Video Summary

 

What are the benefits of a life insurance trust? A life insurance trust is used an irrevocable trust wherein a life insurance policy is purchased or is placed in the trust in naming the trustee as the beneficiary in directing that the money be used to pay taxes or to other beneficiaries. And the benefits of that are that if it’s an irrevocable life insurance trust, then the amount that’s in the trust is not includable in your taxable estate. The federal state tax laws have been changed now so that you have to have over $13 million before there’s any federal estate taxes. So this is usually only used for very high-end estate planning as far as that’s concerned, but it avoids the inclusion of the life insurance death benefit in the decedent’s estate and is usually used as a estate planning tool to pay estate taxes. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

How Is a Will Executed?

 

Video Summary

How is a Will executed in order for a Will to be valid in the state of Florida? The Will must be signed in the presence of two witnesses. So not only does the person making the Will called the test state have to sign the Will, the witnesses also have to sign in each other’s presence as well as the person making the Will. So that’s how a will has to be executed or signed in Florida in order to be valid. First off, there is a provision which we now use whenever you pass away the Will in order to be admitted to probate has to be proved and that’s where one of the witnesses appears before the clerk of the court and testifies or signs an oath that the Will was signed, the presence of the other witness and the test stater, all three of ’em signed at the same time. Usually when you deal with an attorney, usually they have what they call a self-proving Will, in other words, the affidavit that proves the Will is attached at the sign at time it’s signed. So it avoids the problem of having to have it prove whenever the person making the Will dies. And so if you have any questions about a Will, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

 

Video Summary

Are you required to go to court if you breach a real estate contract? No. The standard contract that is used has been approved by the Florida Bar and the Board of Realtors, and if there’s a dispute over the deposit, it provides that the parties are to go to mediation. I’ve found in my practice that usually doesn’t work when the parties aren’t in agreement, and usually the realtors try and negotiate a settlement as far as the deposit’s concerned, where they split the deposit, and each party gets a portion of it. If that doesn’t happen and the parties can’t agree, then either party is in a position to file. Go to small claims court if the deposit’s less than $8,000 and sue to recover their deposit one way or the other. If the buyer wants to force the seller to sell him the property, well then the buyer must file an action in small file, an action for specific performance in order to require the seller to sell them the property. If it’s an escrow dispute and they can’t decide who’s to receive the deposit, if the deposit is held by a realtor, they can send an opinion or ask the Florida Board of Realtors to give them opinion as to who they should disperse it to. If the deposit is held by a title company or an attorney and the parties can’t agree, the attorney or title company’s recourse is to file an action to what they call inter plead the deposit. That’s where they say, well, look, I don’t have any interest in this deposit, so we’re going to put the money in the register of the court, and then the parties can sue each other, whatever, to determine who’s entitled to the money, but that relieves the escrow agent of any responsibility as far as dispersing it. The downside of this is if it’s a small deposit, the title company or attorney when they file this plea or action asks that their attorney fees and costs be deducted from the deposit. Well, that usually costs two or $3,000, so the deposit is two or $3,000. Well, all the monies used up just filing the inter pleater, so hopefully you can work out any escrow disputes that there may be without having to go to court. But if the parties can’t ever agree or settle, we’ll, then yes, then they’ll have to go to court to sue for recover the deposit or to force get the deposit if the buyer breached. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

 

Video Summary

Who can contest a Will in Florida? Well, usually it is any of the children of the decedent contest a Will and or if you’re a beneficiary that was included in one Will and a subsequent Will disinherited you or took you out, then you’re in a position to have standing in order to bring an action to contest the existing Will. The two basis for the primary two basis for contesting Will is one is the incapacity of the person when they made the Will. This is very difficult standard to reach and that you have to have medical records to show on the date that they executed the Will. They were not in the right mind. And in fact, there’s a case that says even someone that’s insane can have a Will, even though in a lucid moment the primary way to attack a Will is through alleging undue influence by the recipient of most of the benefits of the Will or where you were excluded from the will as a beneficiary. And so you have to show that that person unduly influenced the test state in order to have it set aside and the prior will reinstated or have it set aside and the assets passed to the heirs under the laws of the state of Florida called in test state. So, if you have any questions, you can call me at (727) 847-2288.

 

Video Summary

Why would I want to avoid probate? The primary reason most folks want to avoid probate is the expense involved. Also, there is some delay as far as the distribution of the decedent’s assets if you have to go through a probate proceeding, and so the probate proceeding is designed to make sure that the creditors are paid and the property is distributed to beneficiaries designated by a Will or a Trust. So, there is ways to avoid probate by how you retitle your assets or possibly set up a Trust. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.