To put your house in a trust in Florida, the property owner must convey the house to the trust using a deed. A quitclaim deed is the preferred type of deed for this purpose, although a warranty deed will also work. Putting your house into a trust does not cause…
From time to time we receive inquiries about using limit liability companies to avoid probate of business interests and real estate. Some people believe that they can write terms and conditions in an LLC operating agreement that control the transfer of a member’s LLC interest after the member’s death. They…
Any individual may be a trustee and a beneficiary of a trust assuming that the trust agreement names other lifetime beneficiaries or successor beneficiaries after the death of the initial beneficiaries. For example, suppose a client wanted to serve as trustee of an irrevocable trust created for his benefit. The client’s general…
Clients who prepare living trusts for estate planning frequently will ask me whether they should transfer the legal title of their Florida homestead property to the name of their living trust. If the property is transferred to the trust the successor trustee will transfer or dispose of the property after…
A common question that comes up at initial client meetings for living trust administration or probate concerns the treatment of the decedent’s homestead property. The heirs want to know if they can sell the parents’ homestead and whether a probate proceeding is required to handle the homestead. In most cases,…
The mother and father of one of my asset protection clients wants to give my client (their son) and his wife their homestead property after they decease. The parents are concerned about subjecting their homestead to medicaid claims in the event they both leave the home to reside in a…
Only a few states have enacted asset protection trust legislation to provide creditor protection through a self-settled irrevocable trust. Those states with domestic asset protection trust (DAPT) statutes compete with one another by maintaining laws that attract investment assets to their state from people seeking asset protection benefits. In 2013,…
Prior to 2011, when the estate tax exemption was much lower, most estate planning attorneys preferred to separate spouses’ assets in separate living trusts to make sure each spouse received their full estate tax exemption. Joint trusts which are not properly drafted or maintained can forfeit one or the other…
