Personal Representatives in West Palm Beach Need to Know the Difference Between Probate and Non-Probate Assets

Are you serving as a personal representative in West Palm Beach? You may  need to retain a resident agent if you are not a licensed Florida attorney. Did you know that certain property is outside of the administration and not subject to the jurisdiction of the probate court’s process? Do you understand what anon-probate asset is?

Probate v. Non-Probate Assets

• One of the primary goals of the personal representative is to inventory all of the assets.
• There are two large classes of assets: probate and non-probate.
• Most assets are probate assets.
• Non-probate assets have listed beneficiaries.
• What are some of the most common probate assets?

Real Estate

• For one thing if you own a home in West Palm Beach with someone with a right of survivorship then that is non-probate property.
• Do you know what a right of survivorship is?
• That means that whoever survives the other keeps the property.
• The last person to own the property will eventually turn it into probate property when there is no one left with the survivorship.

Trusts

• The trustee, not the settlor, controls all trusts in West Palm Beach.
• Some trusts are not funded until the will dumps all the property into them these are often referred to as pour over trusts or testamentary trusts.
• This includes accounts that are held in trust, meaning they are pay on death or transfer on death (POD or TOD) accounts.
• You may have heard these referred to as Totten Trusts as well.

Life Insurance

• Another very common non-probate asset is your life insurance payouts.
• Life insurance has a selected beneficiary that takes the payment upon death.
• Thus there is no need to subject the funds to the probate court for distribution.

Probate Assets

• So what is a probate asset then?
• Everything else in West Palm Beach is probably going to qualify as a probate asset and should be inventoried by the personal representative.
• Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know how to classify the assets, if you have one already feel free to talk to your resident agent as assigned in the oath of personal representative.
• If you have not selected an agent or filled out the oath talk to an Experienced Palm Beach probate litigator today to get the ball rolling.