Estate Planning Attorney for Cape Coral, Florida

A Florida trust that leaves your home or savings to someone at your death has to be signed the way a will is signed, with two witnesses who watch you sign and a notary. Florida law voids the parts of a trust that pass property at death when they are signed without those formalities, and Florida courts have thrown out trust amendments that carried one witness instead of two. We run the signing with our own witnesses and notary, by video or in person. If you would rather sign locally, these are the places nearby.

A Florida deed needs two witnesses and a notary. We set up the signing for you by video, or you can sign in person. The Clerk’s own fee schedule lists notary service at $10 an instrument, so if you are already at the Government Center, call 239-533-5007 first to ask whether the Cape Coral counter can notarize that day.

The Lee Clerk publishes what a deed needs before it will record. The list includes a prepared-by line with the name and address of the person who drafted it, the mailing addresses of both the owner and the person receiving the home, the names and addresses of both witnesses printed under their signatures, a complete notary block with the seal and commission expiration date, and a blank square three inches by three inches in the top right corner of the first page for the Clerk’s stamp. When we draft your deed, those are handled.

The Lee Government Center sits on a quiet government campus, so plan on your car for most errands. Cape Coral City Hall at 1015 Cultural Park Boulevard is about eight minutes on foot, and Reflections Park beside it is the smallest park in Cape Coral, with benches around a fountain and a plaque remembering Hurricane Ian. The Cape Coral Central Post Office at 1030 SE 9th Avenue, about four minutes on foot, is the place to send certified mail, with window hours weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Cape Coral Museum of History at 544 Cultural Park Boulevard, about 19 minutes on foot or a short drive, tells the story behind every lot in the city, yours included. Jack and Leonard Rosen bought the 1,724-acre Redfish Point tract in 1956 for $678,000, and most Cape Coral lots were then sold on installment plans of 10 percent down and $10 a month, with ownership passing to the buyer only when the last payment was made. The museum is open Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at 239-772-7037.

For coffee or lunch, Café YOU at 1423 SE 10th Street, Unit 1A, is about 20 minutes on foot or an easy drive. The café serves breakfast and lunch with its own bakery, Monday to Saturday from 7:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with orders taken until 3 p.m. If you need a cashier’s check and bank there, the nearest branch is First Horizon Bank at 812 Del Prado Boulevard South, a short drive from the Government Center.

Putting your home into the trust means recording a new deed, from you to yourself as trustee, in Lee County’s official records. The trust deed is recorded at the same office, and in the same way, as any other deed.

In Lee County, deeds are recorded by the Official Records office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Kevin C. Karnes. The main office is in Fort Myers, on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building at 2115 Second Street. Cape Coral owners do not have to cross the river, because the Clerk keeps a second Official Records counter on the 2nd floor of the Lee Government Center at 1039 SE 9th Place in Cape Coral, and the Clerk lists that address for recording a document in person. Official Records answers at 239-533-5007, and the Clerk’s call center runs Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., with the lobby open until 5 p.m.

The Cape Coral office also has a drop box outside for recordings. The Clerk asks that the deed, the payment and a self-addressed stamped envelope go in one sealed envelope, and the Clerk holds a recorded document without that envelope and destroys it after 90 days.

You will not need to make either trip. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which is on the Lee Clerk’s own list of e-recording vendors, so the deed never travels by mail and the original never leaves our hands. The Clerk says plainly that it cannot promise same-day recording for anything, electronic or otherwise. The Clerk posts the recording fee as $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, so a two-page deed costs $18.50 to record.

A home held in your revocable trust keeps its homestead exemption when the trust gives you a lifetime interest in the home, which is how we draft it. The Property Appraiser still asks for proof of the trust, and each county asks for something slightly different, so here is what this one wants.

Homestead is handled by Matt Caldwell, the Lee County Property Appraiser. The office is in Fort Myers, on the 4th floor of the Melvin Morgan Constitutional Complex at 2480 Thompson Street, open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Property Appraiser lists no separate office in Cape Coral. The main line is 239-533-6100, and exemption questions go to [email protected]. You can file online, by email, in person, or by mail to P.O. Box 1546, Fort Myers, FL 33902, and the deadline is March 1.

Cape Coral owners 65 and older should know one local number. The City of Cape Coral has adopted the limited-income senior exemption at $50,000, twice the $25,000 that Fort Myers, Sanibel and Bonita Springs adopted. The senior exemption has its own March 1 deadline, and the Property Appraiser accepts the income paperwork until June 1.

The Property Appraiser also says that when ownership of a homestead changes in any manner, including putting the home into certain kinds of trusts, you need to contact the office. A lady bird deed changes the title too, so we tell you whether yours calls for a call to the exemptions desk, and you can ask them directly at 239-533-6100.

After your death your successor trustee steps in without a court. Within 60 days the trustee must tell the beneficiaries the trust exists, and Florida law requires a notice of trust to be filed with the court in Lee County. To sell or transfer the house, the trustee signs a deed as trustee and gives the title company a certification of trust instead of the whole trust.

After you die, the house is already your family’s. To show that in the record, they record a certified copy of your death certificate and an affidavit, and then a title company can insure a sale. The Lee Clerk records only a certified Florida death certificate issued without the cause of death, so the family orders that version.

The Department of Health in Lee County issues death certificates at the Pondella Clinic, 83 Pondella Road in North Fort Myers, the nearest office to Cape Coral, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each certificate is $11, a rush order adds $10, and the clinic’s main line is 239-461-6100. The office issues certificates for Florida deaths from 2009 on and asks for a photo ID. We prepare and record the rest.

We send you the recorded deed as soon as the Clerk returns it. The deed also appears in the Clerk’s official records search, where you can look it up by your name and print a copy on your own computer. If you would rather have the Clerk make it, the fee schedule lists copies of recorded instruments at $1 a page.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, you can order an e-certified copy online for $8, or ask for one at the Official Records counter in Cape Coral or Fort Myers.

To print a copy in town, the Cape Coral-Lee County Public Library at 921 S.W. 39th Terrace, a short drive from the Government Center, offers document copying, scanning and printing at 10 cents a page in black and white and $1 a page in color, paid in cash. The library is open Monday to Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday until 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday until 5 p.m., and answers at 239-479-4636. The library grounds hold several active burrowing owl nests, so bring a little patience in the parking lot.

Lee County’s paper history runs deep. The earliest recorded document dates to 1887, the year Lee became a county, and the Clerk keeps a Historical Document Library of more than 150 original books in the Official Records office in Fort Myers, where visitors may photograph pages.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Property Fraud Alert. The Clerk emails you within 24 hours when a deed, mortgage or other land record with your registered name or parcel number is recorded, and you can register trusts as well as people. The email comes from Lee Clerk Official Records with the subject line Clerk Recording Activity Notification. If an alert ever shows a deed you did not sign, the Clerk’s page says to report it to the law enforcement agency where the property sits, and we can take it from there.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption, and the proof comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Lee County Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 exemption for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected disability of 10 percent or more, a full exemption from property taxes on the homestead for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability, and a discount equal to the disability rating when part of the disability is combat-related. Surviving spouses can keep some of these exemptions.

Lee County’s Veteran Services team helps with the VA side of this, including a copy of your DD-214, which the Property Appraiser asks for with the combat-related discount. The team works from Lee County Human and Veteran Services at 2440 Thompson Street in Fort Myers, by phone or by appointment, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the county says visitors without an appointment are not being accepted, so call 239-533-8381 or email [email protected] before you cross the river.

Marriage or divorce often leaves a home titled in a name you no longer use. We write the new deed with both names, the name on your old deed and your name today, so the record connects them and a future title search does not stall on the difference.

Your driver license should match as well. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles requires every name change on a license to be made in person, and only after the Social Security Administration has updated your name, allowing 24 to 48 hours after that. In Lee County the Tax Collector runs the driver license offices, and the Cape Coral office is a two-minute walk from the Clerk’s counter, at 1039 SE 9th Ave., Room 102, open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 239-533-6000. Book a Driver License or ID Change or Replacement appointment on the Tax Collector’s website first.