Ask any of the Florida estate attorneys and they will tell you that after you die, so called Florida transfer on death or Totten Trusts or pay on death accounts may not be as simple as you think. Why? Probate attorneys Florida know that many people can make a claim to a Boca Raton bank account or a brokerage account with securities or stocks in that account. Is that fair? Aren’t there Florida probate rules that tell us what the estate laws are? Of course, but that doesn’t mean that someone still can’t make a claim in the estate that is not based in the law or upon the real, true facts. Any Florida estate lawyer who has been probating Florida estates for 20 years or so will tell you that just about anyone, almost anyone, can make a claim to stocks,bonds and a financial or investment account in a West Palm Beach probate. Here is something you may need to know about inheriting that stock account that your probate litigation attorney may or may not tell you.
How to inherit stocks from a Florida estate
- There is actually a part of the Florida estate laws which deals with securities or stocks and bonds and inheriting those in Florida
- FLORIDA UNIFORM TRANSFER-ON-DEATH SECURITY REGISTRATION ACT is a Florida law, or statute, which tells you how to inherit a stock account
- Estate lawyers in Florida read this section of the law all the time; it’s Chapter 711 of the Florida laws, sometimes referred to as the Probate Code in Florida
- Here is the free link to read this entire law on inheriting Florida stock accounts, for free: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0711/0711ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2015&Title=%2D%3E2015%2D%3EChapter%20711
Probate Fights Over Estate Stocks and Bonds
- Sometimes, there will be a legal fight or disagreement in Palm Beach probate over who owns the stocks or bonds owned by the deceased person, perhaps a mother or father or aunt or uncle or spouse
- Many times, a Florida widow will make a claim to the account even if it is in the name of someone else, and the surviving spouse may hire estate lawyers in Florida to make the probate claim
- So, who inherits the Florida stock account if there is a beneficiary ?
- Florida trust lawyers will talk to you a lot about so called Florida Totten Trusts or transfer on death accounts or stocks and securities registered in the name of a person then “in trust for” someone else
- Knowing whether you inherit the stocks outside of the Palm Beach probate because your name is on the account is an important question for your Florida probate litigation law firm
- Or, does the stock account “go” to the estate or the personal representative or Estate Executor of the Palm Beach estate even if the account has your name on it?
- Is the stock account an estate account meaning it’s a probate asset or does it get inherited by the named beneficiary?
- Of course, the real question is: if the Florida will gives all the inheritances to, say, your sister, but your name is on the stock account of your mother or father, does the stock account get inherited by you….or your sister?