FAQ’s Florida Trusts: duties of a successor trustee (see it now?)

Uncategorized • Sep 29, 2014

Everyone, it seems, from Miami to Jupiter, Florida is being told by Probate Attorneys Palm Beach that you need a revocable living trust. In fact, just this morning, financial writer Ivory Johnson of CNBC (online) wrote a great article about estate planning for 99% of the population: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101934660

So, let me ask you: what are the duties of a successor trustee and why should you care?

Well, if you want a quick, free perspective or commentary on successor trustees Palm Beach, take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlLBpcSYFzQ&feature=youtu.be

Or, you can read on:

FAQ’s Florida Trusts: duties of a successor trustee

A successor trustee is a trustee who takes over for a prior trustee
So, consider that your mother who lives in Boca Raton, Florida has a revocable living trust and she is getting on in years
Her Delray Beach probate lawyer suggests that she transfer assets to fund her living trust and she does
Now all the assets which she owns, except the Florida homestead, are in her Palm Beach revocable trust
After a few years, she tells you that she doesn’t want to be trustee anymore, really doesn’t want to manage the day to day of a trust
So, she named her successor trustee, her Palm Beach estate lawyer, to serve as trustee or co trustee
Or, consider this: your uncle lives in Jupiter, Florida but when he passes away, his trust says that you are the successor trustee of a family trust: an irrevocable trust which has a bank on PGA in Palm Beach Gardens as the present trustee
You, as the successor trustee have duties under the Florida Trust Code, like all Florida trustees , but there is one important point to consider:
Do you have a duty to investigate the actions and inactions and investments of the prior trustee?

For more videos, short ones, and free, on Florida trust, estate and guardianship topics, as well as Palm Beach wills and probates, click or cut and paste here: http://www.pankauskilawfirm.com/Firm-Overview/FAQS.shtml