Estate Planning Attorney for Naples, 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. Pak Mail of Naples, the same store at 3823 Tamiami Trail East, says on its own page that it offers a commissioned Notary Public and notarizes documents while you wait. Call ahead so a notary is on duty when you arrive.

The Collier Clerk posts its own recording rules. A document about real property must be notarized, a document mailed in needs a prepaid, self-addressed envelope for its return, and nothing on the page should be highlighted, because color scans as black in the official image. When we draft and e-record your deed, those details are handled.

The Government Center sits on a busy stretch of the Tamiami Trail rather than a downtown block, so plan the day around a few nearby stops. The Fifth Third Bank Gulfgate Plaza branch at 2898 Tamiami Trail East is about 9 minutes on foot to the northwest, which is useful if you bank there and need a cashier’s check. Heading the other way, Publix at Naples Towne Centre, 3815 Tamiami Trail East, is open every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for groceries or a quick lunch, about 16 minutes on foot and a few doors from Pak Mail. Wolfmoon, an independent bakery at 1780 Commercial Drive that makes fresh croissants and specialty coffee, opens daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., about 25 minutes on foot or a short drive.

On the same Government Center campus, about 9 minutes on foot from the Clerk, the Collier Museum at Government Center at 3331 Tamiami Trail East sits on five acres of native Florida landscaping. The museum’s galleries run from the prehistoric mastodon hunters and the Calusa civilization that flourished here to the early settlers who arrived on this watery frontier a century ago, and it is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The nearest post office counter is a drive away. The Downtown Naples Post Office at 860 6th Avenue South is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at (239) 262-3351. For a quiet hour after, Sugden Regional Park at 4284 Avalon Drive looks out over Lake Avalon, with one of Collier County’s only freshwater beaches, and is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset, about 31 minutes on foot or a few minutes by car.

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

In Collier County, deeds are recorded by the Recording Department of the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Crystal K. Kinzel. The main office is in East Naples, in the Courthouse Annex at the Collier County Government Center, 3315 Tamiami Trail East, Suite 102, on the second floor. The Government Center is a campus on the Tamiami Trail that also holds the courthouse, so recording, court filings and the county offices sit together. The Clerk’s offices there are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Recording Department answers at (239) 252-2646, and recording questions go to [email protected].

You will not need to go there. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which the Clerk lists on its own page as an e-recording partner, so the signed deed never has to travel by mail. 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. The Clerk also says plainly that mailed and electronic documents are processed as time permits, and that a time-sensitive document is recorded while you wait only when it is presented in person at this main office on Tamiami Trail East.

If you do go in person, the circuit court’s own location page says parking is free in the garage on the south side of the courthouse. The same page lists firearms, knives, tools, pepper spray and liquids among the items not allowed in the courthouse, and Court Security answers questions at (239) 252-2222.

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 Vickie A. Downs, the Collier County Property Appraiser. The main office is at 3950 Radio Road in Naples, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at (239) 252-8141. The office also takes applications at 4715 Golden Gate Parkway, 2335 Orange Blossom Drive and 15450 Collier Boulevard, and says it opens additional locations during homestead season in January and February.

Collier works differently from many counties. The Property Appraiser requires every homestead application to be made in person at one of its offices, so there is no online filing. You must own the home and make it your permanent residence on January 1, and the application is due by March 1. Prefiled applications are accepted any time after March 1 for the next year, which spares you the lines in February. Bring your recorded deed or tax bill, a Florida driver license and vehicle registration, your Collier voter registration if you vote, and Social Security numbers for you and your spouse.

If your home is held in a trust, the Property Appraiser asks for a complete copy of the trust agreement when you apply. A lady bird deed keeps the title in your own name, so the deed itself is what you bring.

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 Collier 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 Florida Department of Health in Collier County issues certified death certificates at its main office, 3339 Tamiami Trail East, about 3 minutes on foot from the Clerk’s recording office, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The first certificate is $12 and each additional copy ordered at the same time is $10. Vital Statistics answers at 239-252-8205. The office issues certificates for Florida deaths from 2009 on, every request needs a photo ID, and the cause of death is released only to family or a legal representative. 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 or by instrument number and open the recorded image. The Clerk says a plain copy can be printed from the website on any printer at home.

If you would rather have a copy printed for you, Pak Mail of Naples at 3823 Tamiami Trail East offers printing services, about 15 minutes on foot from the Government Center. The store is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday until 6:30 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and answers at (239) 529-2729.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the Clerk charges $1 a page for the copy and $2 for the certification, and the Recording Department at the Government Center issues it.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Risk Alert service. The Clerk sends you an email whenever a deed, lien, mortgage or other record matching your name or property is recorded in Collier County. The alert does not stop a fraudulent filing, but it gives you the chance to check whether you signed what was recorded. The Clerk asks anyone who suspects fraud to call the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at 239-252-9300.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption, and the proof comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Florida law, as the Department of Revenue summarizes it, gives a $5,000 reduction in assessed value to an honorably discharged veteran who is disabled 10 percent or more, a full exemption from property taxes on the homestead for a veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability, and a discount equal to the disability rating for a qualifying veteran 65 or older. Surviving spouses can keep some of these, and a veteran may apply before the VA paperwork arrives, with the exemption dating back to the original application once it does. The application goes to the Collier County Property Appraiser.

Collier County Veteran Services helps with the VA side of this. The office is at 2671 Airport Road S, Court Plaza, Suite 202, a short drive north of the Government Center, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at (239) 252-8387 or (239) 252-2870, and by email at [email protected].

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, because the Property Appraiser asks for a Florida driver license with every homestead application. 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 Collier County the Tax Collector runs the driver license offices, and full driver license service is at the main office, 725 Airport Road South, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 239-252-8171. The Tax Collector adds a $6.25 service fee to each transaction.