Florida Homestead Descent Examples
Kristen D. Drake, JD, CFP, publishes Coast Law, LLC, an excellent Florida-specific blog focusing on estate planning matters. Her goal is to is to build a "One-Stop Florida Homestead reference page," and she's off to a great start. For example, in her blog post entitled Homestead Descent Examples she provides a link to homestead-related case studies prepared by Bruce Stone, one of Florida's most well regarded estate planning attorneys. Here's the post in its entirety:
Sometimes the best way to understand a complicated issue is with examples. Bruce Stone, a prominent estate planning attorney in Florida (more about Mr. Stone here), presented "What Every Georgia Trusts and Estates Practitioner Needs To Know About Florida Law" and included some excellent homestead descent examples in his materials. He was kind enough to let us post them here. Test your knowledge of homestead descent with these great examples.
At a recent meeting of the RPPTL Probate Law and Procedure Committee, a member gave another good example. A divorced father has a minor child. Father and child are killed in an accident while traveling. Article X, Section 4 says the father cannot devise his homestead because he has a minor child. If the child dies after him, the homestead has already vested and the homestead then passes to the ex-wife (mother of the child) as the intestate heir of the child. Father cannot fix this by will or trust, so he has to look at other forms of ownership which may prevent the homestead tax exemption and creditor protection.