What Happens If a Beneficiary Listed in My Will Dies Before Me?
Video Summary
What happens if a beneficiary listed in my Will dies before me? Well, usually a Will, whenever they’re drafted, makes provision to say what happens to the devise where you’re leaving something to someone and says, in the event that the beneficiary dies before me, I direct that this devise either lapse and becomes a part of the residual portion of my estate, or in the alternative goes to their children or such as their children who survived me. Another way that you may see that in a Will is whenever you have several beneficiaries and you say that I leave my estate to two or three beneficiaries and equal shares per capita. What that means is, is then you count the number of heads that are alive at the time of your death, and that’s who would receive it. So if one of ’em would die before you, then the other two out of the three would receive the estate. The other term that is used is per stirpes or strips it looks like, and that means that if one of the beneficiaries would die, it would go to their children or heirs. So that was what happens in the event that you beneficiary dies. Before you do, if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
How Can I Make Sure My Beneficiaries Receive Their Inheritance Quickly and Smoothly?
Video Summary
How can I make sure my beneficiaries receive their inheritance quickly and smoothly? My suggestion is, particularly if you have a fairly simple estate, it’s how you title your assets with your bank accounts. You can put have it in your name, payable on death, and that’s a POD account and name your beneficiary. So, all they need is your death certificate and they can receive the Aspen. If you have a brokerage account with Merrill Lynch or Raymond James or Schwab or anyone else, you can put a transfer on death, A TOD designation, and that way the assets will pass to your beneficiaries by them presenting your death certificate and they’ll transfer it into your name, into the beneficiary’s name. If you own real estate and you want it to go to your beneficiaries, you can execute what they call a lady bird deed or enhanced life estate deed, which says that I convey the property to these beneficiaries. However, reserve all the rights of ownership during my lifetime, including the right to sell the property, keep all the proceeds, and you can even change who you wish to receive the property at the time of your death. So those are the ways that you can have these assets pass smoothly and without any lawyer interference as far as that’s concerned, or court interference. And so if you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Trusts, Videos, Wills
How Can I Minimize the Chances of My Will Being Contested After My Death?
Video Summary
How can I minimize the chances of my will being contested after my death? Well, the first thing that you should do is to have an attorney prepare the will and have him be the witness, and that anytime that there’s a will challenge, he would be the best witness to testify. As far as your competency, the basis for setting aside your will is that you did not have the mental capacity to make a will, so certainly the lawyer would make that determination. The other one is undue influence. So if you want to leave most of your estate to one of your children and exclude some of the other or make a disproportionate share, then there’s a couple of things that you need to try and do if possible, and that there’s a presumption of undue influence. If the person who that you’re leaving these disproportionate share or all of your estate to them, whether it be a child or anyone else is, did they select the attorney that they take you to the attorney’s office? Were they present whenever you made out the will? Did they know what you put in the will after you have the will? Were they present whenever you signed the will? Did they know the contents of the will? And also as far as paying for it? So,if some of these factors are present, it presents a undue influence. So, if possible, not to have the person select the lawyer or take you to the appointment or know what’s in the will, I realize many times that’s not possible and that you’re dependent on the caregiver or child who’s taking care of you to bring you to the appointment. And so I have over the years tried to do this as tactfully as possible, as tell the person that you’re going to be living and that’s brought you there as they need to excuse themselves, wait in the waiting room, and I make a notation in my notes that I’ve excused them. And then discuss who you want to receive your estate and why you want to do that. In order to try and overcome these problems. In the event there is a will challenge after you’re gone. Also, you need to put in the will. If you’re leaving someone out, a child out, you need to just put in there expressly, make no provision for a particular child to show that you did not forget them. The old thing is leaving my dollar is a terrible idea and that you tasked the lawyer with having to, or the executor, trying to get them to receive for a dollar, particularly if they don’t like the provisions of the will. So just put in there that you didn’t forget about ’em. You expressly make no provision for them. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
Is My Will Filed with the Court?
Video Summary
Is my Will filed with the court. Your Will is not filed with the clerk of the court until such time as you pass away. Whoever has possession of the original Will is supposed to file it with the clerk of the court in whatever county you were a resident. And so that is the requirement as far as the filing’s concerned, but they’re not filed until such time as you pass away. So if you have any questions about your filing, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
What Happens When Parents Pass Away Without a Will?
Video Summary
What happens when parents pass away without a Will? Well, whenever someone passes away without a Will, the Florida statutes designate who is to receive the assets or who the beneficiaries are. Since you’re using parents, I assume that they are married, and so you would record death certificates for both of those. Then you would look at the last parent who passed away and determine who the children are of that decedent, and based upon that, they’re the ones who would inherit his estate, his or her estate under the Florida statutes and the event that the decedent had no children, then the beneficiaries are his parents. If his parents had predeceased them, then it goes to his siblings and their siblings children. If any of them have predeceased them, this is, if you have any questions about it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.