A safe full of gold turns a simple Florida estate into a formal one before the personal representative even gets back to the car. The shortcut disappears, the duties multiply, and the family dynamics get worse because the ring money is now real money.
In this Ask Jill episode, Jill R. Ginsberg and David A. Shulman walk through what happens when the PR opens a closet safe and finds something nobody planned for. The legal process shifts under your feet, the custody problem is immediate, and the tax advice the family got from the coin dealer is wrong in a way that actively hurts them.
- Why gold blows past the §735.201 summary administration cap
- What the PR’s inventory duty actually requires
- Why “gold is currency, no tax” is wrong, and how the step-up in basis usually saves the day
- The §732.515 separate writing for tangible personal property, and its limits
- What to do in the first 48 hours after finding the safe
The plan cannot deal with an asset nobody knows about. Tell your estate planning lawyer the safe exists.