In a #Florida appeals court opinion issued just days ago, three siblings sued their sister in a #Miami probate court over a #Florida revocable trust which the sister created for her father—-who was in a coma!
The #Miami probate court dismissed the siblings’ #inheritance lawsuit. They appealed to a #Florida appeals court, which reversed the #Miami probate court.
CREATING A #FLORIDA TRUST FOR DAD WHILE DAD IS IN A COMA–AND NOT TELLING YOUR SIBLINGS
Can you create a #trust for your father, while he is in a coma and after he suffered a massive stroke? You can in Florida, if you:
- do it properly in the father’s #guardianship proceeding
- don’t do it in secret
- give notice to all interested persons
- get a #Miami probate court to oversee and approve
- obtain a #guardianship order permitting you to create a #Florida trust for your dad, who is incapacitated
WHY CREATE A #TRUST FOR DAD WHILE HE IS INCAPACITATED OR #INCOMPETENT?
There are many reasons why, conceivably, you would create a #Florida trust for someone who is incapacitated, #incompetent, or suffering from #memory loss or #dementia. Here are some reasons, but you need to do it properly, under the #Florida probate rules:
- for # estate tax savings
- to preserve and protect your property
- to hold #real estate— and be able to transfer or sell the real estate
- to have money professionally managed
- to minimize costs and #legal fees
SECRET TRUSTS?
The main issues of this #Florida guardianship dispute which involved a Florida revocable trust were:
- could a #Florida revocable trust be created
- for someone who was in a coma
- and subject to a #Florida guardianship
- without telling the other #trust beneficiaries or your siblings
- and keeping control over the #trust money for yourself ?
NO SECRET TRUSTS ! Interested persons are entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard in a Florida guardianship
We don’t have all the facts in this #guardianship dispute, which involves a #Florida revocable trust. However, the opinion of the #Florida appeals court for this #Miami probate case suggests that when the daughter/sister created the #Florida revocable trust for her father who was in a coma, although she did it in a #guardianship court, she did not give notice to her siblings.
In a #Florida guardianship, you generally MUST give notice to interested persons — which can include family members, heirs, brothers and sisters children, and those who may inherit. Evidently, it’s not clear, that the sister did not give notice to her siblings, when she created a #revocable trust for her dad. Generally, you can’t do things in secret in a #Florida guardianship proceeding. If her siblings had a right to notice, and to participate in the #Miami guardianship, then creating a #secret trust is wrong. The trust which the sister created also gave to the sister great power over the #trust money. Control! ….. Over how much money your brothers and sister get! Whether such power over the #trust money was in her dad’s best interest is another question which the #trust litigators will probably resolve at a new #trust trial in Miami.
FOR REFERRAL SOURCES, LAWYERS AND LITIGATORS
We help you with Florida estate and trust administration and trials, and #probate appeals.
Our #Florida probate law firm
- does not draft estate plans
- does not draft wills and trusts
- does not steal your clients or your probates
Our #West Palm Beach, Florida #probate litigation firm :
- hands your clients back to you at the conclusion of the #Florida litigation
- after all, they are YOUR clients
- we try cases
- we handle appeals
- restricts its practice to #Florida probate disputes
- we work with you on #Florida estate administration, #Florida probate
- we litigate for and protect beneficiary rights
- we represent #Florida personal representatives or executors, and #Florida trustees
- we receive 95% of our clients from other lawyers
- we take contingency fee cases.
Who are we? Our firm is comprised of
- serious Florida litigators,
- focused probate lawyers,
- experienced paralegals and support staff.
We have been involved in high profile, nine figure, multi-million-dollar #Florida estates, including Madoff matters, old # Palm Beach money and complex trusts and multi-party #Florida probates. We also handle “small” or “simple” matters. All we do is litigate and help you with #Florida estate and trust administration. #Tortious interference with an inheritance and allegations of #undue influence, and #will challenges and trust challenges are a unique subspecialty of the law. Does your client know which ones to file, when to do that, and why? Do you know the different ways to prove each case? How about quantifying or assessing damages? It would be our pleasure to work with you and to serve your clients. For a complete copy of this very recent legal opinion please email michelle@pankauskilawfirm.com.
John Pankauski, www.johnpankauski.com, is the author of The Trustee’s Book – An Individual’s Guide To Money, Misfits, Marriages, and Mismanagement, and the upcoming The $41 Trillion Inheritance War. He is an estate and trust litigator in West Palm Beach, Florida. www.pankauskilawfirm.com and has been featured on the CBS Evening News, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, NBC, ABC and Fox.