What Role Does an Attorney Play in a Real Estate Transaction?

 

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What role does an attorney play in a real estate transaction?  Well, the attorney gives you peace of mind that you have someone looking out for your interests.  We usually start with the contract.  That’s probably the most important time where you can get input from the attorney because he can provide safeguards for you in purchasing the property and put certain contingencies in the contract so that if the property fails an inspection or you don’t get your financing, then you don’t have to go through with the transaction and you can get your deposit back.

 

The real estate attorney will also educate you as to what certain matters mean such as husband and wife, the legal context, the meaning of tenancy by the entireties, and what does that mean to a married couple?  There’s any number of practical matters that the attorney can talk to you about such as the getting insurance and whether or not it’s in a flood zone, windstorm, sinkhole coverage.  Also home inspections to see if a property has previously been repaired as a sinkhole.  Just any number of matters that are probably more of a practical nature than a legal nature.

 

And of course reviewing to make sure that the title you receive is a clear title, meaning that there are no liens or second mortgages against the property.  And looking at the title commitment and advising you of code assessments and things such as that or road assessments on the property and making sure you’re not responsible for those when you close.  Also another aspect is utility bills, unpaid utility bills.  Are you responsible for them?  Most of the closing documents you see say that the title company is not responsible for any unpaid water bills.  So the role of the attorney is to protect you, give you peace of mind that you have someone that’s working for you and knows what they’re doing.  They’ve been there before and looked at, in my case, thousands of real estate transactions.

 

So if you have any questions or you’re buying a house or real property, well give me a call and I’ll be glad to review your contract for you and represent you in a real estate transaction.  Please call me at (727) 847-2288.

 

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How Can Domestic Life Partners Use Estate Planning to Provide for One Another?

 

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How can domestic life partners use estate planning to provide for one another?  Well, it’s imperative if you do wish to provide for your life partner that you do estate planning and that you can provide for your life partner in your will.  You can designate him or her as a beneficiary under your life insurance policies.  You can set up joint accounts naming your life partner as the beneficiary.  One of the problems that you may have is when it comes to 401ks and your profit sharing plans.  Sometimes that’s more difficult.  Florida does not recognize civil unions.  Even if you have a civil union recognized in another state, it won’t be recognized here in Florida.

 

So the key to providing for your life partner after you pass on is to do the planning and do a will and set your accounts up in your joint names.  And sometimes it’s – I’ve seen any number of times – it’s tragic when a life partner has cared for the other one for many, many years and they didn’t make any provision for them.  And then whenever they pass away the life partner gets nothing.  So I urge you to go ahead and have a will prepared and provide for your life partner and do the planning.  If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.  Thank you.

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If a Couple Divorces, What are the Right of the Ex-Spouse in the Former Spouse’s Estate?

 

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If a couple divorces, what are the rights of the ex-spouse in their former spouse’s estate?  The law provides that if you do not change your will and you have left the name of your former spouse in your will that they don’t receive or take anything under your will.  That’s the same as far as a trust is concerned.  However, if you name them on your IRA and have not changed it, or your individual retirement account, thus far the law has not been changed and so they may take under your IRA-designated beneficiary form.

 

So it’s important that you review all your estate documents after you become divorced.  If you didn’t have a will and didn’t name your ex-spouse on any of your IRAs or name them in your will, then of course they would not have any rights under your will to receive anything. And whenever you have children involved, of course, they may have rights as far as the children are concerned as the natural guardian of those as far as child support or to take care of the children’s interests in your estate.  I urge you, though, if you do get divorced, that you do need to change your will and eliminate or provide for someone other than your ex-spouse.  So if you have any questions about that or would like to have a will drawn or review your estate plan, call me at (727) 847-2288.

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Do I Need A Health Care Surrogate For My Adult Son Or Daughter?

 

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Does a parent need a healthcare surrogate for an adult child?  The answer is yes, if that’s who the adult child wishes to make healthcare decisions for them.  A healthcare surrogate is a designation of someone to make healthcare decisions for you in the event that you’re unable to do so.  Usually a healthcare surrogate also has what they call a HIPAA waiver which authorizes a medical provider to release medical information to the person you designate in your healthcare surrogate.

 

So the adult child can name a parent or they can name anyone else they want to name as well as any adult concerned.  So just because you’re the parent does not give you the right to make healthcare decisions for your adult child.  And the HIPAA waiver’s important in the event that you wish to obtain the medical information or how the person is doing medically.  And without it, the healthcare providers are supposed to refuse to give you that information unless there is a designation or a waiver under HIPAA.  So I urge you to have a healthcare surrogate executed and designate who you’d like to make healthcare decisions for you in the event you’re unable to make healthcare decisions and provide them with a HIPAA waiver.

 

Usually these healthcare surrogates go from the parent to the child rather than the child to the parent but there’s certainly no prohibition or automatic right of a parent to get information on an adult child.  So if you’d like to have a healthcare surrogate prepared call me at (727) 847-2288.

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What Steps Should I Take When I Want To Form An LLC?

 

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What steps do I take when I want to form an LLC?  Well, the first thing we need to talk about is, Why are we forming an LLC?  Presumably, the purpose of doing this is to try and protect your personal assets from the business liability so that if your business gets sued that they can’t take any of your personal assets.

 

Now an LLC is different than a – it’s sort of a hybrid between a partnership agreement and a corporation and it does afford the parties limited liability; however, it is a little more complicated than a corporation since you don’t necessarily have officers and directors and they have particular duties.

 

In an LLC you have managing members or a managing member and that’s all designated under an operating agreement.  The operating agreement designates what each party is supposed to do and also it shows who is the ownership interest in an LLC.

 

Now any number of people that I see come in and say, “Oh, I have an LLC,” and I say, “Well that’s just terrific, can I see your operating agreement?” and their eyes glaze over, roll in the back of their head and they don’t know what I’m talking about.  So I say, “Well, who owns that?”  “Well, I do,” or they tell me who it is.  “Well, where is that,” because that’s what the operating agreement does.  It lets you know who owns it.  It’s sort of analogous to a corporation whenever you don’t issue any stock.

 

Well who owns it, you know, if you don’t have any shareholders, well, nobody owns it. So with an LLC it’s fairly complicated.  For that reason I suggest that whenever you’re talking about setting up an LLC let’s talk about why you want to set it up and the advantages of an LLC versus a corporation.

 

So if you have a going concern a corporation is probably much easier to handle and to be in – affords you more liability protection than an LLC, particularly if you are a single member LLC.  If you’re the only one interested there’s been several cases that says well, they can get your personal assets or go through the – get the LLC assets for your personal debts.

 

So before you jump into an LLC or go on-line and set it up I suggest that you might want to think about setting up an appointment and let’s talk about setting up an entity that will accomplish what you want because, if you simply set up a corporation, don’t issue any stocks, well, you may not have afforded yourself any protection from your creditors’ claims, and if the corporation gets sued then you may be personally liable for the assets.  So if you have some questions about setting up an LLC or corporation, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

 

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