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Can a foreclosure be delayed due to a hurricane? The answer is yes it can be. There is any number of reasons why that can happen. Number one is if you have a hearing or a foreclosure sale that is scheduled and the courthouse shuts down, well, guess what? They are not going to have a hearing, so your foreclosure can get delayed because of a hurricane and the court system shutting down. I’ve also seen if you don’t have court hearing and you have a pending foreclosure, an action that’s pending, sometimes the … and it’s a federally insured or an FHA BA type loan, they may delay, put a moratorium for a couple of months to determine whether or not you’re in a disaster area and the status of the property. That happened in a recent hurricane I saw where they put on hold I think it was like for two or three months any foreclosure proceedings. They stayed them while they evaluated whether or not the property had suffered any loss or you were unable to take care of the foreclosure or reinstate the foreclosure.

A hurricane can delay a foreclosure action particularly if there is any damage to the collateral that might be a factor, although the bank or whoever is … if their named, an additional insured would be entitled to the insurance proceeds if they completed the foreclosure. If you have any questions about foreclosure, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

If property is damaged by a hurricane during probate, who covers the repairs? The first thing that you would need to look at is, did the decedent have an insurance policy that covered the property such as their home? If so, and the premium has been paid through the time of the hurricane and they have coverage, I believe that the insurance company will probably cover that. You might look at the deductibles for hurricane, which is usually substantial. I think it’s 5% of whatever your loss are, or may be even more. And so, that’s what the deductible is, but usually the insurance companies would have it.

If there is no coverage as far as insurance coverage, well, it’s simply a casualty loss [sum 00:00:58] and you don’t have any. The estate and the beneficiaries bear the loss. This is also a problem when it comes to some of these life estate deeds. Some people have received property under a Lady Bird Deed upon the death of the primary person, well, there is no longer any coverage for the decedent and so it’s imperative that you see about getting insurance coverage as soon as the life tenant or the person who granted the Lady Bird Deed passes away.

If you have any questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

How are items in a trust insured? We need to look at the basics as far as what we talk about as far as a trust is concerned. A trust is simply a legal document. It’s a road map. It says what the trustee is supposed to do, so items are titled in the name of the trustee of a trust, and the trust documents tells the trustee what they’re supposed to do with the documents.

So usually, we treat that … It’s usually an estate planning trust is called a revocable trust, and you name yourself to be the trustee and direct that all the property be distributed to you whenever you ask for it, and you have complete discretion. You don’t even have to change the federal ID number as far as that’s concerned.

So you as the beneficial owner of it, you just insure the property in your individual name during your lifetime. Then upon your death, and if you say that you left property, real estate, and it went to a child or someone for their benefit and to be held during their lifetime, well, then you need to talk to the insurance agent and probably have the lawyer assist you. And the insurance agent, once they understand how the trust works and who the beneficiary is, they would insure the beneficial owner, who is the beneficiary of the trust. They may also name the trustee as a beneficiary for the … maybe the trustee FBO, which stands “for the benefit of” and name the beneficiary as far as insuring the property.

Hopefully, that gives you a little bit of overview of how a trust works and as far as getting insurance. But it’s basically the insurance company will insure the beneficial owner of the property, and you just need to work with the agent to let them know how that works. If you have any questions about trusts, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

What is formal administration? Formal administration has to do with the probate proceeding wherein a personal representative is appointed to administer the estate of the decedent. That is the formal administration, which takes about four to six months for a simple probate administration, and that the personal representative must file a notice to creditors that runs for three months, and after which then they can start winding up the probate administration, but it has to stay open a minimum of three months to determine if there are any outstanding creditors.

There’s another proceeding, which is called a summary administration whenever there’s no creditors or two years has passed since the decedent has passed away. And then you can file a summary administration, which means all of the assets would be distributed to the beneficiaries and since there are no creditors or the creditors’ claims have been barred after two years. If you have any questions about probate proceedings, well give me call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

The will says that I’m the personal representative. Do I need to probate the will? Well, whether or not you have to probate the will is if the decedent with assets in his name alone, and that would be the determining factor as to whether or not the will must be admitted to probate, and you’d be appointed by the court to serve as the personal representative. And so, it’s not whether or not you’re designated as the personal representative as to whether or not the will needs to be probated. It’s whether or not the decedent died with assets in his name alone.

If he died with assets in his name alone, well then you do need to contact an attorney to see about opening a probate administration, and you’re designated as the personal representative, and have the court appoint you, an issue which called Letters of Administration, so that you can collect the assets, pay the creditors, and distribute the assets to the beneficiaries.

If you have any questions about probate or wills, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.