Homestead
Homestead… Red, Yellow or Green?
The concept of Florida homestead is one of the most difficult, if not one of the most important concepts to understand in estate planning. It has been called the legal chameleon because of the changing definitions of homestead depending on the context you are using...
Minors and Homestead…Don’t Mix Well!
Last week in my blog, I discussed minors as beneficiaries of retirement plans, life insurance and other assets in an individual’s name. I used the example of Sheila and Joe dying together in a car crash and their minor children, Amanda and Dakota, receiving assets....
Can You Save Real Estate Taxes on More Than One Homestead?
The homestead tax exemption gives Florida residents a favorable real estate tax break and more importantly the “save our home cap” advantage. I recently wrote about this on a prior blog. While the real estate tax break may not be a huge amount of money, the “save our...
You Sell Your Homestead… Are the Proceeds Exempt From Creditors?
As I have discussed in prior blogs, one of the advantages of owning a home is creditor protection provided by the Florida Constitution. The homestead has to meet certain requirements but once those requirements are met, the homestead is a valuable asset protected from...
Does the Homestead Tax Exemption Automatically Pass to a Surviving Spouse?
The term “homestead” is very confusing under Florida law. There are generally 3 areas of homestead, (1) descent and devise (the rules on distributing the homestead at death), (2) creditor protection and (3) the tax exemption and the corresponding “save our home cap”...
Homestead Devise Restrictions… Have you Inadvertently Waived Them?
I have previously discussed homestead in this blog and the subject can be very confusing. There are 3 areas of homestead protection… the homestead tax exemption (and the corresponding save our home cap discussed in the last blog), creditor protection during lifetime,...
Save Our Home Cap… Are you Saving Anything?
Most people understand the savings of their homestead tax exemption because the “exemption” is printed on the real estate tax bill but do you understand how the Save Our Home (“SOH”) cap works? Chapter 196 of the Florida Statutes allows each person who has legal or...
Who Owns the Homestead Upon Death When There is a Surviving Spouse AND a Marital Settlement Agreement with a Prior Spouse? ?
Florida homestead is a very specific legal term and with it comes many favorable attributes, one of which is that, if properly devised, the homestead is not subject to a decedent’s creditors. For example Mom devises homestead to Son. At her death Mom had $20,000 in...