How Do I Safeguard Protect The Assets Were Left Behind?
Video Summary
How do I safeguard or protect assets that are left behind? This is a very problematic question and that you really have to rely upon your heirs or whoever has access to these assets whenever you pass away to see that they’re safeguarded. If the assets are titled such as real estate, well then they are pretty well safeguarded because you need to have the appropriate person sign the deeds as far as conveying the real property is concerned. If they’re automobiles or any assets that are titled, you can then check on that to see if anyone attempted to transfer those automobiles that we’re not entitled to. Same thing with securities and brokerage accounts. Those are all titled, and they require documentation in order to be able to be transferred to the beneficiaries of your estate. There is problems whenever you have, such as jewelry, collectibles, coins, furniture, antiques.
None of these assets have any assets. I routinely talk to my clients who do estate planning and I said it’s the U-Haul effect. Whoever gets there first with the U-Haul wins. So, you really have to rely upon the integrity of the beneficiaries of the estate because it’s very, very difficult to prove what’s was taken by whom and how much was it worth in order to try and recover it from someone. If you want to safeguard items such as jewelry and coins and things such as that, you could probably put them in a safe deposit box. However, then you won’t be able to enjoy them during your lifetime if they’re locked away. But that’s one way to safeguard them. Larger items, equipment, tools, things like that can’t put that in the safe deposit box. So the only thing that you may do is try and go through and come up with an inventory of some of the more valuable assets and put down the approximate value and put that on a list as to who you want to receive that, and that would certainly show that what assets should be there, but if they’re not, it’s very, very problematic. If you have any questions about this, give me a call, (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Why Would I Need a Disposition Without Administration?
Video Summary
Why would I need a disposition without administration? You’re entitled to obtain this disposition without administration. If the funeral bill that you paid exceeds the amount of a bank account, so let’s say that you paid $3,500 for the funeral bill for the decedent, and they had a bank account which has $1,200 in it, you can then apply to the court, go to the probate court, and ask to file this petition for disposition without administration. Provide them with the paid funeral bill and also the information as far as the bank account’s concerned, and the court of the judge on interim order directing the bank to give you the money and without having to go through a probate proceeding. I believe there is a filing fee for that. So if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos
What Are My Duties As An Executor?
Video Summary
What are the duties of an executor? Well, an executor, we now refer to them as personal representatives and as far as the Florida law is concerned, but the executor is usually nominated in a Will. Wherein the in a Will, it says, I designate so and so to be the executor of my estate, or if they die without a Will, the other heirs agree as to who should serve. The designated person or nominated person then files a petition with the probate court asking that they be appointed the personal representative. The court would then enter an order appointing them. However, saying before I give you the authority to act, you must file an oath that you will perform your duties faithfully and designate a resident agent who must be a Florida attorney. After you file those, the court may also require a bond, which is a fidelity bond that says that if you steal any money from the estate, then that there’s an insurance company that would pay for it. After you’ve met these requirements, then the court issues what they call letters of administration, and that’s your authority to act. And that’s what you would use to send the banks to close out bank accounts and to collect other assets and give you authority to basically sell real estate other than homestead property. Then you’re also required to send notice to creditors, which is usually done by the lawyer who’s handling the probate proceeding and the creditors period runs from three months from the date of the first publication. That, and you also required to send this notice to any reasonably ascertainable creditor after 60 days after receiving your letters of administration, the executors to file an inventory and send it to the various beneficiaries after the time period for the three month time period for creditors expires, then the executor needs to pay the creditor’s bill, outstanding claims, and then go ahead and make distribution to the beneficiaries if all the assets have been liquidated. So that’s a thumbnail sketch of what an executor needs to do. If you have any questions or need to have an estate probated, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos, Wills
Is The Previous Power Of Attorney Still Valid?
Video Summary
Is a previous power of attorney still valid? Powers of attorney don’t have an expiration date, so they are valid and until revoked. The problem that you have whenever you have an old power of attorney, thats many years old and you present it to a bank or someone else, they may or may not accept it, which they may or may not be required to by law. So it’s probably wise that you go ahead and update your power of attorney from time to time. Florida recently changed the power of attorney statute, which authorized what they call superpowers, which would give your agent the ability to handle some of your IRA accounts, things such as that. One problem that people run into is if they have a trust in all their assets in the trust and they also give someone a power of attorney the person or agent who has the holds a power of attorney cannot deal with any assets that are titled in the name of the trustee’s name. Only the trustee or successor trustee can do that unless special provisions are made in the trust and the power of attorney. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos, Wills
How Do I Get My Deceased Parents Annuity?
Video Summary
How do I get my deceased parents annuity? The annuities are a life insurance product and they have a designated beneficiary. Most of the time, if it was your father’s annuity, he would’ve named your mother and vice versa. And they should designate an alternate beneficiary. But any about that is how you do it. If you’re the designated beneficiary, you have to send the death certificate to the company that issued the annuity or whoever purchased the annuity, and then they will send you the benefits of the annuity or give you any options as far as that’s concerned. So if there is no beneficiary or the beneficiary is deceased, then you must file a probate proceeding in order to obtain the annuity benefits. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos