Florida Probate & Trust Administration

Should I Pay Dad’s Credit Cards?

When a parent dies one of the first questions their adult children ask me is whether they are responsible for the parent’s debts. Home mortgage statements, utilities, credit cards, hospital bills and other such expenses flood the mailbox. What to do? Florida law answers these questions. Usually, spouses, children and [...]

Professional Fees, Costs, & Reimbursement of Expenses

A common and very reasonable question to ask in any estate and/or trust administration is “How much will this cost?” There will likely be a number of professionals involved in the estate/trust administration, including attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors. It is not uncommon to have a real property appraiser required [...]

Challenges to a Will or Trust

From time to time, the personal representative, trustee, or one of the beneficiaries expresses concern that the will or revocable trust will be challenged. This is not a common occurrence, as it happens infrequently, but can be serious when a challenge does arise. Since a will or trust cannot be [...]

Safe Deposit Box & Personal Effects

I thought that I would add a quick note about safe deposit boxes. When someone dies with a safe deposit box in their name individually, about the only way to open the box and remove its contents is through a court order. Hopefully, your loved one put someone else on [...]

IRAs, 401(k)s, Pensions, and Profit Sharing Plans

On its face, you would think that “Retirement Accounts” such as IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, and profit sharing plans would be the easiest part of a loved one’s estate to administer. The beneficiary should just make a claim, a withdrawal, or roll over the account, right? Actually, a lot of thought [...]

Life Insurance and Annuities

Life insurance and annuities are examples of assets that may fall outside of the estate and trust administration. This is due to the fact that these assets are generally distributed pursuant to a designation of beneficiary document. Life insurance is typically owned by the decedent, but may be owned by [...]

Continuing Trusts for Beneficiaries— Children, Grandchildren, and Others

While many trusts distribute assets outright to other beneficiaries such as children and grandchildren, others direct for a distribution into a continuing testamentary trust for the benefit of children, grandchildren, and other beneficiaries. Oftentimes, these distributions don’t occur until the surviving spouse is deceased and the marital trust distributes out [...]

Continuing Trusts for Beneficiaries—Spouse

Once the creditors have been taken care of and tax returns filed, it’s time to move out of the administrative phase and start distributing assets. When there is a surviving spouse, the trust will often continue for his or her benefit. These after death trusts are known as “testamentary trusts.” [...]

Working with the CPA/Tax Return Preparer

When I take on a new estate-planning client, I have them complete a client organizer that, among other things, asks him or her to rate concerns from high to low. Estate taxes commonly rate high, even when the client’s assets are nowhere near the federal estate tax threshold. Why is [...]

Bank Accounts

When opening a probate estate or trust administration, the personal representative/trustee needs to open an estate checking account or a trust checking account, respectively. This account will receive the income earned and pay all the expenses incurred during the administration. Running all of the income and expenses through one checking [...]

Working with a Financial Advisor

I mentioned earlier that the personal representative of a probate estate and the trustee of a trust have a duty to protect and preserve the assets during the estate administration, as well as following the “prudent investor rule.” So what does this really mean? Should the personal representative/trustee invest all [...]

Automobiles and Tangible Personal Property

In Florida, up to two motor vehicles that are held in the decedent’s name and are regularly used as the decedent’s (or his immediate family’s) vehicle are generally exempt from the claims of creditors and can therefore be re-titled to immediate family members outside of a probate process. A surviving [...]

Florida Homestead Issues

What happens to the residence is one of the most anxiety-inducing questions that most surviving spouses endure. When there is no surviving spouse, the home is nevertheless one of the major assets of the estate, and may have a great deal of emotion wrapped up in it. To make matters [...]

Acting as Administrative Trustee

The original grantor (creator) of a revocable trust will usually serve as the trustee of the trust until their disability or death. Upon the grantor’s death, an “administrative trustee” serves to perform all of the necessary functions. This office may also be referred to as a “successor trustee.” Just because [...]

Acting as the Personal Representative

In Florida, we call the administrator of the will the personal representative. Other states refer to this office as the executor. It’s much the same thing. Just because you are named as the personal representative in your loved one’s will does not necessarily mean that you must serve. Before acting [...]

When You Don’t Avoid Probate with a Trust

A couple of years ago, a very nice couple visited with me in my office. They had moved from Wisconsin, where their attorney was also licensed in Florida and had just completed a revision of their revocable trusts and related pour-over will, durable powers of attorney, health care surrogates and [...]

What to Bring to the Attorney when a Loved One Passes

It’s always a difficult time when you lose a loved one. Usually, one of the first places one visits will be the lawyer’s office that drew the will or trust. The will or trust isn’t usually read to a gathering of family “Hollywood style.” Rather, the lawyer discusses the administrative [...]

Open Discussions with Adult Children

An adult child of a client who recently passed away contacted me to discuss what she was to receive from her mother’s estate. She had no idea what mother owned, or what anything was worth. She only knew that our office prepared the documents, and that her mother directed to [...]

Estate Administration and Short Term Markets

Several years ago, I took on an estate-planning client, “Kevin,” who had worked at the Eastman Kodak Company for his entire adult life. He had earned stock bonuses in the company over the years, so that by his retirement a significant portion of his net worth consisted of Kodak stock. [...]

The Pain of Loss

One never knows whether something written in social media was fabricated or is actually attributed to the correct party. Nevertheless, I came across this post in Facebook about the loss of loved ones that I thought was both insightful and poignant: “Alright, here goes. I’m old. What that means is [...]

Reasonably Ascertainable Creditors

When a loved one dies, whomever you name as the personal representative (executor) under the will or the trustee under a trust will be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that your estate or trust satisfies any outstanding creditors upon your death. Creditors might appear in the form of credit [...]

Delayed Decisions

I’m usually not a big proponent of procrastination. The longer one takes to act, the more difficult the decision usually becomes. Unless you’ve just lost a spouse or significant other. When that happens, there are many fears and concerns. Will there be enough income to pay all the bills? Should [...]

Do all Revocable Trusts Avoid Probate?

When you have a revocable trust, does that always mean that your estate will avoid the probate process when you die? You may be surprised to learn that the answer is “No.” Why is that? First, let’s review what the probate process is. Many people think that “probate” means “taxes.” [...]

Joint Accounts Don’t Count Towards Bequests

“Stan” created a trust that first distributed the first $2 million to his wife, “Wendy” before making $500,000 bequests to each of his two daughters, Doris and Diane. When Stan created his trust, he considered the bequest to his wife to be enough for her to live off of the [...]

Death & Debts – Five Things Surviving Family Members Need to Know

When a loved one dies, the last thing family members want to do is field calls from debt collectors. If you are the personal representative (executor) of the estate or trustee of your love one’s revocable trust, chances are you will have to deal with your loved one’s debts and [...]

Spousal Elective Share

There’s much confusion for family members when a loved one dies with a revocable trust. Often they believe that the successor trustee can simply wrap things up and distribute the trust assets right away. That’s not the case. When all or some part of the decedent’s assets are held in [...]

What is Probate?

Many people who visit me in my office are under the misimpression that all Wills avoid probate. False. Some people believe that if their estate is less than whatever the federal estate tax exemption is, then there won’t be a probate. That’s false too. Almost any asset that is subject [...]

What is a Trust Administration?

About FloridaProbate.com

Nothing can be more stressful and heartbreaking than the loss of a loved one. Even worse can be the legal and financial matters left behind after their passing. We are committed to relieving the anxiety surrounding the probate process and to help Floridians discover what can be done to ease this transition and secure your financial future.

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