Do I Need to do Estate Planning Even if I Don’t Have Much Money?
Video Summary
Do I need to do estate planning, even if I do not have much money? The answer to that question is, yes. And that what money you do have, you want to be able to designate who you would like to receive it when ever you pass on. So, there’s a lot to estate planning other than just writing a will. A will I look at is basically a fallback position in the event that you have not properly planned your state for it to pass to whoever you would like your assets to go to the estate planning includes putting a designation on your bank accounts, to have them pay a belong death to whoever you would like to receive them. If you own real estate, even if it has a mortgage, you can sign a life estate deed whereby you can designate who would receive the property upon your death. This is called some in some circles called old lady bird deed. And these are simple ways to pass your assets on to whoever you’d like to receive them. Even though you don’t have a whole lot, you can do it and avoid having a probate. There’s also documents that go along with estate planning, such as the living will a healthcare surrogate and a durable power of attorney that you need to consider. Whenever you come in for an estate planning conference, my phone number is (727) 847-2288. Give me a call and I’ll be glad to talk with you about your estate plan
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Can a Home Purchase Closing be Delayed Due to a Hurricane Approaching?
Video Summary
Can a home purchase closing be delayed due to our hurricane approaching? That depends upon whether or not the contract has a provision in it concerning hurricanes, the contract that is most widely used by the realtors and it’s approved by the Florida bar has a provision concerning hurricanes and how it’s delayed. And also to be able to look at the property to see if there’s any damage as a practical matter. It usually is delayed because you have to have insurance for the lender, if there’s a lender involved. And if there’s a, so you can’t close unless the lenders ready to lend the money and you have to have insurance. Once it enters in to a certain longitude and latitude called the box, well, then they quit writing insurance. So then the lender can’t close the loan because there’s no insurance lenders. Also, if there’s a storm that has gone through will require the property to be reinspected before they will agree to close the loan. Whenever you have a willing buyer and a willing seller they usually agreed to delay this, rather than starting all over again, to see about selling the property, depending on what happened during the hurricane. And there was no damage involved. The insurance is a big factor. And as a practical matter, you go ahead and, and see about delaying those. If there’s no provision in the contract, for a delay and the parties, you know, are looking for a reason to get out, and the mortgage is not a contingency any longer in the contract. I believe that the seller could determine the buyer was in default for failure to close on the contract. But, in my experience, particularly in the area that I practice in and which is the West coast of Florida, we rarely lose a transaction or the seller takes that approach and that they usually want to sell the property and deal with the practical problems that are, we experienced as a result of a hurricane. And we’ve been blessed that we haven’t had any direct hits for over a hundred years. So, if you have any questions about your contract in closing, and hopefully we don’t have any approaching, hurricanes, well give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
How Do Assets Pass at Death?
Video Summary
How do assets pass it death? Well, the most easiest way to have the assets best is through beneficiaries, which everyone’s familiar with life insurance. And so you designate a beneficiary on your life insurance application, or the decedent does designating who the beneficiary is. That’s the same way that IRAs are passed to beneficiaries annuities. You can also set up your brokerage accounts with a designation of a beneficiary by designating a transfer on death, beneficiary, and name, whoever you wish to receive it. Your bank accounts, wouldn’t be set up with a payable on death and they will then pass to whoever you designate as the beneficiary. If someone dies and they own asset titled assets in their name alone, such as real estate or a bank account, then, they would pass through a probate proceeding. And we would first ask if there’s a will, which says who the beneficiary would be. And if so, then once it goes through the probate proceeding, the creditors get paid and the administration costs get paid. And then the money passes to the designated beneficiary through the probate process. If the decedent died without a will, then the laws of the state of Florida designate who is to receive the assets of the decedent. And again goes through a probate process and the, the creditors are paid. The administration expenses are paid and then it passes or is distributed to the beneficiaries that are designated under the Florida laws. If you have any questions about a probate or, who receives assets upon a decedent’s death, Well, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos