NJ Motor Vehicle Owners Can Now Designate a TOD Beneficiary
Dealing with death and probate is never easy. However, over the past decade, New Jersey has done a number of little things to make various parts of the probate and estate administration process more manageable. In 2016, NJ adopted the Uniform Trust Code, which makes it much easier to modify an irrevocable trust without having to go to Court. In 2018, NJ repealed its state estate tax. Now, NJ motor vehicle owners can designate a transfer on death beneficiary.
Everything You Want to Know About Ancillary Probate in NJ
If you have a loved one who died outside of New Jersey, but they owned real property in New Jersey, what do you do? The answer is to conduct an Ancillary Probate in NJ.
Generally, this means you will conduct a second probate action in New Jersey after you have done one in the state (or country) where the Decedent was domiciled.
Florida Electronic Wills Soon To Be Legal
According to the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog, Florida has enacted a new law authorizing the use of Electronic Wills effective January 1, 2020. Florida is the fourth state to authorize the creation and storage of digital Wills. However, in my opinion, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the use of such […]
Why Florida Probate Can Be Difficult
When deciding whether or not to do a Will package or a Revocable Trust package, many of my Boca Raton, Florida clients will ask why choose one over the other. Among the many benefits that a Revocable Trust has over a Will is the ability to minimize or even avoid probate. This leads to the obvious question of: Why […]
Requirement of Executors to Report Basis of Assets When Administering an Estate – FollowUp
The IRS has released new regulations that have extended the due date for filing Form 8971 to March 31, 2016. Executors and administrators of estates that are required to file a federal Form 706 Estate Tax Return are now also required to file Form 8971 and report the basis of the assets included in the […]
Trouble with Probate
Sometimes probate can be a simple process. Sometimes it can be a royal nightmare… and sometimes it can be an expensive royal nightmare. I’m not sure if it is a sign of the times or just a coincidence, but our office has had numerous estates where the probate has not been very easy. To give […]
Non-residents Non-citizens of the US Should Be Careful of How they Invest in American Assets
Many individuals who live outside of America like to purchase real estate in America or invest in the U.S. Stock Market. It can be much safer than investing in other parts of the world and often times the individual has children who have moved to America to live or study. Florida and New York are […]
Dangers of Specific Bequests and General Bequests
WHAT ARE SPECIFIC GIFTS AND GENERAL GIFTS? A specific bequest is a gift of a specific piece of property to a specific person. Three examples of this are: I give my real estate, located at 1 Main Street, Anytown, State, to my son, Jake Smith. I give my 500 shares of stock of XYZ Corporation […]
Titling of Assets
The way you hold title to your assets is key to any comprehensive estate plan. The greatest Will in the world is going to be ineffective if you have survivorship assets, IRAs or life insurance benefits going to people you don’t want them going to. In short, how you own your property determines where it […]