Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida

Re: Joint property vs a Will

In Florida, if you and your wife hold the stock as joint owners with a right of survivorship then the stock will go directly to the surviving party as a matter of law outside of the probate process. If the stock is simply held jointly, without any rights of survivorship, then half becomes part of the probate estate of the surviving party and others may have some claim on it. Florida does provide some protection for a surviving spouse and that person will in almost all cases have a claim on part of the deceased spouse's assets. You may want to talk to an estate planning attorney about these issues in more detail.

Re: Joint property vs a Will

The easiet way and safest way to avoid probate and litigation is to title assets in joint names with right of survivorship. They must be titled this way to avoid probate and to ensure that the assets transfer automatically to the joint owner.