Miami Shores Probate Lawyer

Miami Shores, Florida is a town in Miami-Dade County. By the early twentieth century, the region surrounding contemporary Miami Shores Village was inhabited by a starch mill, tomato packing plant, sawmill, pineapple plantation and grapefruit grove. In early 1926, it was reported that about fifty homes had been finished, another fifty were being built, and an extra one hundred were being developed. Sadly, on September 18, 1926, every plan for the community was halted with the onset of a destructive hurricane. Additionally, other factors played a part in the bankruptcy of Shoreland Company, the company behind the community’s development, in 1927.

The current Miami Shores generally is compatible with Miami’s initial “Biscayne” community. With the onset of the Great Depression, the city of Miami surrendered its authority and the region integrated under the name Miami Shores Village in 1932. In the decades after its integration, development was stable. Various structural designs were present. However, the neighborhood materialized as the kind of development that the Shoreland Company visualized. Now, Miami Shores is mainly a bedroom community for those individuals working in Greater Miami and has a considerable retired population.

Avoiding Probate in Florida by Using Beneficiary Designations or Life Estate Deeds

If a person owns life insurance or possessions held in a retirement account like an IRA, 401(k), or annuity, then he or she is already exploiting probate evasion by means of using beneficiary designations. What an individual might not understand that in Florida the person is permitted to name beneficiaries for his or her bank accounts. This is implied as a “payable on death” (POD) account, and also for his or her non-retirement accounts, or “transfer on death” (TOD) account. A POD account is a special kind of bank account that is acknowledged according to United States state law. POD accounts can be established for checking or savings accounts, money markets, and deposit certificates in addition to United States savings bonds. However, a TOD account is a special kind of account that is acknowledged according to a few states’ laws and it is precisely what the name specifies: the account is handed over to at least one other person by legal operation, so it does not need the probate court procedure.

Additionally, in Florida, a person can utilize a special kind of life estate deed termed enhanced life estate deed, also labeled as a “Ladybird Deed,” to keep ownership of Florida real estate throughout his or her lifetime and then pass the property on to the heirs of his or her choosing after he or she dies without the requirement to probate real estate in Florida. Besides Florida, this deed is acknowledged by common law in two other states: Michigan and Texas. Technically, an enhanced life estate deed can be utilized to hand over real estate ownership outside of probate to an heir designated in the deed and was randomly named after the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson by the Florida attorney who conceived it.