So, maybe you are the beneficiary of dad’s revocable trust, but you are wondering where all of dad’s money went. Why isn’t there more money in dad’s Florida living trust? Did my sister, who was dad’s Florida power of attorney, mis-use the POA to take dad’s money? Did my sister, who was dad’s successor trustee of his Florida trust, hide assets from me and not put all the money in the revocable trust? If my sister says dad made a $300,000 loan or a gift to her, how does that get proven in a probate litigation trial West Palm Beach?
Did Sister Use the Power of Attorney Florida to Take Dad’s Money?
- Did your sister write checks to herself as your dad’s power of attorney or transfer dad’s revocable trust Boca Raton assets to herself?
- Was this conversion under Florida probate law, what other laws might callembezzlement?
- Or, was this something innocent and something Dad wanted to do?
- Many Florida residents have a living revocable trust that often leaves equal inheritances to children.
- But, questions linger when one child thinks that their sister or brother used the Florida power of attorney to take dad’s money before it went into the revocable trust.
- Sister wrote checks to herself on Dad’s Florida account?
- Or, after dad dies, after the Palm Beach probate, or during it, the sister who is the successor trustee, or maybe the executor of the will, doesn’t tell you about money which she got from dad’s trust or his bank account.
- Is a personal representative Boynton Beach or a trustee Florida required to disclosethat she got money from dad?
- Did sister hide assets which should be in dad’s revocable trust Palm Beach Gardens?
- What just happened?
Did my sister take trust money?
- A big fat check $$ ends up with mom or dad’s successor trustee or guardian or POA?
- You ask yourself: how in the world did your sister, the power of attorney, end up with that money when it was supposed be transferred into the Florida living trust and besplit evenly ?
- You ask yourself: did dad REALLY give that money to your sister, or did sister take it? Embezzle it? What Florida probate lawyers call conversion?
- Did sister take that money when it’s supposed to be in the Florida revocable trust?
- Did someone use a Florida power of attorney to transfer assets to themselves when the money should be in dad’s revocable or living trust Boca Raton?
- Recurring probate issues which Palm Beach probate courts see again and again.
- What if sister says it was a gift? No…. a loan !?
How do you prove your sister stole trust money in a probate lawsuit West Palm Beach?
How do I know if my sister took trust money : was it really a gift?
- So, here are the 4 general rules of a valid Florida gift of money. This may help you understand if your sister embezzled trust assets or if dad really made a gift of money to your sister.
- Understand that Palm Beach probate courts look very closely (scrutinize) a power of attorney who transfers assets to herself.
- Palm Beach probate courts scrutinize a successor trustee who says that dad made gifts to her right before he died in Florida, when that money should go into a Florida revocable trust.
- First, was there delivery of the money or was it embezzled?
- Two, was there acceptance of the so called Florida gift?
- Third, was there donative intent?
- Did your father intend to make a gift of money to your sister and NOT put the money in the revocable trust Florida?
- What evidence suggests that it was a gift?
- Who testifies about the gift?
- Who testifies —-other than the power of attorney sister who took the money, or the successor trustee who took the money?
- Or, put another way, what evidence suggests that a probate court Delray Beach would find that it was embezzlement Florida? What witnesses or documents, like a cancelled check from a time when dad was in the hosptital or sick with dementia, or in Hospice, would suggest that the successor trustee or power of attorney actually took your inheritance?
- Can Florida powers of attorney make gifts to themselves under Florida probate law? Self dealing?
- Breach of fiduciary duty Florida by a trustee or POA?
- Finally, remember how to have a gift “voided” or reversed or set aside, and remember the new Florida laws on powers of attorney and a POA Florida making gifts to herselfor changing the beneficiary on a Florida bank account.
My sister claimed the money she took was a loan?
- If you have a probate litigation trial in Palm Beach County
- And your sister claims that dad made a loan to her of, say, $300,000, which should have ended up in the revocable trust, here are some pointers
- 1st, if the money which sister took with the POA was a loan, where is the loan document?
- Was the loan in writing?
- What was the collateral for the loan?
- Where are the collateral documents?
- Where are the security agreements or liens for the loan?
- Was the loan signed by dad and witnessed?
- Did sister, who got the $300,000, make payments on the loan?
- What were the terms of the loan ? (Principal and interest payments? 15 year? 5 year loan? 30 year loan? Interest only)
- Did dad’s estate planning attorney Lake Worth know about the loan?
- Did sister make payments on the loan?
- How many payments did sister make on the loan from dad?
- If sister is co trustee or successor trustee of a revocable trust, was the loan disclosed to the trust beneficiaries Florida?
- Was the loan listed as an asset of the Florida trust , like in an accounting, or in the Florida probate? (Listed on the Palm Beach probate inventory?)
- Does the trustee intend to distribute the loan as an inheritance to a probate or trust beneficiary?