Estate Planning For Lonely People
Loneliness kills, but what happens after lonely people die? If you are close with some members of your family but estranged from others, you have one set of concerns at the forefront of your mind as you build your estate plan. If you love all your children equally, but some of them are demonstrably better off financially than others, your estate planning worries are different. Likewise, if you have plenty of love but not a lot of money, your biggest concern is buying long-term care insurance or transferring your assets to other family members to steer clear of the Medicaid five-year lookback rule, so that your illness and death do not impoverish your family. These all sound like high class worries, aspirational problems, if you are truly alone in the world, with no family and no friends. No matter how solitary you are, the rules regarding the probate of your estate are the same as the rules governing probate for the estates of your more gregarious peers. For help building an estate plan that acknowledges the reality that you will probably grow old alone and no one is counting on inheriting money from you, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
Who Acts As Personal Representative of Your Estate If You Have No One?
The most straightforward way of determining who will act as personal representative of a deceased person’s estate is to read the decedent’s will. The court will appoint the person listed in the will as personal representative unless that person declines the invitation. If the original personal representative has died or declines the invitation, the court invites the person listed as successor personal representative.
If the decedent did not leave a will, anyone may petition the court to open the estate for probate. If the decedent was married and his or her spouse is still alive, the surviving spouse has the right of first refusal when it comes to serving as personal representative. Otherwise, the court can appoint a professional personal representative, such as an accountant or probate lawyer.
Who Inherits Your Money If You Have No One?
No matter who serves as personal representative, the personal representative’s duties are the same, namely inviting known heirs and creditors to claim their inheritance and debts, and publishing notices so that other heirs and creditors, including those unknown to the personal representative, may come forward. If the decedent is not survived by any close relatives, the personal representative must do his or her due diligence to locate distant relatives who are entitled to inherit. The personal representative might enlist the help of estate research firms in this matter. If the personal representative does not find any heirs, the money that remains when the estate settles goes into a public fund. Heirs who find out about it later may petition the court to reopen the estate.
Contact David Toback About Estate Planning for Loners
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you draft a will so that the probate of your estate will be painless, even if you have no family members to inherit from you. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
floridabar.org/public/consumer/pamphlet026/#:~:text=If%20the%20decedent%20did%20not,serve%20as%20a%20personal%20representative.
