is necessary in order to pass title or ownership of an asset to the decedent’s beneficiaries. If the decedent died with a Florida Will, this is called a “testate” estate and the Will dictates who gets the assets and who gets to administer the estate. If the decedent died without a Will, this is called “intestate” and Florida law determines who gets the assets
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That depends on how the bank account was titled. Assets must go through Florida probate only if they are owned solely in the decedent’s name at death. In other words, there were no co-owners on the asset nor were there beneficiary designations (such as with life insurance or retirement accounts). Examples of assets that must go through probate in Florida are bank or investment
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Probate in Florida is a court-supervised process where assets of a deceased person (the decedent) are identified and gathered by the personal representative/executor (means the same thing). Essentially, the personal representative pays the decedent’s debts and distributes the assets to the decedent’s beneficiaries. This process can take anywhere from 3 months to over a year to accomplish, depending on the type of assets in
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I had a client call me last month after her mother passed away. She wanted to know why she couldn’t use the Florida durable power of attorney (DPOA) she had for her mother to close out a bank account. I explained to her that the DPOA is only effective while someone is alive; once that person dies, the DPOA dies with them. At death,
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If you are a teacher, student or someone who itemizes on their tax return, don’t plan on filing your tax return early. Because Congress waited so long in passing the Tax Relief Act of 2010, the Internal Revenue Service will be not be begin processing some tax returns until the middle or late February 2011. Several deductions were reinstated under the Act, such as
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