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Who gets a deceased person’s automobile when it has a loan against it. The same persons that would receive the automobile, if there wasn’t a loan on it, and whoever is the beneficiary, whether that be the children, the spouse, or someone that they left to under the will. They would be entitled to the title, to the automobile, and it would be subject to the loan. So,  what my experience has been whenever someone wants to keep the automobile, we,  advise them the best thing to do is to go ahead and pay the lean off so that we can obtain the title and have the title removed, and then they can be placed into their names. So that is the practical approach on what to do about, automobiles with leans against them. Whenever you have automobiles under leases, it’s even a larger problem. If you have any questions, give me a call. It’s (727) 847-2288.

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How do I transfer my homestead? I’m assuming that this question has to do with your homestead exemption on if you’re an owner or property, and that’s your permanent place of residence. And you’re a resident of the state of Florida. You can exempt the first $25,000 of your taxable valuation from taxes, which saves you approximately $500 in taxes. You pay tax on any amounts between 25,000 and 50,000, from 50,000 to 75,000. You can and exempt everything except school taxes, which save you another approximately $300. In addition to that, there’s a constitutional amendment that provides that,  As long as you have homestead exemption on your property, then the tax assessment will not increase by the lesser or a 3% or cost of living. So, if you change homestead, if you buy another property, or acquire another property, you move into that property. And it’s now your homestead.
You should apply to the property appraiser’s office to have homestead on that property and tell them that you wish to, for your homestead exemption, to this new property, it’s called portability. And they should transfer that to you. If this, you have to acquired this other property within two years from the date that you  last had homestead. So, if you sold your property, you don’t want to wait more than two years to acquire another property. If you want to transfer your homestead and or save our homes, freeze, or holding the tax assessment to the lower amount, which is transferable on, and that’s called portability. You have any questions on that? You give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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How do I determine if a deceased person has life insurance? Well, that’s difficult.  I can only give you some practical suggestions on how to do that. I’m unaware of any database that can be access, in order to find out if someone has a life insurance policy. Of course, the obvious thing to do is to go through whatever personal papers they have in order to see if you can’t find some evidence of it, such as a statement which would say that there’s a premium that’s owed. I don’t guess we have bank statements anymore, but look in the check registry to see if there’s a payment to a insurance company, if it’s a paid up policy. One of the things that we can look at is, or you can look at is, is at the end of the year in January, the insurance companies would send out a 1099 for any accrued interest on a paid up insurance policy, which then would give you some indication as to, that there is in fact, a life insurance policy out there.
But other than the practical approach, I don’t have a have solution. And then the next problem you have once you locate the life insurance policy, well, how do you know who the beneficiary is? That’s another problem. As far as the insurance companies, not wanting to talk to you since you’re not the beneficiary. So you can send in and ask them for a beneficiary claim policy and send them a death certificate with the cause of death to the insurance company. And hopefully they would then let you know whether you’re the beneficiary or not. And  if the beneficiary of the life insurance policies deceased well, then you would need to open up a probate proceeding to recover the death benefit under the life insurance policy. So if you have any questions,  give me a call at 727-847-2288.

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Who can serve as a personal representative? A Florida estate proceeding, a person must be related to the decedent. Meaning a blood relative must be a blood relative to be able to serve, or it can be a reasonable state of Florida. Either one can, can be appointed to serve. So if you’re not related and you live outside the state of Florida, even if you’re designated under a will, you are not qualified to serve at as a personal representative in Florida, you must be related or you must be a resident of the state of Florida it’s either of those qualifications. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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Can I legally drive a deceased person’s vehicle? The answer to that is probably no. You need to, the person who would be entitled to drive the vehicle or would be the personal representative of the estate. So that means a probate proceeding would have to be commenced in order to have a personal representative or executor appointed. And then they could use the car. Automobiles can be transferred to children and spouses. So, I suggest that do be done soon, rather than later, so that it can be put in their names. They can insure it and drive it. The problem with your driving someone that deceased person’s automobile, is that you need to have insurance. And if you had an accident, well, both the estate would be responsible for were the accident. If it was your fault, as well as you, so you would have liability. So, I guess the short answer to this is, no, you don’t have a right to drive the deceased person’s  vehicle. If you have any questions, give me a call at (720) 784-7228.