Video Summary
How do you avoid probate for Florida property? Well, let’s first talk about how the property is titled first. Let’s talk about personal property, such as bank accounts, and also the relationship of the parties. If you’re married, you just put the assets and your joint names as husband and wife, that would be particularly if you want your husband or wife to receive it upon your death. So that would be the easy answer to most of it. And that would avoid probate when the first spouse passes away. And particularly if you have all the assets titled as husband and wife, if you’re by yourself then the options, as far as bank accounts are concerned, you can set those up as payable on death so that they would pass to the beneficiary, whoever you wanted to go to at your death. The same things with a brokerage account where you have stocks and bonds with Merrill Lynch or any other, ag Edwards or, Raymond James, you can have a designation that says it’s transfer on death or a TOD designation.
I don’t know what this inquiry had to do with real estate, but with real estate if you just have a few people that you wanted to go to equally, we can do what they call a Lady bBrd deed, which is called an enhanced life estate deed. And that’s where you executed deed, conveying the property, who are, you want to receive a debt, your death, but you receive all retain all the rights of ownership during your lifetime. And that way you can sell it, keep all the money. You can change the beneficiary anytime you want. And it doesn’t create a problem for Medicaid. It preserves all your rights as far as homestead property. If you’re dealing with your homestead property and it’s referred to as Lady Bird, deed, and at that’s how it appeared in a treatise, probably 25 or 30 years ago, where the author named all of his documents after famous people and it’s named after Lady Bird Johnson. So if you have any questions about needing to have a lady bird deed prepared will give me a call at (727) 847-2288.