Prevent the Fights What Happens to Your Beloved Items After You Die?
We all have sentimental items, but what happens to these possessions when we pass? In his October 2016 column “It’s Not the Money or Property They Fight Over,” Sheppard Law Firm attorney Craig Hersch outlines the steps you can take to ensure your loved ones don’t argue over heirlooms after your death. You can read the full column at FloridaEstatePlanning.com. I was very close to my great grandmother, whom I called Bubby. A framed picture in my home includes her image along with an 1890 silver dollar. She told me that her father handed her a silver dollar bearing her birth year when she arrived in America. When she died, that silver dollar was invaluable to me. I was only 12 years old, but I dearly wanted it. My sister, incidentally, has our Bubby’s soup spoon framed in a box in her dining room. Generally speaking, the very few disputes I’ve refereed in my more than 30 years of practicing estate planning law involved tangible personal property items like rings, watches, jewelry, and other items just like coins and soup spoons. If you own such items that you would like to see passed down to a certain child or grandchild,
your first course of business is to discover whether he or she wants it. Stay to them, “I intend to hold on to my [insert item name here] for quite some time. I just want to make sure that if I leave it to you that this is something you would treasure as I have. Or perhaps there’s something else that you find more valuable sentimentally.” Once you’ve decided who is to receive each item, then make a list. Florida law actually gives us an easy mechanism to make a list of our tangible personal property outside of our will or trust and to easily amend it. So long as our will or trust mentions the list properly under the Florida statute (this would be the job of you working with your estate planning attorney), then you may create a list, and it need only be signed and dated. If you should choose to update the list, do so and sign and date it again. Creating a list can mean more than leaving thousands of dollars to your loved ones, and it can prevent arguments in the wake of your passing. Although my Bubby didn’t have much in the form of monetary wealth when she died, she left me a real treasure, one that can never be replaced.
S p o o k y S t r a w b e r
These adorable chocolate-dipped strawberry ghosts will be the stars of your Halloween party!
INGREDIENTS:
• • •
16 oz white chocolate, chopped
24 strawberries
1 package mini dark chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS: 1. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the white chocolate at 50% power for 30 seconds. Remove it and stir, then repeat the process until melted. 2. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper. 3. One by one, dip the strawberries into the melted white chocolate and set them on the parchment. Allow the extra chocolate to pool to form a “tail” effect. 4. Before the chocolate coating fully cools, add three mini chocolate chips to each berry to form two eyes and a mouth. 5. Let chocolate set, then serve your spooky snacks!
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