Transferring Inheritance Rights in Florida

Though it isn’t a very common situation, there are some circumstances under which you might want to transfer your inheritance rights to others. The process of transferring inheritance rights in the state of Florida can be slightly complicated, which is why you should always speak to your attorney before you make any decisions about these kinds of transfers. Until you talk to us, however, there is some basic information you should understand about transferring inheritance rights in Florida and why you might want to do it.

Transferring Intestate Inheritances

When a person dies without an estate plan that person is said to have died intestate. In this situation, that person’s closest living relatives typically inherit, or split, the decedent’s property as his or her heirs.

Though it is uncommon for people to die without an estate plan and not leave behind any identifiable living relatives, it does occasionally happen. When it does, the person managing the estate of the decedent will often hire an heir search company to track down any living relatives. Once those living relatives are found they typically sign over a small portion of their inheritance rights to the search firm to compensate that firm for their efforts in finding the heir.

Transferring Testate Inheritances

A person who leaves behind an inheritance plan, or more specifically, a last will and testament, dies testate. This means that the decedent’s property will be distributed in accordance with the terms he or she made through the inheritance plan. Even in this situation it might be important to transfer inheritance rights in order to protect the decedent’s wishes.

For example, if a decedent died leaving behind an estate plan, that plan will state how his or her inheritances will pass after death. But what if that person wanted to make changes to the plan and never got around to doing it? What if, for example, a father dies leaving behind two children and two siblings, as well as an inheritance plan that divides his property equally amongst the children but not leaving anything to his two siblings? What if the father had expressed his intent to give those two siblings a portion of his estate but  never got around to making the change?

In this type of situation the children might be able to transfer some of their inheritance rights to the siblings in order to preserve their father’s intentions. Though this is not a common scenario, it does occasionally happen, and you need to know what to do if you find yourself in such a situation.

So, if you ever have questions about transferring inheritance rights, you should contact us so we can talk to about your options.