Estate Planning Attorney for Vero Beach, 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 UPS Store #3214 at 2046 Treasure Coast Plaza, Suite A, about a mile east of the courthouse, lists notary service and printing, at 772-569-2400. Call ahead, because the store keeps separate notary hours.

The Indian River Clerk prints a standing notice that, since January 1, 2024, every deed must carry the post office address of each witness. A post office box is acceptable. When we draft your deed, those addresses are on it.

If you do come downtown to sign or to pick something up, a hot coffee is close. Coffee House 1420 is about four minutes on foot from the courthouse, on the corner of 14th Avenue and 20th Street, and serves sandwiches and salads as well as coffee. Baci Trattoria at 1918 14th Avenue, about seven minutes away, serves breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Downtown Post Office at 2050 13th Avenue, about six minutes on foot, is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, and PNC Bank at 958 20th Place is thirteen minutes on foot. Pocahontas Park, five minutes away at 2199 14th Avenue, is a quiet place to sit before the drive home, and the Royal Palm Pointe park on the Indian River Lagoon is a short drive away.

Farther down 14th Avenue from the park, about nine minutes from the courthouse, the Vero Beach Railroad Station at 2336 14th Avenue tells a piece of the town’s story. The Indian River County Historical Society bought the abandoned 1903 station from the Florida East Coast Railway for $1.00 in 1984, moved it to a city parcel that had been bought in 1924 for that very purpose, and reopened it in 1987, the year it became the first building in Indian River County listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The exhibit center is open Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m., for $5 a person, with children 12 and under free.

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

In Indian River County, deeds are recorded by the Recording Division of the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Ryan Butler, in the courthouse at 2000 16th Avenue in Vero Beach. Recording is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Recording Department answers at 772-226-3100, Option 2, then Option 6. The Clerk’s general email is [email protected]. If you go in person, the parking garage to the left of the courthouse is free.

You will not need to go downtown. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which is on the Clerk’s own list of accepted e-recording services, so the 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.

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 Wesley Davis, the Indian River County Property Appraiser, whose main office is at 1800 27th Street, Building B, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 772-226-1469. A second office is at 1921 U.S. Highway 1 in Sebastian, at 772-226-1133. You must be a permanent Florida resident on January 1, and the application is due to the Property Appraiser by March 1. You can file online.

The Property Appraiser’s home page also warns owners to use caution with a mailer advertisement being sent to property owners, and notes that property deeds are available from the Clerk of the Court. Your own recorded deed is in the Clerk’s records search above.

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 Indian River 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 Department of Health in Indian River County issues certified death certificates at 1900 27th Street, next to the County Administration complex, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at 772-794-7460, for $12 a copy. The office issues certificates for Florida deaths from 2009 on, and the cause of death is released only to family or a legal representative with 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 open the recorded image. The county’s images there go back to July 1, 1925, so your old deed is usually in the same place.

For a paper copy for the file drawer, print it at home, or walk it across the street from the courthouse to ABC Printing Company at 1547 20th Street, about a minute away. ABC Printing has served the Treasure Coast since 1975, handles digital and large-format printing, and answers at 772-562-0624. The shop posts hours of Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the Clerk charges $9 for an e-certified copy online or at the counter, plus $1 for each additional page at the counter.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s Property Fraud Alert, which the Property Appraiser also links from its home page. Watching the records for your name is the simplest guard there is against someone recording a false deed on your house.

We copy the legal description from your last recorded deed, word for word, because that is what the title record already recognizes. If it does not match the lot, or a fence, dock or addition raises a question, a licensed surveyor can check it. Masteller, Moler & Taylor, Inc., professional surveyors and mappers in business since 1986, is at 1655 27th Street, Suite 2, about 14 minutes on foot from the courthouse on the same street as the Property Appraiser, at 772-564-8050. The firm lists boundary and mean high water surveys among its work. Most deeds never need one.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption. The Indian River County Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 exemption for an ex-service member disabled at least 10 percent in war or by service-connected misfortune, proved with Florida residency, an honorable discharge and a certificate of disability from the federal government or the Department of Veterans Affairs. The unremarried surviving spouse of such a veteran also qualifies if the couple had been married at least five years.

An honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability may qualify for a full exemption on the homestead, and the benefit can carry over to a surviving spouse who stays in the home, does not remarry, and held the home with the veteran as tenants by the entireties. The Property Appraiser has an arrangement with the local Veterans Administration office to give these veterans an identification card for verification, so ask the Property Appraiser at 772-226-1469 about the card before you file.

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 at a local office, and only after the Social Security Administration has updated your name, allowing 24 to 48 hours after that. The Tax Collector’s driver license office in the County Administration Complex, 1800 27th Street, Building B, offers full driver license services, in the same building as the Property Appraiser. The office is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday from 8:40 a.m. to 5 p.m., closes daily from noon to 1 p.m., and answers at 772-226-1338. The Vero West Commercial Center office at 1860 82nd Avenue, Suite 102, keeps the same hours with full license and motor vehicle services.