Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida
Are stocks part of estate?
My dad just recently passed away; he lived in Fla. He had a will and an irrevocable trust and he named an executor who resides in Florida, I live in Indiana. Problem: He split the estate 4 ways between my brother, myself (daughter) and his 2 grandkids. The executor is trying to see the worth of the estate to see if it's below $675,000. There were stocks that he had since we were kids my brother and me that is, with my dad's name, my name and my brother's name, now are these stocks part of the estate that is supposed to be split 4 ways or do we get the stocks between me and my brother as the stocks only had our 3 names on it? If the executor puts in all in a lump sum to get the estates worth, will we get back the stocks?? Help!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Are stocks part of estate?
You and your brother are entitled to the stock; however, the executor probably needs to include the date of death value of the stock in the estate for estate tax purposes. The stock is not part of the trust, so the executor can exercise no control over it, but may have to account for it only for estate tax valuation purposes.
Re: Are stocks part of estate?
Jointly owned property passes to the survivors. However, the personal representative of the estate must know about the existence of this property and its value for federal estate tax purposes. The jointly owned property will not pass into any trust or be available for claims of creditors. The certificates should be surrendered to the transfer agent and reissued to the surviving persons. It would be best to cooperate with the personal representative for efficiently handling of the estate.
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