Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida

You need to leave your estate in a trust to be handled as the trust dictates by the trustee you appoint.

Contact a trust and estates attorney who can assist you in creating the Estate plan that you want. The best way to do what you want is to utilize and an attorney.

You present a factually simple question with multiple possible resolutions some of which are very simple, yet will likely result in large headaches after your death. However, some may be a little more complex yet yield the results you are looking for. Either way, using an attorney is something that your future should include.

While none of what you may need is overly complex for an experienced Estate planner, it can take some time and review of your assets and wishes to help you reach the conclusion of what is best for your situation. Simply creating a Will from a box will not likely result in what you are trying to accomplish, and would most definitely cost someone lots of money after your deaths.

It does seem from the brief facts you provided, some form of Trust will help you accomplish your goals. If created properly and administered properly while you and your husband are alive, there would be very little, if any, of your Estate that would have to go through probate, thus potentially saving large sums of money. Any assets not properly in the trust at the time of your death will have to go through the probate process, which, depending on the size of the Estate, the number of creditors, and if it is contested, can be quite costly to administer. Even with a Trust you must have Wills which direct how any non Trust assets are handled. Generally people have those assets transferred to the Trust in what is called a "pour over Will", but your circumstances may dictate something different.

You are right to be concerned about naming your daughter "Personal Representative" (formerly executor/executrix) of your Estate, if you question her competence. If you create a Trust you can designate pretty much anyone you want to serve as the Trustee upon the death of your and your spouse. However, you and your spouse can remain in control until your deaths. You can have the Trust distribute the assets anyway you see fit (with few exceptions), and also carve out something for your daughter's maintenance or well being without her having access to the balance, and you can even protect the part set aside for her from the claims of her creditors in the future.

You can designate whatever charities you want as the beneficiaries under your Trust, and you can administer the trust and change it as many times as you like, so long as you are alive and remain competent. You indicated your husband partially resides in WA, if he has assets that are held there, especially real estate, a Trust in Florida can address how those are to be handled, but he should contact an attorney there to ensure the transfers into a Florida trust are done properly.

My final comment is related to potential children of your daughter. Even though you may not want to provide anything to your daughter directly, you can set aside assets for her children without the monies flowing to your daughter directly. All of this can be accomplished with the assistance of an experienced Estate attorney. Depending on the size of your estate (number, type and value of assets) the cost of setting up a trust could be minimal in relation to the cost of administering a Will.

Good luck and contact an experienced Estate attorney. We are easy to find.