How Can I Find a Will?
Video Summary
How can I find a Will? Well, whenever someone passes away, I usually recommend that the children or the personal representative of the decedent go through the records of the decedent to see if they can’t find a copy of the Trust. Hopefully the people did prepare one, but they’re not filed with the clerk of the court. So you look through the records of the decedent to see if you can’t locate the original Will. If there is an original Will, and whoever has it is supposed to file it with the clerk of the court and whatever county the decedent passed away in Florida. And then once it’s filed, it is public record, and anyone can access it by contacting the clerk of the court. Also, if you believe that there is a Will and however the person has not filed a probate proceeding, you can contact an attorney and file what they call a caveat so you’re notified if they in fact file a petition to have the Will admitted to probate. Sometimes, wills are not filed with the court and all the assets are jointly held or all the assets have beneficiaries. If you have any questions, give me a call to (727) 847-2288.
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 Do I Obtain a Will?
Video Summary
How do I obtain a Will? I’m assuming that you want to know how you personally can obtain a Will to do your estate planning or designate who you wish to receive your assets as very simple as you simply contact a local attorney in whatever state and city you’re in and set up an appointment or contact them about preparing a Will, designating who you want to receive your assets. There are even other companies that you can contact to say that they can prepare those. I’m not a real big fan of that, but they are available. There is certain formalities that the Will must be executed in order for it to be valid, which sometimes may be a problem in using a technology company as far as that’s concerned or ordering the Will online. If you want to know how you could obtain a copy of someone else’s will, that’s a whole new problem. You’re not entitled to see the Will until they die, and then it is filed with the clerk of the court in whatever county they passed away. After it’s filed with the clerk of the court, it’s public records. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
What are the Responsibilities as a Trustee of a Trust?
Video Summary
What are the responsibilities of a trustee of a trust? Well, first off, we need to talk about the usual circumstances. Whenever you set up a trust and you’re the trustee during your lifetime, and so you are talking about the duties and responsibilities of the trustee after you pass away, and then the successor trustee takes over and it is now a irrevocable trust, and so the trustee should then notify the beneficiaries that there are beneficiary under the trust. Many times this can be done by simply supplying them with a copy of the trust, although you don’t necessarily have to unless they request that you need to. The Trustee would need to file what they call a notice of trust with the clerk of the court, obtain a federal identification number as trustee of the trust so that it can file a tax return for the trust for any income it receives during their, while they’re administering it, they need to determine what creditors there are out there and see about getting the creditors paid. Another function the Trustee needs to do is to verify if there are any assets that are in the name, just in the decedent’s name and not in the decedent’s name as Trustee. If there are, there’s usually what they call a poor over will, and there would need to be a probate administration. These are usually done together and so that the Trustee is usually the executor also for a will, and it’s called a poor over will. That says that they leave all their assets to the Trustee and then the Trustee then administers the trust, pays the creditors, unless it’s a very sizable trust, there isn’t any estate taxes in Florida or to the federal government. And so then once that’s all done taken care of as far as accreditors, and then the trustee needs to make distribution and prefer an accounting for all the beneficiaries to make a distribution, the distribution pursuant to the trust, and there’s a provision on how they to do that to the trustee can be released from any liability by sending a limitation notice out to the beneficiary. So, they can’t object to how they administer the trust. The assets can be distributed in kind, meaning distribute the assets such as stock. Some beneficiaries say, well, I just want the stock, rather than you having to sell the stock and then liquidate it and divide up the money. So, these are all things that a Trustee would do and suggest that they probably need to contact an attorney for some guidance and assistance in conjunction with the matter. If you have any questions, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.
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.