Why do I need a Will?
Statutes & Constitution: View Statutes: Online Sunshine (state.fl.us)
Statutes & Constitution: View Statutes: Online Sunshine (state.fl.us)
In order for your assets to pass to a certain family member or friend upon your death, you will need a Will or a Trust to be prepared and signed with the requirements that the law requires. The link to the Florida law with regard to wills is above. A trust will be the subject of a separate blog; however, this is another vehicle to make sure your assets are left to exactly who you want them to be left to.
If you have a bank account, investments, personal property, or real estate, if these assets are titled in joint names with the right of survivorship then upon your death those assets will be automatically transferred to the other joint member outside of the will and probate process. All other assets will need to be probated, or in other words, the court will have to approve the transfers through the probate process.
If a person dies without a will, that is considered an Intestate probate, and Florida Statutes 732.101 - 732.108, the link above, governs the distributions. If a person dies with a will, which is considered a Testate probate, then those in the will receive exactly what is written. The will can specifically leave any person a certain amount of money, a certain investment, a certain piece of jewelry, and even real estate. If a spouse or child is not included in a will or some other friend or family member feels that they were left out of a will wrongfully, there can then be a will contest. Sometimes a decedent is taken advantage of by a friend, caretaker or neighbor and is convinced to leave an asset or all of the assets to a non family member which causes a will contest. If so, the will can be contested and below are certain legal issues to bring to the attention of the court in a will contest:
1. The will was not executed properly per F.S. 732.502
2.The decedent when executing the will lacked testamentary capacity. In other words, the decedent when signing the Will did not understand fully what he or she was doing. F.S. 732.501
3.The decedent when executing the will was being pressured or tricked by someone with a close relationship to the decedent and therefore there was fraud or undue influence inducing its execution- F.S. 732.5165
A Petition to Revoke Probate would then be filed and this will be the subject of a separate blog.
In order to make sure your assets are left to exactly who you want and that there are no will contests, please contact us at Kreutzer Law Offices to make sure everything is done correctly.
