FAQ Videos

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Speaker 1: In the living trust there are three hats that are worn, the creator, the trustee and the beneficiary. While you're alive, you're wearing all three hats. You create the trust, you manage the trust, and all of the assets, all of the income from those assets flow through to you, the individual. You never give up control or benefit of the assets held in your revocable living trust.

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Speaker 1: Under Florida law the personal representative of your estate must be a Florida resident or a blood relative, but unlike a personal representative the successor trustee of your trust can be anyone anywhere. In addition, you could also name two people or more to work together as co-trustees. You can also name a financial institution such as a bank to be your successor trustee as well.

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Speaker 1: You should review your existing estate plan, every three to five years or at the happening of a life cycle event, a death in the family, a birth in the family, a divorce in the family. You want to make sure that your documents state what your goals and objectives, closest to the time when you pass. 120 years to everybody whose watching this, but if you don't sit down and make your wishes known, other people will decide for you and that's what people tend to fight about.

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Speaker 1: If you die without a will, you die intestate, and in the Florida statutes there's a rigid family tree that'll dictate who gets things when you're gone. It might not be the people that you want, so that's why it's so important to sit down with an attorney to discuss your goals and objectives to make sure that when you pass away the monies in your estate go to the people that you want it to go to.

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Speaker 1: Revocable living trust is a will substitute. It's a document created by you to avoid probate on the assets held in the trust upon your death, and to avoid a guardianship in the event you become incapacitated. There are three hats that are worn in any trust. The creator, that's you. The trustee who decides, what do you buy? What do you sell? What do you spend? That's you. And the beneficiary, that's you during your lifetime. Once the trust is created, and you've placed assets, funded the trust with stocks, bonds, bank accounts, and real estate, if you decide in the future you want to change things, you can change the distribution of the trust, or even who is the successor trustee. Once you pass, the trust becomes irrevocable, and cannot be changed by anyone. The only one that can change the terms of that trust is you, while you're alive.

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Speaker 1: A trustee is a fiduciary named in a trust document who is in charge of the management of the trust. How do you invest trust assets, how do you spend trust assets. With the revocable living trust, initially, you would serve as your own trustee. The trust document would then name a successor trustee to you to step in and manage the affairs of the trust for your benefit if you became incapacitated and disabled and when you're gone to settle your affairs, to pay your debts, expenses, taxes, and then distribute what's left over in the trust to the beneficiaries you've named in the trust, all without going through the cost and the delay of the probate process.

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Speaker 1: A will is a testamentary document that sets forth your desires as to who gets things when you're gone, and who will be in charge as the personal representative to wind up your affairs, pay your debts, expenses, taxes, and then distribute what's left to the beneficiaries name in the will. Also, a will, if you have minor children, will name your preference for who you want to be the guardian of those minor children and/or in charge of their request.

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Speaker 1: A declaration under the Florida life prolonging act, commonly known as a living will, states that in the event of terminal illness, persistent agitated state or an end state condition, that you want to die with dignity. You do not want any heroic measures. You don't want your love ones to second guess themselves to their death thinking they might have made the wrong decision for you. The media blows it up into a right to die. It is not. It's a right to choose how you want to be treated in that end of life situation.
On the other hand, a durable power of attorney is a document names an agent that would be able to step in and make financial decisions if you can't due to your incapacity or disability. Two very important documents that every Floridian should have as part of their estate plan.

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Speaker 1: Funding a living trust is easy, once you create your trust you simply retitle any taxable brokerage accounts, savings accounts, bank accounts from your name to your name as trustee. Likewise, any real estate, a new deed is prepared from your name to your name as trustee. Once all the assets are in the trust, life goes on, but in the future if you repurchase a new piece of real estate or open an account, you would simply do that in your name as trustee of your trust.

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Speaker 1: When you change a will it's with a document called a codicil. A codicil is a document that's executed with the same formalities of the will. It says, my will is the same except for possibly changes in your distribution, who gets things when you're gone or you may want to change the personal representative, the person in charge of your estate.

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Speaker 1: If you don't name a beneficiary on your retirement account or on a life insurance policy or an annuity contract, then it's payable to your estate. Your estate would be governed by your last will and testament. If you haven't taken the time to sit down and prepare a last will and testament, then those assets would be governed by the laws of intestacy and you run the risk that a laughing heir, somebody very far down on the family tree will inherit those funds when you die. That's why it's so important to see an attorney to prepare a valid last will and testament under the Florida laws so that what you want will happen when you're gone.

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Speaker 1: When one does a will, you want to put any specific funeral arrangements that you have made in the will, or any arrangements that you want made with your remains, so that those coming after you know what to do with you. In addition, there'll be a dispositive provision in regard to who gets what when you're gone. Lastly, who will be in charge, who will be the personal representative of your estate to follow through on your directions?

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Speaker 1: There are three basic benefits or advantages of a revocable living trust over the utilization of a simple will. Number one would be, avoiding probate when you die, the cost, and the delay in the administration of your estate. Additionally, should you become incapacitated or disabled, unlike a will, which only takes effect when you die, the living trust will take effect the moment you sign it and will survive your incapacity, allowing your successive trustee to access those assets you've placed in the trust for one purpose only, your care, support, and comfort. Lastly, the living trust is a private and confidential document. The only people that see are the people you show it to, unlike a will, which becomes a matter of public record when you die.

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Speaker 1: There are two advance care directives in the state of Florida, the first is the living will that says, "End-state condition, terminal illness, persistent vegetative state. You want to die with dignity, you don't want any heroic measures." There's also the health care surrogate, which allows the person you name to make medical decisions for you, less than terminal illness decisions.
A lot of clients tell me, "Oh, I have those documents." Well look at them. Make sure that your health care surrogate has a federal HIPPA release. You want to person that's making decisions for you to be able to access your medical records. You also want to make sure that your version of the living will says, "All three conditions. End state condition, persistent vegetative state, and terminal illness."

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Speaker 1: No, although it does cost a little bit more to create a revocable living trust as opposed to a simple last will and testament, the benefits, probate avoidance, and guardianship avoidance that come with the revocable living trust will save thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars to your estate.

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Speaker 1: Unlike a will, which is a matter of public record when you pass, a living trust is only seen by those you show it to. For instance, once you create your living trust, you're going to want to put stocks, bonds, bank accounts into the trust. Financial institution where those assets are held may ask for you to bring them a copy of the trust so they can make note of who the successor trustee is when you pass.

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Speaker 1: Probate only controls assets that are in your individual name alone. Therefore, once you've created your living trust by you retitling or purchasing new assets into your name as trustee of the trust, upon your passing, they will not be controlled by the will and will avoid probate because the successor trustee of your trust will have immediate access to those assets to do what you want, pay your bills and distribute to the people or institutions you want those monies to go to.

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Speaker 1: When you have a revocable living trust as part of your estate plan you also have a will. It's a special kind of will called a pour-over will. It does exactly what its name says, it scoops up and pours over into your trust any asset that you forgot to put in the trust during your lifetime so at least it gets distributed the way that you want it to be.

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Speaker 1: We suggest that you review your will at the happening of any life cycle event: a birth in the family, a death in the family, a divorce in the family. Are your documents still meeting your goals and objectives or is your nogood daughter-in-law that divorced your son still getting your diamond earrings? Upon those events, take out your will, look it over, make sure it still says what you want it to say.

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Speaker 1: Yes. There are certain documents that every Floridian should have. The first one is a living will that says terminal illness and state condition persistent vegetative state, you want to die with dignity, you do not want any heroic measures.
The other document would be a health care surrogate, which would name someone to make medical decisions for you, less than terminal illness decisions. You slip and fall in the shower, you're in a car accident, you bump your head. You're not terminally ill, but you can't speak to the doctors. That document would name who you want to speak for you.
The final document is a durable power of attorney, which names an agent to make financial decisions for you in the event you cannot.

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Speaker 1: You do not have to be a millionaire to avail yourself or utilize a revocable living trust. I would say if you own a home or a condominium, you certainly have enough assets to consider at least drafting a revocable living trust to avoid probate on that asset.
As a rule of thumb, I would say if you add up what you've got and it's going to go through probate and it's valued at more than $100,000, it would behoove you to create a revocable living trust.
Florida law has some abbreviated types of probate. It's called the summary probated ministration for assets less than $75,000, but at $100,000 or more, you're looking at a full blown formal probate with all the bells and whistles, which means the costs and the delay involved. A living trust will avoid probate and effectively and efficiently settle your affairs, as opposed to the probate process that a will goes through.

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Speaker 1: When you change a trust, it's with a document called, An Amendment. The amendment says that the trust is the same, except for these provisions. Normally there are two things that people would change in their trust: The first, is who gets things when they're gone. The second is, who's going to be named as the successor trustee, to be in charge of the trust should they become ill or pass away.

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Speaker 1: It's always good to name alternative beneficiaries, simply because life happens and if someone pre deceases you, you want that request to go to who you want it to go to, not who others think it should go, and that's the result. If you don't name it, other people fight about it.

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Speaker 1: Florida law allows you to prepare what's called a written statement where you can designate particular items of tangible personal property, jewelry, artwork, collectibles, furniture, to go to specific people. All you need to do is put their name, their address, describe the item, and then sign and date the bottom. Then, those items would be distributed to those people directly.

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Speaker 1: Under the Florida Trust Code there is a statute that allows for a trust to be created for the benefit of a pet that will outlive you. I've done that in the past for some exotic birds, [inaudible 00:00:20] and such that have lengthy life spans, more so than a human being. For some people pets are like children and providing for a child is very important. Providing for a loved companion like a dog, a cat, a bird is certainly, anyone who is a pet lover should consider.