Currents Magazine June 2016 Currents June 2016 | Page 13

Currents

June 2016

> continued from page 12

the law will still require probate of your assets and
your beneficiaries will be based on your closest living
blood relatives. Florida Law provides for an order of
priority of blood relatives if someone dies without a
Will. If you are a Florida resident and own real estate
in another state, it is likely that two probates will be
required: a primary probate in Florida and a secondary probate (known as an ancillary proceeding) in
the state where the property is located.
With cash assets such as bank accounts, CD's,
brokerage accounts, annuities, life insurance policies,
etc. you can avoid probate by designating one or
more beneficiaries on the account. These beneficiaries will be entitled to the proceeds of that account
upon your death, regardless of whether you have a
Will or what you may have indicated in the Will; in
other words, the designation of a beneficiary in a
specific account takes precedence over anything
stated in a Will. The Will will only apply to those
assets where there are no designated beneficiaries
(or if the beneficiaries have died before you). Common phrases to denote beneficiaries include
“payable on death (p.o.d.), transfer on death (t.o.d.) or in trust for
(i.t.f.).”
Therefore, one of the primary
reasons that many clients choose
to create a Revocable Living Trust
is to avoid probate on all of their
assets, particularly their home
and any other real estate. I have
many clients who own their primary home in Florida and a vacation home in another state. We
create a Revocable Living Trust in
Florida and also prepare a Deed
to transfer the Florida property
into the Trust. An attorney in the
other