Perlin Estate Planning

Do We Hire a South Florida, Miami Private Eye to Uncover Grandma's Estate?

"Relatives face a financial paper chase after a beloved relative dies."

If after grandma passed away, you realize that she didn't leave a will, it can be a real mystery to unravel all that there was to her estate. MarketWatch says in "My wealthy grandmother left no will — how do we find her stocks and bonds?" to take your cue from Jim Rockford or Rick Castle.

The executor may have to do a lot of gumshoeing.

You can contact grandma's estate planning lawyer, if she had one, as well as anyone who had access to her home—like housekeepers, friends, and other relatives. You can also see if she had a safe deposit box at her bank and watch the mail for updates on any accounts.

According to recent research, women in particular are often faced with this problem when their spouse dies. Women are also less likely to know the terms of their spouse's life insurance policy (57% versus 69% of men) and less likely to locate family financial documents in an emergency (32% versus 21% of men).

Make sure that your financial documents are in a place where they can be located easily when you die. Unfortunately, there's no law that says we have to make out a master list of where our assets are located. The deceased had to have independently made a list. Also, it's not unusual for assets to go undiscovered: grandma may have had a bank account in northern Minnesota or a timeshare in Hawaii. If there's no documentation, you'd never know.

The surviving spouse will often need important documents like tax returns, birth certificates, and insurance policies. So do your better half a big favor now and get organized.

Do you live in South Florida? Do you have a sticky estate to unravel OR are you looking to prevent such a situation from happening? Call me (305-443-3104) right away for peace of mind. I can help!

• I'm an exceptionally experienced Florida Bar Board Certified Estate Planning Attorney,
• I'm a Florida Bar Board Certified Elder Law Attorney, focusing on ALL legal issues related to aging,
• have prepared over 4,000 estate plans in 30+ years in practice,
• have administered over 600 estates through Probate, and
• am a Certified Financial Planner Professional™, plus
• I am also a Florida Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Of course, if you would like more information about General Estate Planning in South Florida, I have a very informative website you are welcome to visit for more information.

Reference: MarketWatch (April 30, 2016) "My wealthy grandmother left no will — how do we find her stocks and bonds?"

Avoiding Escheatment by the State of Florida (Seizure of Your Accounts)

The process by which a state government claims ownership of a deceased person's accounts who has no heirs or beneficiaries is called escheatment. It is something that everyone needs to know how to avoid to make sure their accounts are not inadvertently seized while they are still alive.

If a person passes away and no beneficiaries or heirs can be found, then the state government will claim the property for itself. Today many state governments continuously experience revenue shortfalls and this has led some of them to be overly eager and aggressive about claiming property through escheatment. 

What often happens is that an account holder has not stayed in contact with a brokerage or financial institute for a long time. The financial institute then reports the assets in an account as unclaimed property. Rather than making any effort to locate the person who owns the account, the government claims the property as its own. This can create issues for people who have long term investments as part of their retirement and estate plans. 

Recently, Investopedia listed how you can avoid this happening to your stock accounts in "4 Ways to Avoid Escheatment of a Stock Account." 

The tips include:

• Make regular contact with the brokerage even if it is just to speak to a representative.
• Cash all dividend checks. Even if you think the amount of the dividend is too small to bother with, cash the check so that the brokerage knows a living person is receiving the checks.
• Complete any proxy voting paperwork even if you do not care about it, as this will show that you are still alive.
• Update contact information when it changes so that the brokerage knows how to get in touch with you.

If you follow the above steps, then your estate will not find itself in the position of the government having already claimed your assets through escheatment before the assets could be distributed to your heirs.

An experience estate planning attorney help you avoid escheatment by having appropriate default heirs listed in your estate plan.

Do you live in South Florida? I can help! Call me (305-443-3104) right away for peace of mind.

• I'm an exceptionally experienced Florida Bar Board Certified Estate Planning Attorney,
• I'm a Florida Bar Board Certified Elder Law Attorney, focusing on ALL legal issues related to aging,
• have prepared over 4,000 estate plans in 30+ years in practice,
• have administered over 600 estates through Probate, and
• am a Certified Financial Planner Professional™, plus
• I am also a Florida Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Of course, if you would like more information about General Estate Planning in South Florida, I have a very informative website you are welcome to visit for more information.

Reference: Investopedia (October 29, 2015) "4 Ways to Avoid Escheatment of a Stock Account."