Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Posts Tagged ‘probate’

The article that appears in today’s edition of Daily Finance is the most comprehensive and most accurate analysis of the failure of the Attorney General and their investigation of Fraudclosuregate done by any reporter yet.  Everyone is sitting, watching,  waiting for some grand solution to this multi dimensional problem.  Everyone just assumes that someone will come up with the solution.  No one is prepared for the very real possibility that there may not be a solution to this mess.  I have spent years now fighting in this mess of a war, and I am absolutely prepared to say that there is no solution…..at least no solution that is anything short of revolutionary and very destabilizing…..but don’t take it from me….listen to the expert….

Ever since this fall, when the mortgage industry’s robo-signing scandal first broke, people have been aware that banks have been illegally foreclosing on homes.

Now there’s a huge fight over what to do about that, mostly focused on a 27-page proposal that was supposed to represent the consensus of the 50 state attorneys general, but apparently doesn’t. On top of that effort came a report of a “shock and awe” modification push from the federal government, but as Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism details, it’s neither good policy nor practical.

One feature of both the attorneys general’s proposal and the “shock and awe” maneuver is speed.

The attorneys general are in such a hurry to find a solution that they haven’t even investigated the banks: They’re just relying on consumer complaints to define the problem. Similarly, the shock-and-awe plan involves an impossible six month deadline. As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner explained to Congress: “All parties have a stake in bringing this to resolution as quickly as possible” and “It’s very important that we try to bring this to bed as quickly as we can.”

START 2010 OFF RIGHT, GET YOUR WILL, POWER OF ATTORNEY

AND

HEALTH CARE SURROGATE DONE NOW!

In case you missed it, today I appeared on Tampa station 860 WGUL, Tampa’s conservative talk leader.  See the radio station’s website here for more information about their lineup.

The topic of todays show was financial planning and retirement advice, with one of  Tampa/St. Petersburg’s most  respected financial planners, Jack Shuten from Coastline Financial Solutions.  Take just two seconds to click on Jack’s website here, where he’s got free information that could save you BIG BIG MONEY in 2010!

The bottom line is no matter your age or your financial circumstances, you need a will, power of attorney and health care surrogate.  I made a special deal to encourage people to have this done early in 2010…visit my website at www.mattweidnerlaw.com for more information!

1. WHAT IS PROBATE? Probate is a court-supervised process for identifying and gathering the assets of a deceased person (decedent), paying the decedent’s debts, and distributing the decedent’s assets to his or her beneficiaries. In general, the decedent’s assets are used first to pay the cost of the probate proceeding, then are used to pay the decedent’s outstanding debts, and the remainder is distributed to the decedent’s beneficiaries. The Florida Probate Code is found in Chapters 731 through 735 of the Florida Statutes.

There are two types of probate administration under Florida law: formal administration and summary administration. This pamphlet will primarily discuss formal administration.

There is also a non-court supervised administration proceeding called “Disposition of Personal Property Without Administration.” This type of administration only applies in limited circumstances.

2. WHAT ARE PROBATE ASSETS?

Probate administration only applies to probate assets. Probate assets are those assets that the decedent owned in his or her sole name at death, or that were owned by the decedent and one or more co-owners and lacked a provision for automatic succession of ownership at death.

For example:
•A bank account or investment account in the sole name of a decedent is a probate asset, but a bank account or investment account owned by the decedent and payable on death or transferable on death to another, or held jointly with rights of survivorship with another, is not a probate asset;

•A life insurance policy, annuity contract or individual retirement account that is payable to a specific beneficiary is not a probate asset, but a life insurance policy, annuity contract or individual retirement account payable to the decedent’s estate is a probate asset;

•Real estate titled in the sole name of the decedent, or in the name of the decedent and another person as tenants in common, is a probate asset (unless it is homestead property), but real estate titled in the name of the decedent and one or more other persons as joint tenants with rights of survivorship is not a probate asset;

•Property owned by husband and wife as tenants by the entirety is not a probate asset on the death of the first spouse to die, but goes automatically to the surviving spouse.
This list is not exclusive, but is intended to be illustrative.

3. WHY IS PROBATE NECESSARY?

Probate is necessary to pass ownership of the decedent’s probate assets to the decedent’s beneficiaries. If the decedent left a valid will, unless the will is admitted to probate in the Court, it will be ineffective to pass ownership of probate assets to the decedent’s beneficiaries. If the decedent had no will, probate is necessary to pass ownership of the decedent’s probate assets to those persons who are to receive them under Florida law.

The information contained in these question summaries comes directly from the Florida Bar website which can be accessed here.

For more information, contact Matt Weidner at www.mattweidnerlaw.com

At some point in time, if you’re lucky, you or your family will need to retain the services of an experienced probate attorney to distribute your assets after death.  I say “if you’re lucky” because you hope to accumulate wealth and have people who love and care about you around at the time of your death to make such an effort worthwhile.

Probate is a legal process through which the assets of a deceased person are properly distributed to the heirs or beneficiaries under a will, or if there is no will, according to Florida law. The Court oversees the estate to make sure debts are paid and proper distribution is made.

The Pinellas County Clerk of Court has an excellent website that will answer many of your questions.  Such as

What are the legal requirements for a will? (You may be suprised at the answer to this question.)

What if the deceased person left no Will?

What if there is a Will filed but no Personal Representative has been named?

How much will the probate process cost?

Do I need to hire an attorney?

The bottom line is that in nearly every circumstance, you should consult with an attorney at the death of a loved one to ensure the proper processes are being followed and that important issues do not creep up.  For more information contact Matt Weidner at www.mattweidnerlaw.com

The easy answer to the question is, No you don’ need an attorney to draft your will, power of attorney or health care surrogate. Any person is free to go online, visit a document preparation service or pick some form out of a book and attempt to make a will or other estate planning document. Sure you may save a few bucks in doing your documents this way, but in my experience you can wind up paying far more for this in the long run.
The reason I say you will probably wind up paying far more money in the long run is there is a very good chance you will do something wrong at some point in time in either putting the proper language into the documents or you will make one or many errors in executing or signing the documents.
Wills, Powers of Attorney, Trusts and other legal documents are technical and complex documents and the slightest errors at any stage in the preparation process can make the entire document invalid. While this is certainly bad enough an even more excruciating consequence is that an improperly drafted document can cause heartache, pain and expense for your friends and loved ones.
I’ve been practicing law for nearly ten years and over the course of my practice, the most contentious and costly estate cases were caused by improperly drafted documents.  Oftentimes the parties fighting each honestly believe they are fighting for what the deceased wanted. In cases where this is true both competing sides feel it is their moral duty to their deceased love one or friend to carry out their wishes, no matter the emotional or financial cost.
When I work with a client to draft a will, power of attorney, trust or any other estate planning document I do far more than just fill in blanks on a form. I spend on average two hours meeting with the client to consider both the financial and many other personal elements that go into the drafting of these documents. Many times in the course of examining these areas, we uncover other issues and liabilities that a client has never considered but we are able to address these issues before they become problematic.
I charge only a few hundred dollars to draft all these documents, and while you could get them done cheaper elsewhere, in the long run you’re better off visiting my website where you’ll find more information about estate planning and litigation or contact my office directly at 727/542-5571.  In addition, please visit the website of the Florida Bar where you can find a wealth of information on a variety of estate planning topics. The website can be accessed at www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBConsum.nsf/48e76203493b82ad852567090070c9b9/a0091ab18d4875d085256b2f006c5b75?OpenDocument