What is the Difference Between a Will and a Living Will?
Video Summary
What’s the difference between a will and a living will? A will says that I devise and leave everything that I own to my beloved spouse or names a beneficiary and deals with the leaving behind of your property, leaving your property to whoever you would like whenever you pass away. A living will is a dying declaration that says that you do not want your life prolonged artificially.
Florida statutes have set forth three areas, three time periods in which you can direct and authorize life support to be discontinued: one is if you have an end-stage condition, which is really when you’re in the dying process; two is if you have a terminal condition; and three is if you have a permanent vegetative state. All of these circumstances are whenever you’re unconscious. And therefore you have to leave directions behind and the medical community must make the determination that you have any one of these three conditions. And then they turn to whoever you designate in your living will to make the decision to terminate life support. And then you’re on your own and usually when you remove the ventilators, well then you pass away without any assistance.
So the will leaves behind your property to whoever you designate. A living will is whenever you’re in the twilight time of your life and you’re authorizing that the plug be disconnected or that you do not want life-saving or mechanical ventilators to sustain your life mechanically. I think it’s ‘artificially’ continue your life.
So if you have any questions about a will or a living will, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288. Thank you.
What Does Eminent Domain Mean?
Video Summary
Hi. What does eminent domain mean? Eminent domain is usually in conjunction with a government entity such as the Florida Department of Transportation or a county building a road, although it can be used by utilities to obtain easements. The government must compensate private property owners if they take their property and the process is called eminent domain and is a lawsuit that is filed to take someone’s property for public use.
The process usually starts by the governmental entity or utility contacting a property owner and asking them to donate the property. And usually the answer, it may be yes or no depending on if they need to road to go by their property or through their property. They don’t have to give the property to the governmental agency and the governmental agency or utility will then get an appraisal and tell them that they will pay them this certain amount of money.
The property owner does not have to take the amount that’s offered. If they don’t, they can negotiate with the county but usually the county will proceed with what they call a quick take program or lawsuit, which is an eminent domain proceeding whereby they deposit the money that they’ve offered to the property owner in the registry at the court and the court will then let the county take the property.
Then if you hire a lawyer and you negotiate further with the county then the price can go up once the property owner gets his own appraisals. If they can’t ever agree on or settle on an amount for the property, it then goes to a trial by jury and in Florida there’s only two times that you get twelve people in a jury box: one is a first-degree murder case and the other is an eminent domain proceeding. And then the jury of your peers are the ones that would determine how much money you would receive for your property in an eminent domain proceeding. One other nice thing about Florida’s eminent domain proceeding is the government entity is responsible for paying your attorney fees, which is a percentage of the increase between the amount that you receive and the amount that’s offered by the government or utility that’s taking your property.
So if you have any questions about eminent domain or if you get a letter in the mail that they’re gonna be taking your property, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
How Do I Protect My Assets From Creditors?
Video Summary
How do I protect my assets from my creditors? Well, the first thing you need to do, particularly if you’re married, is to have the credit in just one spouse’s name, and that way, if there’s any credit problems, they can’t attach the assets that are held jointly as husband and wife. So you need to title your assets as husband and wife, and that includes your bank account. So whenever you go to the bank, the next time you go to the bank, if you’re married, be sure that you talk to your bank representative. Ask them to pull your signature card, and be sure that the card provides that you are – you hold the account as tenancy by the entireties or you have it as husband and wife rather than as joint tenants with right of survivorship.
If the account is held as joint tenants with right of survivorship, that means that both of you have a one-half interest in the account, whereas if you hold it as husband and wife or tenancy by the entireties, you do not have a half-interest in the account or the property; you have an undivided interest in the whole. So it’s important that you have the accounts or your assets held as husband and wife and therefore any creditor who is against only one spouse cannot attach the assets that are held as husband and wife or held up by tenancy by the entireties.
You say, “Well, I don’t have the luxury of being married,” or, “if I’m married I want to keep my assets separate.” Well, some of the investments that you can have to protect them against creditors is if you invest in annuities. Annuities are something that cannot be attached. But the main asset that can be protected from creditors, and it doesn’t matter how much you owe them or how many judgments you have, is your home. Your home is your biggest asset. You can own your home. Creditors cannot take your homestead away from you, and even if you don’t owe any money on it, they still can’t take it. When you pass away, if you leave it to your children or your heirs, well, they still don’t get paid whenever you pass away, and it is passed on to your heirs. So your homestead is your very best investment as far as protection from creditors.
So if you have anymore questions or need to do some estate planning as far as asset protection and estate planning, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
How Do I Protect My Home From Nursing Homes?
Video Summary
How do I protect my home from nursing homes? Well, this is a question I get asked quite often in that nursing homes do not take your home away from you. Now, this is Florida specific, in that your home is considered your homestead and cannot be attached by any of your creditors. But a nursing home is going to require payment for you to stay there, and if you have to be in a nursing home, you do need skilled nursing care. So the question is: how do we pay the nursing home if you don’t have to sell your house? Well, that comes in as far as applying for Medicaid, and you can make application for Medicaid provided that you meet certain asset tests and income tests and your homestead property does not count as far as your assets are concerned.
So if you’re concerned about your skilled nursing care and nursing homes taking your home away from you, you don’t need to worry about that. However, it might be well to do some planning as far as Medicaid planning and qualifying or being qualified to get assistance through Medicaid for your skilled nursing care.
If you’d like to do some Medicaid planning, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Medicaid Planning, Videos
Do I Need An Attorney To Evict A Tenant?
Video Summary
Do I need an attorney to evict a tenant? Well, the answer to that is no, you don’t if you know how to evict them. Usually, you evict tenants because they haven’t paid the rent, and that starts by the landlord giving the tenant a three-day notice. A three-day notice is spelled out in the Florida statutes, and it can only be for rent. So if you’re going to do the eviction yourself, you need to look up that notice and deliver it to the tenant and give them three days from the date that you deliver the notice. You don’t count the day you give it to them, and then you start counting the days. You can’t count Saturday or Sunday or a legal holiday, and after the three days have expired and they haven’t paid the rent or vacated, you’re then in a position to file a complaint for eviction, and that’s where you can try and find the law suit or complaint. I think there’s some forms out at the law library or whatever, and you can complete those and basically attach the notice to them saying that they haven’t paid the rent and that they owe you the money, and then you can file that in court.
And then after that, you then have to see if they file a response. If they do file some response, the judge will then usually set a hearing to determine the amount of rents owed, and you have to appear in court. Sometimes it just sits there and nothing happens, and that’s whenever you get frustrated or need to talk to a lawyer, or you go to a hearing and the judge doesn’t evict them and sends you on your way. So at that point, you probably do need a lawyer, and then we’ll have to look at your handy work to see whether or not – how good a lawyer you are.
So no, you don’t need a lawyer if you know what you’re doing. Some landlords who have multiple properties are a little pro at it and so that they’ve been doing it by themselves for some time, whereas if this is the first time that you’ve tried to evict a tenant, you probably need to go ahead and hire a lawyer and then copy what he does so that the next time you’ll be able to do it ’cause hopefully he’ll make it look easy for you.
So no, you don’t need a lawyer. But if you do need one, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos