’re in good health as far as that’s concerned, and that they’ve seen the abuses of powers of attorney. I’ve found that they’re very useful in many circumstances whenever it’s an elderly person and they need to be able to pay their bills or transact business for them. So if you have any questions about estate planning ,give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Is It Better to Keep Or Sell a House During a Divorce?
Video Summary
Is it better to keep or sell a house during a divorce? This is a question that you need to discuss with your divorce lawyer. I don’t think that there is any cut and dried answer or anything that I could advise you as to whether you should or should not. It a lot depends on the circumstances of you and your financial standing and also the financial standing of your soon to be ex-spouse, or hopefully soon to be ex-spouse. And so this is strictly a matter that you need to discuss with your divorce lawyer and obtain a marital settlement agreement as far as the house, as well as all the other assets that you have, possibly child support and visitation. So I don’t do divorces, so you can, my phone number is (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Real Estate – Selling, Videos
Do I Need a Lawyer to Settle a Boundary Dispute With My Neighbor?
Video Summary
Do I need a lawyer to settle a boundary line dispute with my neighbor? The answer is absolutely you need to have a lawyer. First thing is you need to have a survey to establish where the boundary line is and also where there’s any fences that are encroaching on your property or on your neighbor’s property or any other structures. Secondly, hopefully your neighbor has a survey too and see if the surveys match. If you and your neighbor are reach an agreement as far as the boundary line, you’ll need to have that memorialized and put in the public record so it won’t come up in the future and have a lawyer prepare that agreement. As far as the boundary line’s concerned, if this is a boundary line dispute as far as where the fences have been for a number of years or whatever, there’s any number of legal theories by which you can try and proceed under, but it is a very, very complex area of the law and you absolutely need to have an attorney to represent you as far as a boundary line dispute. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
Why Would a Trust Be a Bad Idea?
Video Summary
Why would a Trust be a bad idea? Well, the first question I ask clients when they come to see me, they want to set up a Trust, is said, why do you want to set up a trust? The usual answer I get is because I want to avoid probate. Well, there’s alternatives to that, particularly if you want all your assets to be distributed at the time of your death to the beneficiaries. If that is the estate plan and the purpose of the Trust, that can be accomplished by how you title your assets. Just like your bank accounts, you can set those up so that they’re payable on death to the beneficiaries. Doesn’t have to go through probate. If you have your home, you can execute an enhanced life estate deed called a Lady Bird Deed works the same as a payable on death bank account. You have all the rights of ownership during your lifetime, but upon your death, it’ll go automatically. Go to the beneficiaries with a death certificate and avoid probate. If you have a brokerage account with say, Merrill Lynch or Raymond James or any brokerage account, you can then set that up so that there’s beneficiaries. That’s called a TOD designation, so those would automatically avoid probate and go to the beneficiaries. Also, your life insurance, annuities, IRAs, all of those have beneficiaries or should have beneficiaries, and so none of those go through probate. So if you don’t have a good reason to set up a Trust, that would be a reason why it would be bad to set one up because you’re basically just spending money that you don’t need to. In the past, Trust had been set up to avoid estate taxes, but estate taxes have been now elevated to you have to have assets over $13 million before there’s any estate taxes. So that would be the circumstance whenever I would not recommend, or I basically don’t draftTtrust if the person wishes their assets to be distributed at the time of their death and designated. Now, there are good reasons set up Trust, such as if you have minors and you want to delay the distribution of their money, or if you have a beneficiary that has a drug dependency or is a special needs trust. Any number of other good reasons set up trust. But if you just wish to do it, to avoid probate and you want an outright distribution, I think that’s a bad idea and save your money as far as the cost of setting one up. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.