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.

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.