____ 1. Minimum of 10 death certificates (these can usually be obtained through the funeral home)
____ 2. Original Will and all codicils (or amendments to the Will)
Note: If you have the original, either personally deliver to the attorney’s office or send via Federal Express or certified mail.
By Phil Rarick, Esq.
The sole reason most trusts exist is to serve the needs of the beneficiaries. It is not an employment program for the trustee or any other person. Therefore, a core test for whether a trust is performing – and performing efficiently – is to examine whether the needs of the beneficiaries are being met as instructed by the trust, and whether the purposes of the trust are being fulfilled.
If you are a beneficiary of a trust, here are some warning signs that a trust is not performing in an efficient way to meet your needs:
Know your rights. If you are a qualified beneficiary of a Florida trust you have important legal rights protected by Florida law.
The trustee of an irrevocable trust in Florida is a fiduciary with numerous responsibilities that run like a laser beam to the qualified beneficiaries. See our 12 Point Summary of Florida Trustee Duties. “Qualified beneficiaries” are generally all beneficiaries who are current beneficiaries, intermediate beneficiaries, and first-line remainder beneficiaries, whether vested or contingent. See F.S. 736.0103(16)
The Trustee has a core duty to keep the “qualified beneficiaries” of an irrevocable trust reasonably informed of the trust and its administration. If you are a qualified beneficiary” of an irrevocable Florida trust you have the following “information” rights under F.S. 736.0813:
By: Phillip B. Rarick, Esq.
Most divorce judgments call for one of the parties to obtain a life insurance policy for securing the payment of child support, alimony or some other financial obligation. Let’s assume the obligation is solely child support: a potential mistake is failure to secure payment of the policy premiums by use of an irrevocable Children’s Safe Harbor Trust structured as a spendthrift trust.
For securing the payment of child support, the settlement agreement should have specific language that may read as follows:
By Phillip B. Rarick, Esq. and Jacqueline R. Bowden, Esq.
In Florida, when you die, your debts remain in your estate – and are not transferred to a surviving spouse or family member. However, this simple legal concept does not stop some creditors from harassing the surviving spouse or a family member into payment of a debt for which they have no legal obligation.
Creditors may strike immediately after death, showing empathy and false kindness, and then try to convince the surviving spouse they have a legal or moral obligation to pay. Beware and do not pay until you have consulted an attorney.
How fundamentally has the 2012 American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) changed estate planning? It may have taken a year for this consensus to develop, but the simple answer that was apparent at the recent 48th Annual Heckling Institute on Estate Planning is this: Profoundly; there is a new paradigm in estate planning.
Paul Lee, the National Managing Director of Bernstein Global Wealth Management, captured the essence of the new consensus in his presentation. The new law increases the estate tax exemption to $5.34* million per person and $10.68* million for a married couple. With the increased exemptions and permanence of portability of the deceased spouse unused exclusion (DSUE), Mr. Lee’s major Take-Away Points are:
Answer by Miami Trust Attorney Phillip B. Rarick, Esq.
Below is a summary of the basic obligations of a successor trustee of a trust.
Note: Trust administration requires strict compliance with the trust terms and often analysis of complex tax requirements. If you are a successor trustee, we can help. It is important that you follow the advice of an experienced Trust Administration Attorney to avoid or reduce estate taxes or income taxes and to protect yourself against personal liability.
Answer by Miami Trust Attorney Phillip B. Rarick, Esq.
The best way to avoid probate is to have a basic estate plan that includes a living revocable trust as your master set of instructions to make sure you give what you have, the way you want, and when you want.
When you set up a Living Trust, you transfer assets from your individual name to the name of your Trust, which you control. Technically, you no longer own anything, so there is nothing for the courts to administer when you die or if you become incapacitated. The concept is very simple, but this is what keeps you and your family out of the courts — even if you own assets in other states.
A common over-sight of persons moving to Florida is failing to take their trust. They may have packed their trust and taken it with them, but the trust situs remains in their original state. This is usually a mistake.
The fact that a client has moved to Florida will not generally mean that the law governing the trust has moved here as well even if the client is the settlor, beneficiary, or trustee of the original trust. Clients moving to Florida are well advised to have all their trusts reviewed by a Florida attorney regarding such issues as:
By Phillip B. Rarick, Esq., Miami Probate Attorney
Executive Summary
Probate is the legal process for transferring assets owned by decedent according to the decedent’s will or Florida intestate law to his or her beneficiaries after all legitimate creditors of the estate have been paid. The Personal Representative (in other states this role is called the “Executor”) is the person appointed by a will to follow the instructions of the will and administer the estate in strict compliance with Florida law. If there is no will, the Personal Representative is the person authorized to administer the estate under Florida law.
Florida Trust & Probate Attorneys Blog
