Do I Have To Pay The Decedent Credit Card Bills And Medical Bills From A Joint Account?
Video Summary
Do I have to pay the decedent’s credit card bills and medical bills from a joint account which was maintained during his lifetime? And I am the co-owner? The answer is no. Creditors are required to file their claims in a probate proceeding, and if there is no probate proceeding, they have no way to file a claim and no way to recover whatever bills that are owed. This even goes to Medicaid liens. If there are no assets in the decedent’s name, they’re not able to recover these, and you have no responsibility to use the money that was in a joint account to pay the decedent’s bills. The joint accounts are by statute become the asset or the sole owner of the co-owner of the account. So if you have any questions, give a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Medicaid Planning, Probate, Videos
How Do I Check The Tax Status On An Estate?
Video Summary
How do I check the tax status on an estate? Well, we’re fortunate here in Florida that Florida has done away with estate taxes. The federal government has raised the estate tax limitation to 12 million. So that pretty well takes care of most of my clients as far as having to worry about estate taxes. Whenever, if you do own real estate outside the state of Florida, and another state, that state may have an estate tax for the real estate that is situated out in, in their state. As far as income tax is concerned, the executor of your estate needs to file what they call a fiduciary tax return or 10 41 where they report any income that the estate or trust has received during the administration. And then if they’ve distributed out, well, then they’ll issue K one to the recipient of the money, the beneficiary. So that’s sort of a overview of taxes for estates and trust. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
My Parents Just Passed Away And They Did Not Have Time To Update Their Life Insurance Beneficiaries, What Can I Do?
Video Summary
My parents just passed away and they did not have time to update their life Insurance beneficiaries, what can I do? There’s nothing that you can do because the, whoever they designated as the beneficiaries have the rights under the contract to receive the death benefit. So it’s something that they would’ve had to do during their lifetime rather than anything you can do after their death. If you could, if the beneficiaries are agreeable, do an assignment of those benefits to you. Many times the funeral home will take an assignment of a death benefit of a life insurance policy, particularly a small one to pay for the funeral expenses, but there’s nothing you can do by yourself to change the beneficiaries. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Should You Purchase Insurance on Vacant Land?
Video Summary
Should you purchase insurance on vacant property? Most parties do not, purchase liability insurance for vacant property and they don’t have any liability for people, trespassing and going or using the property unless they’re leasing it out or somehow the property has some dangerous aspect to it. Or it could be an attractive nuisance such as, water, like a sinkhole or something like that. And so most people do not. However, if you choose to get it, it depends a lot on the character of the vacant property, if it’s simply a residential lot, then you probably don’t need to worry about it. Or if you do want to get liability insurance, you can simply ask if your, your insurance agent ensures your home, whether or not you could have that covered on the liability aspect of it .If you have other property that’s out and, or there’s some particular aspect of it that you’re concerned about, simply, you know, people using these MTVs are on all over it. If you have it fenced or whatever, if there’s something inherently dangerous about the property, then you may wish to go ahead and obtain liability insurance on the property so that if anyone is injured and they do decide to come after you because there was, there’s something dangerous about the property that you didn’t address, then you would be protected. I suggest you talk to your insurance agent about it, if you are concerned, call me at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Real Estate, Videos
If The Decedents Will Names Me As The Executor/Personal Representative, Can I Show The Will To The Bank And Close The Accounts, In The Decedents Name?
Video Summary
If the decedent’s Will names me as the executor, can I show the Will to the bank and close the accounts that are in the decedent’s name? The answer is no. A Will designates or nominates someone as the executor or personal representative. It’s simply a nomination or designation. In order to become the personal representative and have authority to act and behalf of the decedent to collect his bank accounts, you must file a probate proceeding, which would require the petition to have the Will admitted to probate, and then the person, the nominated personal representative, file an oath and many times a bond, and after which the court would then issue what they call letters of administration. The letters of administration are the authority of the executor to act in the decedent’s behalf to collect these assets, so the letters are required in order to collect the money, place them into a, an account for the estate, and then the bills of the decedent are paid from that account. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos, Wills