West Miami Probate Lawyer

West Miami, Florida is a municipality in Miami-Dade County. At the 2010 census, 5,965 people resided there. Among early recommended names for the city were West Haven and West Gate. When it was integrated, West Miami was a town with only seven-hundred inhabitants.

The Florida Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA)

The Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) is a standard law proposed by the National Conference of Commissions on Uniform State Laws to make straightforward custodial handovers of assets to minors and endorse authoritative uniformity among the states. UTMA accounts offer a few of the practical benefits of customary trusts but with less cost and difficulty. Florida’s adaptation of UTMA adopted with some fine-tuning at Florida State. §710.101, et. seq. can be relevant if either the individual handing over property, who is called the transferor, the minor, or the custodian is a Florida resident when the transfer happens—or if the property is kept in the account located in Florida.

The notion is legitimately direct. Instead of establishing a revocable or irrevocable trust in Florida, the transferor hands over assets to an account regulated by an appointed custodian, who can be the transferor as well, for a minor’s benefit. The custodian is normally the parent of the minor or other adult relative. However, a matrimonial relationship is unnecessary. When property is handed over to the account, it legitimately is the property of the minor and the custodian handles, finances, and issues it as the fiduciary of the minor.

Almost any kind of asset titled in Florida, or assets placed elsewhere if the person is a Florida resident, can be handed over to an UTMA account—money, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, life insurance, intellectual property, and a title to real and personal property are all qualified. Transfers, which are irrevocable, can be gifted, willed, or made by means of a trust. A deceased person’s personal representative can also appoint a custodian and hand over property from an estate to a UTMA account. However, legal sanction is needed if the value is more than $15,000.

When the minor attains legitimate age, the account concludes, and he or she gets the property. What establishes “legitimate age” differs according to how the property was handed over. If the transfer was gifted or made by a Florida final will or trust specifically establishing an UTMA account, the account ends when the minor attains twenty-one. If the transfer originates from a will or trust not specifically generating an UTMA account, or from the estate of a deceased person who did not possess a will, the account concludes at age eighteen.

Florida is among a few states that permit UTMA accounts to stay intact until the minor attains age twenty-five, but only if the transferor noticeably states an intent for the account to last for the more extended period. Significantly, when the minor becomes twenty-one, the conservator must present the current ex-minor wit notice of his or her right to take out assets and discontinue the account, and then the minor has thirty days to retrieve the property.