Search Results: heirs

How long can a Florida Estate Formal Probate take? Obviously  it depends on many factors including the complexity of estate documents , quantity of assets, numbers of heirs and of course estate planning in general. Florida Probate attorneys know that probate can take a long time, but you may be wondering just how long. A case out of the Georgia Court of Appeals this week shows the downside of making all of your five children personal representatives of your estate: a potential for thirty years of probate. 

A new study came out by the Tax Foundation ( a Washington DC based think   tank) which theorizes that getting rid of the death tax may increase economic output and employment by as much as 150,000 jobs. Did you know that some states have their own estate taxes that you may be subjected to if you own property outside of the state of Florida? How much does an estate have to be worth for the US Federal Estate tax to take effect? Wasn’t the estate tax supposed to be phased out by now anyways?

Florida has an aging population and planning for incapacity is an important  aspect of any estate plan. What will happen if you do not have a health care surrogate ? Who do you think makes those decisions for you? Your spouse, your kids, your parents? The short answer is it depends and its not something that should be left up to chance as illustrated by the tragic case of Terry Schiavo about ten years ago dealing with incapacity and lack of preparation. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon case, it is just a well known example of poorly planned estates or lack thereof that tell heirs nothing about what to do in the event of incapacitation. 

Federal law may not be the law that governs wills and trusts, but federal law regarding taxes supercedes states laws and your tax obligations have to get paid eventually, even if it is after you are gone. Goodestate planning includes considering tax consequences of various estate plans both for your estate and the eventual beneficiaries. Any Palm Beach Probate Attorney who is helping you plan your estate should also take the time to explain to you the various taxes you may owe and what this means for your estate. 

There are numerous ways that a will can be contested in the State of Florida,  but one of the main reasons a will could be challenged is if the “testator“, the person who signed the will, did not have  “testamentary capacity” to sign a will in Florida.

You can do almost anything online, shop, pay bills, read a book, take a   digital tour and in Florida you can even file a law suit online – in fact in some counties such as Miami-Dade the only way to file such a suit is online. One of the most dragging areas of developed has been an online probate systemand now all but eight counties in Florida have submitted plans to develop an online probate clerk system. Probate filing systems have developed differently as well, in several ways, which begs the question do we want our probate files online?

The short answer is no, the IRS code does not allow an estate to  declare bankruptcy. But that does not mean there are not real life situations where an estate may leave more debt that it has assets. As I had posted about before, over half of Michael Jacksons one trillion dollar plus estate was subsumed by debt. So what can you do if you are stuck being the Personal Representative of an Estate in Florida with more liabilities (or debts) than assets? 

Some relationships last a lifetime like a good barber and his customers, others  like a drive thru are just less personal. Believe it or not relationships with your different attorneys is very similar, if you are injured in a crash you may not ever use that PI (personal injury) attorney again, but if you use a tax attorney, my guess you are going to want to see that guy again and again. A probate attorney should also be a repeat offender in your legal arsenal— pick one you like. A 2014 case out of Massachusetts shows the dangers of an ill chosen probate attorney. 

I have written about the pour over will before, basically a testator   can set up a trust while they are living and act as trustee themselves and when they die, the trust will transfer to their heirs as a beneficiary. There are several things that you and your Florida Probate Attorney will need to get in order in order for the trust to be effective. 

Everyone takes things personally and sometimes during the long course of an adversarial probate you may get on a judge’s nerves and that can be costly. In order to disqualify a judge from a proceeding due to bias you will need to file what is called a motion for recusal and more, the judge will actually have to agree with you. Yes, you can appeal it to a higher court but your odds of success are still slim, as a case from the Alaskan Supreme Court shows. On March 6th 2015 the Alaskan Supreme Court issued its decision In Re Estate of Bavilla. Want to recuse a judge in your Florida Probate? Contact an experienced Florida Probate Attorney.