In episode 20 of the Probate Podcast, we simplify inheritance discussions and share tips for passing on your assets without conflict and dispute. You'll learn what considerations should be made when drafting a will and estate plan. We'll also explore the importance of open conversations about inheritance and the critical roles played by a skilled probate attorney and real estate agent. Join us for a valuable conversation that can help you mitigate and avoid probate disputes and find the right professionals to put the missing pieces together.
ABOUT SYLVANA Sylvana Rosende, a Miami native, developed a passion for the legal field from a young age. She earned her bachelor's degree from Florida International University and graduated with honors from St. Thomas University College of Law. During law school, Sylvana interned for the Chief Judge of the Probate Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami, gaining valuable experience in probate and guardianship. Sylvana's practice focuses on probate, estate planning, and guardianship law, with experience representing beneficiaries, professional and corporate fiduciaries in contested trust, estate, and guardianship litigation. In her free time, Sylvana enjoys quality moments with her family and two dogs and passionately cheers for the Miami Heat. Connect with Sylvana Rosende to safeguard your estate and navigate the legal complexities of probate and guardianship.
Disclosure: The information shared on The Probate Podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. We strongly recommend consulting with a professional for advice specific to your situation. If you need help finding a professional, feel free to reach out to us at www.willowwoodsolutions.com/contact.
Please consider kindly rating this show so others can find it!
In episode 20 of the Probate Podcast, we simplify inheritance discussions and share tips for passing on your assets without conflict and dispute. You'll learn what considerations should be made when drafting a will and estate plan. We'll also explore the importance of open conversations about inheritance and the critical roles played by a skilled probate attorney and real estate agent. Join us for a valuable conversation that can help you mitigate and avoid probate disputes and find the right professionals to put the missing pieces together.
ABOUT SYLVANA Sylvana Rosende, a Miami native, developed a passion for the legal field from a young age. She earned her bachelor's degree from Florida International University and graduated with honors from St. Thomas University College of Law. During law school, Sylvana interned for the Chief Judge of the Probate Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami, gaining valuable experience in probate and guardianship. Sylvana's practice focuses on probate, estate planning, and guardianship law, with experience representing beneficiaries, professional and corporate fiduciaries in contested trust, estate, and guardianship litigation. In her free time, Sylvana enjoys quality moments with her family and two dogs and passionately cheers for the Miami Heat. Connect with Sylvana Rosende to safeguard your estate and navigate the legal complexities of probate and guardianship.
Disclosure: The information shared on The Probate Podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. We strongly recommend consulting with a professional for advice specific to your situation. If you need help finding a professional, feel free to reach out to us at www.willowwoodsolutions.com/contact.
Please consider kindly rating this show so others can find it!
Hi there. Welcome to the Probate Podcast I'm so glad you're here. My name is Sherri Lund. I'm the host of the podcast and I'm the founder of Willow Wood Solutions. Willow Wood Solutions is here to help families when they're going through some of the toughest times in life, helping older adults transition, senior adults find better care, getting into the equity of their home to help fund that if they need to. And then during probate and navigating that season during the legal process, and then afterwards, I'm not an attorney. We're not talking about legal things here, but my guest is an attorney Sylvana Rosende how are you? I'm good. Thank you for having me. You're going to want to grab your pen and paper, get comfortable, get your favorite beverage, because we're going to talk about some things that you're going to want to refer back to and remember in the future. So let me tell you a little bit about Sylvana. She grew up in Miami, and she's been in the legal field since she was a little girl. She graduated with her bachelor's degree from Florida and she graduated with honors from St. Thomas University College of Law. She was awarded the Cali Book Awards in Legal Research and Writing and an Advanced Legal Research in Writing. Sylvana graduated from law school with honors and with an elder law certification for guardianship and elder law studies. She also made the dean's list every semester of law school. Sylvana is a smart person. During law school, she interned for the chief judge of the probate division of the 11th judicial circuit in Miami, where she gained valuable insight and experience in probate and guardianship. Sylvana focuses her practice on probate, estate planning, and guardianship law. She has experience representing beneficiaries, professionals and corporate fiduciaries, administrators, executors, trustees and guardians, and in contested trust, estate, and guardianship litigation. Sylvana has also handled various real estate matters related to probate. She does have free time now and then, and when she does, she likes to spend time with her family and her 2 special dogs and cheering on the Miami heat, a Florida fan. For sure. It's so you, Sylvana. Thank you. What an accomplished life that you've had already. Like, Man. Before we jump into that, tell me a little bit about you as a person. If I just said, Who are you as a person? What would, how would you answer that? I'm a wife, a daughter and a very dedicated attorney. And a dog mom. We spoke about it briefly, but my family's everything I do it's for them. During the weekends. I just spend time with my family, watch sports, hang out with my husband, and that's about it. Balanced life and fun on the weekends and they're very professional. Yeah, I was looking over your website. You've got great testimonials there. A lot of people repeatedly talk about how professional you are, how prompt you are in responding to their needs and how efficient you are at responding to those. So those testimonials go a long way And I've known you for a couple of years, almost a year and a half or so. And you've been interested in law since you were a little girl. Yes. So where does that come from? Was that someone that influenced you or. I don't know [laughs] I honestly, I told my mom in fifth grade, I wanted to be an attorney and she was like, you don't even know what that means. And that's what I was thinking. I don't even know that I knew the name, the title. Yeah. And then I just went along with it. And here I am. That's amazing. And then for probate to that's another term that people don't know about. So you grew up in Florida. Yeah. Yes. And you love all things Florida. That's fun. Yes. Now you're practicing in guardianship, probate, real estate comes into that. We're going to talk about that in a little bit. Can you talk about guardianship? Because we talk a lot about guardians being a guardian for children. But there's also guardianships for adults. Can you just confirm before we go too far what those 2 terms. Yeah, guardianship, we can go into a whole nother podcast on that. It's a court appointed process where we appoint a guardian to be able to oversee all the rights of that person, which they're essentially stepping into their shoes, making all medical and financial decisions for them and overseeing their care. We do this for minors, and we also do this for adults who tend to have dementia or some sort of incapacity where they're unable to make their own decisions. Okay, so it's a minor being a parent of a minor, and you've got responsibility for them until they turn 18, but if someone has a head injury or something like that, and they're not able to think or care for themselves. Then that's a guardianship that is court appointed and you have to meet certain criteria to do that. Yes, correct. Talk a little bit about litigation. That's a word not many people understand. what that means and you obviously are very good at that. I would say the majority of my cases now are litigation cases involving probate it occurs you know when there's some sort of contest or there's someone contesting the will, or beneficiaries aren't getting along whenever there's some sort of court fight. That's where we go into litigation and it's a drawn out process can be very emotional. It takes a lot of time can be very costly. So I do a lot of this and, I, I always try to see if there's a way that we can come to an agreement prior to drawing out these battles in court. Sometimes it's unfortunate, but we have to talk about like family, intimate matters and everything in court, which people may not necessarily want to reveal in public records. So I believe in conflict resolution, and I do try to partake a lot in that with my clients. I'm very candid and open, and I let them know this is what you might be looking at to spend an attorney's fees, and this is what you're paying if we come to an agreement. Litigation again, hopefully it's not ever a case where people find themselves into, but it can be a very emotional and just conflict all around. Yeah, and really when I was really taking the course and thinking about probate itself is a good thing. I think, you know, it's transferring ownership from 1 percent to another. It's making things on nice and tidy. I think 1 of the reasons. A couple reasons people don't like probate. 1 is we're talking about people that have died and we don't want to think about us dying. And so that's a whole thing. But also, it's this contested thing when people are arguing and they're drawing out. And of course, legal fees are expensive. There's court fees every time too. And it does add up. That's why the main reason why I think people want to avoid probate. And that's 1 of the reasons why I created the podcast was if we could start to educate people, get the conversation going, get the terminology more familiar, maybe more people will start to plan ahead so that we can have less probate. That would be a good goal. What are some common things that you see people arguing about in court? Mainly when it comes to probate a lot of real estate issues there, maybe there's been that 1 child of the decedent who's been taking care of the property the whole time paying property taxes all of a sudden mom dies and now the siblings are coming after their share of the property and they turn around and say, wait a minute. That's not fair. I've been taking care of mom been taking care of the property. It's a big issue. We call it partition in Florida. Where you have a right to be able to divide and order a judicial sale of the property of the beneficiaries aren't getting along or negotiate a buyout by one of the beneficiaries. Those are common issues. I see a lot of undue influence in Florida. So situations where maybe one of the parents was coerced by one of the children to draft a will, leaving them a majority share situations like that. It's hard to prove those things, isn't it? Yeah. Very hard. Okay, great. So you and I met through a course called probate mastery. Of course, I was there for certification and part of that was for me to learn about probate and not just the terminology and all of that, but also to meet people like yourself who are in probate day in and day out. And it was so gracious of you guys to other attorneys. Yourself included taught us so much and really enrich the course with your presence there. What was your takeaway on probate mastery and your position there and what you saw yourself for us. I think that what I learned is that despite you think real estate and the legal world are completely different communities, I think we are one and I definitely think that there's a gap that needs to be bridged. So that's why I thought the program was an excellent idea. Anyone who's partaking in these probate real estate sales, it involves that background knowledge from an attorney for you to be able to Pursue that transaction help out the families and everything. I was happy to be a part of it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big deal. Also probate attorneys are not all the same and, you've had a long career. You're very young, but you've also had a long career in it already. Yeah. And working with the judge, my goodness. Yeah, so how do you see the role of real estate playing out in probate? I would say the majority of my cases in probate involve the sale of real property. It's important to just have that agent and have that team that's able to know what they're getting themselves into, set the proper client expectations and be transparent about the situation. Like I said, there's a gap that needs to be bridged between probate and real estate. Can you talk more about that gap and how you see it needing to be filled? So I've noticed it more now when there's just agents, I think, first of all, this may not be the nicest thing to say, but I think it's very easy for anyone to obtain a real estate license, unfortunately. And I think that there should be a further, deeper knowledge on law, on the law side of engaging in this, in these real estate transactions. So often we have realtors who are pursuing a probate transaction, and they have no idea. So they set closing to be in 30 days and probate hasn't even been opened and now you have formal administration that can take at least 3 months in Florida. You know how you're going to expose your client to a potential lawsuit and there's just a lot of repercussions that can happen because of that. So I think that's where we need to bridge the gap and just I think that realtors should do their due diligence if you're doing this full time. More particularly to be informed to know what's going on and just do the best you can for your client and you have your ethical duties to do that. So that's where there should be, you know, either more continuous education or anything of that nature so that everyone's prepared to engage in these transactions. Yeah, that's really true. I had someone tell me that I need to sign up for.. I need to be certified as a senior relocation specialist because I talked about probate and, I'm a real estate agent. So it's a half day class and compared to the certification that I got in the class that I was in with you, nothing compares. And so it is it's the start. And then there's still so much more to learn. I'm sure you're still learning even today with all the training that you've got. Yeah, and things change, right? The laws change. We have to stay up on all of that. But also I'm trying to educate the families. I have a probate guide and planner that talks about the expectations that you can have and the timeline that's in there because the family members can put pressure if they don't understand the timeline, they can put pressure on an agent to say, we need to sell this house, we've got HOA dues coming up and we've got taxes that are due and we can't pay for this stuff. Okay. You have an agent that doesn't know, and you have family members that don't know or beneficiaries, and that comes into some silly listing agreement. That's just not appropriate. Right? So, What happens when there's a will, and when there isn't a will regarding the probate and real estate? A will merely serves like a guide for us just to let us know who should be inheriting what and then if we don't have a will, that's where we resort to the intestacy laws, which I'm sure Texas has the equivalent of Florida, which we just go by the what we call the bloodline pretty much who's set to inherit. If there's a will, we go pursuant to that, what child inherits the property or what family member or friend or anything, unless it's homestead that gets more complicated, right? Texas is pretty proud of their homestead laws yeah, so is florida. Yeah, good. What are some challenges and issues that you see coming up with with real estate and probate? I've seen a lot of foreclosures lately, a lot of partition auctions, like I said, when beneficiaries aren't getting along and all of a sudden they inherit. Property and now, they may not be aware that everyone's entitled to pay for the taxes and everything. They all have to contribute. I've probably been retained on 5 partition actions in the last 2 months, which is a lot. Just beneficiaries inheriting property, they can't afford it. It's going into foreclosure, or someone doesn't want to pay their share of the taxes. Those are common issues I see. Yeah, it's a big deal and all and it never comes at a convenient time, it's out of the blue and it's while you're trying to still live your life with your family and your kids or your whatever it is that you're trying to do. Yeah, then there's different kinds of real estate. There's commercial, there's land, there's mineral rights. How does that play into probate and estate planning? For the most part I've mainly just dealt with residential. There, I have had some, probate involving commercial property. But, for our purposes, it's pretty much the same procedure when it comes to probate, not when it comes to estate planning. There's different factors that have to be taken in. For example, if you have a commercial property and you own that with a business partner or anything, then we're resorting to the operating agreement to see and, the real estate contracts to see how that would affect your estate planning. Yeah. So I guess even when you set... when you purchase that property, revisit the entity or whatever that you went into that property with, or establish that property and then go from there and maybe make some changes if you need to. Planning is so important. Isn't it? It's like the least thing favorite thing to do, it's not sexy at all. But it sure makes life easier when we're gone. You mentioned earlier that you try your best to resolve differences ahead of time so that you can avoid court if possible. What are some things that you would do to try to mediate that? I just, like I said, I come in with full transparency. I let clients know sure, we can drag this out in court for the next year. And you're, this is where you're looking to pay an attorney's fees or we can just Pay them, you know, share of this and buy them out and move forward with your life. So I also tell people you're sitting on the stand at some point, you're going to be questioned, anything that you may not want to come out may come out. So it's just a matter of setting, realistic expectations. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize how public probate is. Yes, and yeah you know, your comment earlier about if you listed a house.. Trying to sell a house and then also talk about it publicly in court. That's it doesn't go together at all. The whole point of having a real estate agent is so that you can have someone as a confidant to talk about confidential things that aren't disclosed to everybody else. But on the other hand, you can have this case open. What advice would you have for people who want to plan ahead to minimize their real estate in their estate planning. So I think that there's just, a great amount of tools, at least in Florida that I know of that you can avoid those headaches for your family down the road. For example, we have Lady Bird deeds. I'm not sure if Texas has the equivalent. Okay. So I think that's a great too. And I prepare these so much. It's pretty much, you keep your life interest in your property on touch during your life and then upon your passing, it goes to whatever beneficiary you named on that deed without having to go through probate. I think that, estate planning, as you mentioned, is still like taboo. Sometimes in Florida with my older clients, they think that if I tell them you should prepare a will, take a life, a death sentence. And I tell them, no, you have these two kids that don't necessarily get along. And then you have this kid that you want to take care of everything after you're passing. So if you were to die right now, it's up in the air, who's going to be chosen. It has to be a majority, majority vote to be the executor of your state. You can avoid that if you have a will, if you want to do estate planning, there's also other documents that you should realize that are important. For example, a power of attorney in the event you're incapacitated down the road or, have some mental cognitive illness where you're not able to make any decisions and that kid that you really trust is the one who will be making those decisions for you. It's just important. I just have a very, heart to heart with people and I tell them like, this is what I would want in your situation, you know, not to be left up in the air. Sometimes there's people that it's not in their best interest for them to get their full share. Maybe they have an addiction problem or maybe they have a special need that this and that Right and all would bump them out of their benefits and that's can that can happen if they don't have a will because of will can put those parameters on things.. Special needs trust or whatever it is that's required for them to not be able to get kicked out from their benefits. So it can really be a disservice. I just think estate planning is a lovely thing to do for your family. It's an expression of love. I think to be able to take that burden off of them rather than stir up all these bad feelings when you're gone. So you mentioned probate. I'm sorry. You mentioned foreclosure a while ago. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that can come up and how that's played out in probate? What happens with that? It happens more often than not. Someone passes away, family didn't know that they weren't able to make the mortgage payments on the property and all of a sudden the heirs are inheriting property that's in foreclosure. We have a sale date, so our options are either a short sale or some sort of private sale prior to the foreclosure auction. And we have to open up probate, try to get title transferred soon or get a personal representative to be able to sell. And that's where I come in, with these expedited process. Yeah. And so you can expedite the real estate process. When there's a pending foreclosure, you should, but you can't do anything until there's probate. And that is a set timeline. Yes. In Texas, there's... Yeah. You have to wait so many days for the creditors to get back with you. Yeah, the Florida judges don't care. Yeah. Yeah, so you can expedite some things, but other things. Good luck. So tell us a little bit about how your law practice differs from others. I had some fun on your website, seeing all the things that you do. Thank you. So I think that I run a very boutique practice. My clients have my direct line and I'm able to just contact them. I have staff. I have an associate attorney working with me and I have paralegals, but it's important for me to keep that like family feel to it and just to be able to understand: this isn't a normal thing you're going through. You just experienced loss and you're devastated and I had a client yesterday who I was talking to on the phone. I came home from work at almost 9 o'clock at night and he's like, hey, you know, I just lost my wife. Can I please call you? This is a new client. I got on the phone with him. He told me that he had interviewed like four other probate attorneys and he's you have been the only one who spoke to me like a person and like a human. And this wasn't just any other case. So I'm choosing your firm because of this. And that's just how I feel about it. Like , I have clients who have experienced the loss of a husband, a mother, a child. I have a client right now who tragically lost her husband, has a six year old daughter, experiencing the trauma of losing her dad. And I just called her to see how she was doing. And she's like, I really need a therapist for my daughter. So I've reached out to my connections, try to find someone for her. I just think that, probate is a heartfelt area. It should not be around like you're just a case or a number. So that's my approach for my firm. And, I'm obviously growing and I have a high case volume, but. I want to be accessible for my clients and that's important to me. That's really special. Sylvana. I really appreciate. I mean, Obviously you're in Florida, but as a person who has been through that I have not lost my husband, fortunately, but I have lost family members and to have people in your court that have your back that don't see you as a number or a house to sell, or, something to get them to an advantage... this is a person that we need to remember. Yeah, and I do appreciate that about you. I agree, and I think that, if you're a realtor and you're partaking in a probate transaction, it should be the same standard that I hold myself to: empathetic and have a heart when you're dealing with individuals who just lost someone. For sure. So what is your process like when they call the number or they reach you through the contact form on your website? What happens from there? So we set up an initial consultation. My initial consultations are complimentary and then we can do it through zoom and person over the phone. However, anyone prefers and then from there we'll screen your case run a conflict check, make sure we're okay to take on the case send out retainers and then from there begin working. What do you like about your job, Sylvana? Like I said, I've wanted to be an attorney since I was five years old, I just, I love my job. I was on vacation and I missed my job. I love interacting with people. I love, I obviously love winning. I'm very competitive, and I do well on behalf of my clients, it's a great feeling. But I like the fact that I'm really able to help out people in this field, like someone who tells me I need to sell this property right away in probate, I just lost my husband. I have no other way of paying bills.. And I can turn around the sale of the property in a few weeks that to me speaks volumes. The fact that I'm able to just change lives through what I do or be able to help our, extend a hand during someone's very difficult time. You bring up a really good point about real estate and not everybody has the leisurely time to clean it up, make it look nice and spiffy, put it on the MLS. Have a slew of people come through read through 95 offers these days. To be able to really see that client, maybe she can't get out of her pajamas, she's just overwhelmed with all the things to do and to be able to service to be able to say, I'll take care of that for you. And we can do it in a non traditional way. And yeah, I think that's a really good point that you bring up. So someone may be listening right now and I hope that they are. I hope that lots of people see this episode and they may be thinking about estate planning and just doing some preliminary test work, prior to, or maybe they're neck deep in trouble. And they're like, who can help me say to them about you and how they can reach out to you. Yeah, I would definitely say, just tread cautiously and make sure that when you do engage in estate planning, it's with a trusted attorney. We have a lot of different forms and things that we can find online now that you can do a will for $50.. I have actually been in litigation over those type of wills. They're often not done pursuant to state formalities or you know, with proper devices. I would just suggest going to an attorney you trust, make sure that everything is done properly in accordance to law and just, it's the best thing you can do for your family, your peace of mind and make sure that you have, all your affairs in a row, visit your estate plan every year, make sure nothing has changed. You don't wish to change anything. There's a significant life event. You get married, you do anything, remember that the estate plan now has to change too as well. So I, and if anyone reaching out to me, I'll sit down with you. I tell clients the 1st time we meet and I'm like. We need to have chemistry, otherwise this won't work. It's like, when you go and you meet your primary care provider, if you don't like your doctor, you're not going to want to work with them. I feel the same way with my clients. I tell them, just be candid with me, tell me about your family dynamics, your assets. What you want to leave, who you choose to leave everything to is completely your discretion. I don't care if you tell me the craziest thing. I'm not here to judge. I'm here to do as you tell me and I'm here to work for you. So that's just how I go about everything. Yeah. And again, attorneys are not all the same, just like doctors are not all the same. Some have a better bedside manner than others. And so I've talked to people that have an attorney, maybe their friend recommended them or whatever, but that chemistry is not there or they're just not sure that they really have knowledge about whatever issue that they're dealing with. Is it okay to transfer? If you start with 1 attorney, is it okay to at least in Florida? I know that the the Florida bar rules are very fluent on that. You can fire your attorney at any time. If you're ever not comfortable, I'm sure every state is the same way that we ever not comfortable with your attorney. You don't even have to give them a reason, you can fire them and move on with your life. Okay, good to know. Yeah. So is there something that we have not talked about that you feel would be important for us to have on this episode today? I love the fact that we touched, on the importance of the estate planning. I can't stress it enough. I'll give you a case just so that everyone understands the
importance:
I've had partners are coming to into my office. The girlfriend of this gentleman who passed away came into my office. She was with him for, I want to say, close to 30 years. They were never married. They lived together, did everything together. She took care of him through his cancer illness. All of a sudden he passed away. He was the one who owned everything. He had no estate plan, anything. Now what happens? She's not entitled to absolutely anything at all. So she has to vacate that property. And the estranged siblings in a South American country were the ones who came in to take everything and pretty much kick her out. That's just one of many scenarios that can occur. It's just so important to make sure that, you cover yourself, cover your family, especially if you're not, married pursuant to, there's no common law marriage in Florida. I'm not sure about Texas, but for those partnerships like that, it's important. It's really important. Wow, what a shock on top of everything else for her to have to now start all over. Wow. That's so sad. Sylvana, how can people reach you? How can they find you online? Okay, we can provide my email and my contact information, my phone number. I'm on social media as well. Facebook, Instagram, and as soon as you send a message, you'll receive a response and we can discuss. Okay, good deal. Those the email and the phone number will be in the show notes for those that are maybe on the trail jogging or in the car driving. You can always come back and take a look at that. Sylvana, thanks again so much for your information. Yes, it's my pleasure to have you and so glad to connect with you online again. For those of you that are listening, thank you for joining and spending your time with Sylvana and I, we both want you to know if you're going through something like this that we are here for you. People are here for you and have your best interest in mind. You're not alone and you matter. That's the heartbeat of what I do and what the Probate Podcast is about a place for you to get resources like this. And I'm so glad that you were here today. Thank you. So until next time, yeah, we'll see you next time. Thank you Sylvana again so much for your time.