Mistakes happen in all walks of life but they can be costly when it comes to your Florida estate plan. the law is designed to provide fair remedies and solutions for families and loved ones who are troubled by an honest mistake by a deceased relative. The lawin Florida is based off of a Supreme Court of Florida Decision from 1993 (In Estate of Tolin, Fla. 1993).
- Alexander Tolin died in 1990 his estate plan began years prior when he executed a last will and testament. Under this will, the residue of his estate was devised to his friend Adair. The will was prepared by an attorney.
- Later Tolin executed a Codicil which changed the residual beneficiary to a corporate beneficiary but later told his attorney that was a mistake and attempted to invalidate it.
- Upon death a court battle erupted to determine whether the Broward Art Guild or Adair Creaig was the beneficiary of the residue clause under the will and the Court explained that the original was not destoyed due to mistake and as such the funds were inconstructive trust for Mr. Creaig.
- Alot of this undue delay would have been avoidable if some one had destroyed the copies of the codicils and wills.
Palm Beach Probate Attorneys know that these types of mistakes happen, but we will do whatever we can to avoid them, for instance we are careful to make sure that we catalog all originals and copies and when a client asks us to destroy something, thats what we do.
- Always make sure that you do not prepare competing documents with different lawyers as the party did here while he was out of town, this makes it all but impossible for your Palm Beach Estate Planner to stay in the loop.
- Like anything important in life you should update your estate plan (pretend it is a laptop and update it every year or so!) to make sure that you account for new and lost assets, new and lost beneficiaries and even just market trends may play a role in determining the optimal route for your estate.
- It may be a question you ask yourself : is it worth the time my attorney will bill me to do these minor changes? Keep in mind attorneys who bill hourly charge you in the tenth of the hour meaning if your item only takes six minutes thats all you will pay, now if those six minutes are the six where the old will is destroyed, it could say you countless dollars in estate proceedings. So yes, it is probably worth it!