How Easy Is It to Set Up POD On Bank Accounts, What’s Involved?
Video Summary
How easy is it to set up a POD on a bank account? The POD stands for “payable on death”, and it is very easy. All you must do is contact the bank where you maintain your account, or if you’re going to open an account, tell them that you wish to put a payable on death or a POD designation on the account and give them the names of who you wish to receive these accounts. Upon your death, they will prepare a signature card and then you simply sign the new signature card. Various banks have various requirements. I’ve heard of some where they’re asking for the social security numbers of the beneficiaries, but the beneficiaries would not usually do not have to sign the signature card since they would have no interest in the account until such time as you pass away, but it’s up to the individual banks, but it should be very easy to do simply by signing the signature card. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos, Wills
How Long Will It Take to Create Estate Planning?
Video Summary
How long will it take to create an estate plan? Well, once you set up an appointment with an attorney and you provide ’em with all the information as to whom you would like to receive your assets, whether or not you want to Trust, and also who you want to make medical decisions for you. After he takes all the information in my office, I advise that I will send to them in the in mail, the documents for them to review and 10 to 14 days. The reason for sending them out by mail for them to review is so that they have a chance to read it, reflect on it, and make sure that that’s what they want, and also to correct any type of graphical errors. After they receive the documents, they call my office to set up an appointment and that I furnish the witnesses and the notary public as far as the proof of will and the notary and the power of attorney. So, it really depends on the attorney as far as how quickly it would take to put together your estate plan. After you have set the appointment up with the attorney and provided him with all the information, if you have any questions, you can call me at (727) 847-2288.
Does the Spouse Who Quitclaimed the House, Originally Purchased Before Marriage, Retain Any Rights to it, considering it Wasn’t Treated?
Video Summary
Does the spouse who Quit claimed the house to the other spouse and him or herself, which was originally purchased by them, retain any rights to it? I’m assuming that this question has to do if they are involved in the divorce proceedings. Whenever, a husband and wife own a piece of property, they get divorced, well then you start with each party receiving a one half interest in the property as tenants in common. However, in a divorce proceeding, the judge is going to make the determination as to who receives the property and whether or not who gets to live there, whether or not it has to be sold, and whether or not they take into consideration that the property was purchased by one spouse prior to the marriage and later transferred into their joint names. If this is not transferred to husband and wife as far as putting it in husband and wife’s name, and it is to two individuals, the presumption is is that the transfer was a gift of the equity, and each party owns a one half interest. So, if there’s what they call a partition action, which requires the property to be sold, the party who purchased the property does not have a special equity for the contribution or what they paid for the house. If you have any questions concerning this, give me a call at (727) 847-2288. I don’t do divorce law, so the question, if you’re going through a divorce, you need to talk to your divorce lawyer. Thank you.
- Published in Probate, Real Estate, Real Estate – Selling, Videos
When Someone Passes, What Happens to Their Bank Account?
Video Summary
When someone dies, what happens to their bank account? Well, the first thing you need to determine is whether the bank account was joint or whether it had any beneficiaries. If it is a joint account, then it’s presumed that it goes to the person that’s on the signature card with the decedent, or if there’s a designation of beneficiaries saying it’s payable on death to a certain beneficiaries, then it goes to the beneficiaries and all they need is a death certificate. If the account is just in the decedent’s name, well then it has to go through a probate proceeding, either under a will or if they don’t have a will. In circumstances where it’s a small bank account, then there is a proceeding called a distribution without administration wherein if the amount of the funeral bill, which you paid, or whoever paid it is more than what’s in the account or the same amount, then the person who paid the funeral bill can make application to the probate court for distribution without administration. So depending on the size of the bank account, there may be a relatively simple procedure to see about getting the account if the money was used to pay the funeral Bill, my phone number, (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Probate, Trusts, Videos, Website Notices & Agreements
Why Would a Trust Be a Bad Idea?
Video Summary
Why would a Trust be a bad idea? Well, the first question I ask clients when they come to see me, they want to set up a Trust, is said, why do you want to set up a trust? The usual answer I get is because I want to avoid probate. Well, there’s alternatives to that, particularly if you want all your assets to be distributed at the time of your death to the beneficiaries. If that is the estate plan and the purpose of the Trust, that can be accomplished by how you title your assets. Just like your bank accounts, you can set those up so that they’re payable on death to the beneficiaries. Doesn’t have to go through probate. If you have your home, you can execute an enhanced life estate deed called a Lady Bird Deed works the same as a payable on death bank account. You have all the rights of ownership during your lifetime, but upon your death, it’ll go automatically. Go to the beneficiaries with a death certificate and avoid probate. If you have a brokerage account with say, Merrill Lynch or Raymond James or any brokerage account, you can then set that up so that there’s beneficiaries. That’s called a TOD designation, so those would automatically avoid probate and go to the beneficiaries. Also, your life insurance, annuities, IRAs, all of those have beneficiaries or should have beneficiaries, and so none of those go through probate. So if you don’t have a good reason to set up a Trust, that would be a reason why it would be bad to set one up because you’re basically just spending money that you don’t need to. In the past, Trust had been set up to avoid estate taxes, but estate taxes have been now elevated to you have to have assets over $13 million before there’s any estate taxes. So that would be the circumstance whenever I would not recommend, or I basically don’t draftTtrust if the person wishes their assets to be distributed at the time of their death and designated. Now, there are good reasons set up Trust, such as if you have minors and you want to delay the distribution of their money, or if you have a beneficiary that has a drug dependency or is a special needs trust. Any number of other good reasons set up trust. But if you just wish to do it, to avoid probate and you want an outright distribution, I think that’s a bad idea and save your money as far as the cost of setting one up. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.