Are Retirement Accounts Considered Part of an Estate?
Video Summary
Are retirement accounts considered part of an estate? They’re not part of a probate administration, an estate. And that, IRAs are usually the retirement accounts we’re talking to and, or 401ks. And so, they’re not considered to be a part of the estate since they usually designate a beneficiary. And so, then all you need in order to, if you’re one of the beneficiaries is to present a death certificate to whoever is managing the IRA, and then they should give you the options. There’s usually options from taking the full lump sum and you can maybe defer or spread it out over the time period. So, they usually have designations one. The problem that we’ve encountered is, as we know, there’s an IRA, but we don’t know who the beneficiaries are because there’s no documentation, the estates records and the banks, or whoever has it, many times will not discuss the amount or let you know who the beneficiaries are. So, it’s important that if there is an IRA, that there is some documentation to show who the beneficiaries are. So that person, the beneficiary can present a death certificate to the custodian or the person who is handling the IRA or 401k. So, if you have any questions about it, we’ll give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
Where Does the Money Go if No Beneficiary Is Named On My Deceased Spouse’s Bank Account?
Video Summary
Where does the money go if no beneficiary is named on my deceased spouses bank account? The bank does not release the money to anyone without a court order. If it remains dormant for a long period of time, they may eventually turn it over to the state as unclaimed property, depending on the size of the bank account. You can go to the court if it’s less than the amount of your spouse’s funeral bill and ask the court to disperse it to you. If you paid the funeral bill, that’s called a distribution without administration need the death certificate and you need the paid funeral bill, as well as the bank account statement. If it’s less than $10,000, there’s another procedure for small estates, wherein you could have the money dispersed to you. If it is larger than that, well, then you would need to go through a probate proceeding and whether there’s a will or not a will. So that would be a probate proceeding. So what happens to the account? Nothing until you get a court order or, you have a probate proceeding and the bank receives instructions to deposit or send you the personal representative, a check. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos
When Is An Estate Too Small For Probate?
Video Summary
Is an estate too small to probate? Anytime that there’s an asset in the name of the decedent, and there was no designated beneficiary. It has to go through some sort of probate proceeding. Now, the answer, to the question is, you don’t want to pay the lawyer or someone to handle the probate that costs more than the asset that you’re trying to have passed to a beneficiary. There are various, small estate, administrations, if the assets less than $10,000 and the funeral bill has been paid, then you may be able to proceed with the court and get a distribution without administration, without going through a formal type of probate. If the assets exceed the $10,000. And however, they’re less than $75,000 and provision has been made to pay all the creditors. Well, in that event, you can file what they call a summary administration, which is a short version of probate and is fairly quick and is less expensive than what they call a formal administration.
If the assets exceed $75,000, or that there are creditors that no provisions has been made for, then you would go through what they call a formal administration, where you have letters of administration issued to the executor, and you give notice to creditors. You have the claims filed, you have the beneficiaries to determine, and if there’s real property involved, you have the property declared to be homestead, which may be exempt from the claims of creditors. So then if, even if it’s so small that it doesn’t make any sense to even go to a smallest state administration, after a certain amount of time, the asset may be forfeited unless it’s real estate and go to the to the state of Florida. And they have a treasure hunt after two or three years where you could possibly apply to obtain the asset. Once it’s forfeited to the state of Florida. If you have any questions about probate, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Probate, Videos
How Much Does Probate Cost?
Video Summary
How much does probate cost? That’s always a big point, in that the Reader’s Digest in the past has talked about how the lawyers get 50% and the government gets the other 50%, and it takes seven years for everybody to fleece the estate. However, that’s not the case. If you have probated assets or assets that are just in your name alone when you pass away, the Florida statutes prescribe that a reasonable attorney fee is 3% of the assets. There are certain minimum fees for handling a probate proceeding, and also prescribes that there is a 3% fee to the personal representative or executor of the estate. You’re looking at 6% of the assets.
There are two types of probate proceedings. One is a formal administration, which takes approximately six months to a year depending on how complex it is, and also a summary administration when they’re assets of less than $75,000 excluding the homestead and a provision is made for creditors. Either no creditors or you’re making provision that they be paid. And depending on which type of proceeding is involved will also affect how much the attorney fees will be. The court costs for a probate proceeding run between about 500 to 800 dollar court costs and administration costs, other than the attorney fees.
Rather than giving you a number in this video, give me a call. Let me know what assets are in the estate, and I’ll be glad to talk to you over the phone and give you a quote as to what procedure you would need to follow, how much it would cost, and some idea as the length of time. So give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
If You are the Executor and the Only Beneficiary of an Estate, Does it Have to go Through Probate?
Video Summary
If you are the Executor and the only Beneficiary of an estate, does it have to go through probate? The answer to the question is yes.
If the Decedent owned any assets that were titled just in the Decedents name. You indicated that you are the Executor, you’re the designated or person to be appointed the Executor. The Executor is something that is appointed by the court so until such time as there are probate proceedings you are simply nominated or suggested or provided for on the will to be the Executor and as the only Beneficiary, well, you have to have the will admitted to probate to show that you are in fact, the only Beneficiary so the short answer to your question is, is yes you still have to probate the estate.
Another reason why you have to probate it, even if you are the only Beneficiary is to be sure that any creditors have been paid and if the estate is very large, of course, then you need address the federal estate tax situation.
So if you have any questions about probate, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.