[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

If someone has a lot of money and/or assets, in Florida, everything has to go through probate before the beneficiaries of that money/assets can take their inheritance. That's unless there's a Trust, or if it's all cash under the mattress or in a wall safe and the beneficiary gets to it before the lawyers do.

If you don't have a Trust, then your kids will have to wait while a lawyer makes sure that anyone who is OWED money - utility companies, mortgage and/or loans, taxes, the handyman, the roofing company, the dogsitter - gets what is owed to them first. Beneficiaries get their appointed share of whatever is left over.

With a Trust, the beneficiaries already technically own it all. At the declaration of death, it transfers automatically, because the deceased's name is simply removed from the proof of ownership.

I don't have a trust, but all of my investment accounts have a designated transfer on death (TOD) beneficiary. So, these accounts do not need to go through probate.