If you own property with another person in Florida as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, if one of the co-owners passes away, the other owners automatically inherit their share of the property. It does not pass to their heirs or relatives, but rather passes to their co-tenants on the property.

Tenants in common means that you each have an undivided interest in the property. For instance, if there are three owners of property, each owner has a one-third undivided interest in the property. If one of the owners were to pass away, their one-third interest would pass to their heirs or to their beneficiaries under a will.

Typically, most attorneys and title companies will require a wire transfer at closing because of the amount of fraud that’s around today with cashier’s checks, wire is the safest way to get money to the closing attorney or the title company, however, you should always verify on the phone, the wiring instructions with the person that’s sending them to you to make sure you’re sending them to the right place.

If you die without a will or a trust, you are considered to have died “intestate”. What that means is that the Florida statutes will then determine how your property is distributed after your death.

Each situation, or each individual situation needs to be addressed to determine whether or not it’s worth it to establish a trust to avoid probate. It’s desirable often times to avoid probate because the process takes a minimum of nine months, and you, of course, have to go to court and hire an attorney to represent your interest. But, your individual situation needs to be analyzed by an experienced estate planning attorney to determine whether a trust or a will is right for you. (silence)

Some typical documents that can be found in an estate plan are of course a will, a trust, a durable power of attorney, a healthcare surrogate, a living will, and a preneed guardian. There are other documents depending on the complexity of your situation.

A trust is an entity usually created by an attorney for the purposes of avoiding probate. A trust, unlike a person, cannot die so if your assets are held in the name of the trust essentially the trust never dies so probate is never necessary. It’s important to determine with an experienced estate planning attorney whether a trust is the right vehicle for you to use.

If you’ve done estate planning with a non-attorney, it is important to consult with an estate planning attorney to review the documents, to make sure they’re legally sound, and that they actually put your plan into effect.

It’s important to have a will even if you already have a revocable living trust. We often refer to these as “pour over wills”. The trust itself must be funded to be effective. So if you later acquire assets that you forget to title in the name of the trust, the pour over will will pour those assets over into the trust, if necessary.

Anytime you move to a new estate, it’s important to consult with an experience estate planning attorney to review your documents to see if there are any changes necessary. Oftentimes, there are no changes necessary but it’s a case by case basis and you can consult an experienced estate planning attorney to determine if any changes are necessary in your particular case.