Florida Trusts: trust principal and trust income can be confusing to Florida beneficiaries

Do you understand everything you need to know about Florida trusts?  Are you a trust beneficiary of a Florida trust?  Do you need guidance from a Florida trust lawyer or Florida trustee?  In Florida, many probate lawyers and trust lawyers in cities like Jupiter, Florida, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, down to West Palm Beach draft trusts for the benefit of their Florida clients.  In many instances, Florida law will apply to the administration and interpretation of the Florida trust. The beneficiaries of the Florida trust, however, may not even live in Florida. Consider a wealthy Florida resident who resides in, say, Boynton Beach, Manalapan, Boca Raton or Delray Beach, Florida who dies, leaving a trust for  a husband or wife, children and grand children.  Those Florida trust beneficiaries may live all over the country and not know anything about Florida law. That Florida trust may require that all the trust income be distributed to the husband or wife or a particular child.  And the principal of the trust may, in the Florida trustee’s discretion, be distributed — or NOT distributed — to children and grandchildren.   Those beneficiaries who live outside of Florida will have their trust interest ruled by Florida trust law and the Florida Trust Code.   They may not realize that Florida has  a principal and income act which is Chapter 738 of the Florida Statutes.  That Florida law tells trustees throughout Florida what constitutes “income” and what is “principal”.   That Florida law also tells Florida trustees and beneficiaries, what expenses, like trustee fees, attorney fees and investment fees, may or can be paid from income and from Florida principal.  If the Florida trust gets a distribution from a partnership created by the Florida trust creator, or settlor or grantor, does that go to the income beneficiary or the trust principal beneficiary?  Whether you are a trustee in Ft. Lauderdale, Plantation, Aventura, South Beach, Sunny Isles or you are a beneficiary of a Florida trust living in another state, you may want someone with knowledge of Florida trust law to advise you.  Advocate hard. Litigate smart.