Free Ways to Protect Your Assets
Although consulting with an experienced estate planning attorney to create a complete estate plan is the best way to protect your assets, there are a number of things you can do for free that will help ensure bad actors and creditors do not get their hands on your assets. Some of these options are only available to Florida residents (or the few other states with similar laws), but at least one is available to everyone.
4 Free Ways to Protect You Assets:
Credit Reports and Credit Freezes
Tenancy by the Entirety
Deed and Title Monitoring
Recording Notification Service
Credit Reports and Credit Freezes
With the seemingly endless stream of companies being hacked and leaking customers’ data, it is pretty likely that your personal information is available to identity thieves, so it is very important to monitor your credit.
Regardless of whether you live in Florida, anyone can check their credit report for free once a year with each of the three credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. By regularly checking your credit report, you can see if accounts have been fraudulently opened with your personal information, and if they have, you can take action before serious damage is done to your credit score. For those serving as an incapacitated person’s guardian or agent under a power of attorney, it is a good idea to check on the ward’s/principal’s credit report to make sure identity thieves are not taking advantage of a vulnerable person. Some of the credit bureaus also offer free credit monitoring, which will alert you if something suspicious pops up on your credit history.
If you do not expect to apply for a new line of credit soon, the best way to protect yourself is to freeze your credit (sometimes called a security freeze). This has to be done with each of the three credit bureaus, but when done, it prevents new lines of credit from being opened with your information. If you later need to apply for a new loan or credit card, you can request a credit thaw, which will temporarily unfreeze your credit and let you open a new line of credit. For parents of young children, guardians, and attorneys-in-fact, you can place a freeze on a child’s, ward’s, and principal’s credit, which can reduce the chance they fall victim to identity theft.
While both annual credit reports and credit freezes (and unfreezes and thaws) are free, some of the credit bureaus try to hide this information and instead try to sell you expensive subscription credit and identity theft monitoring. The links for each of the credit bureaus’ credit freezes can be found here: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.
Tenancy by the Entirety
For married couples in Florida (and several other states), you can own most property as tenants by the entirety (often abbreviated as TBE). This means that both spouses indivisibly own the entire piece of property, so unless both spouses are sued at the same time in the same action, the property will be off-limits if only one spouse is sued.
If you were married at the time you bought land and both spouses’ names are on the deed, then by default in Florida you both own it as tenants by the entirety [1]. For other property, such as bank accounts, you have to make sure to specify that you want to own the property as tenants by the entirety (it needs to appear on the title card); otherwise, the default in Florida is that you took the property as tenants in common [2], which does not offer any creditor protection.
Divorce and death both automatically break a tenancy by the entirety, so if you had property that was held as tenants by the entirety and then divorced your spouse, you now both have a tenancy in common interest in that property, even if the deed or other paperwork says otherwise.
Learn more about the requirements to form a tenancy by the entirety.
Deed and Title Monitoring
A home is most people’s biggest, most important asset, and it deserves the best protection. Unfortunately, deed and title fraud has become a common threat to Florida homeowners. Criminals will forge a homeowner’s name on a deed and then record the fraudulent deed in county records to make it look like the criminal owns the property. The criminal will then try to rent or sell the property to another unsuspecting victim. This can create an expensive, time-consuming legal nightmare for the legitimate homeowner.
To combat this, some counties, like here in Alachua County, have created online monitoring systems that will alert homeowners if there is suspicious or potentially fraudulent activity concerning their property so they can act before serious damage is done. Alachua County homeowners can sign up for Property Watch for free; residents of other counties in Florida should check with their local Property Appraiser’s Office to see what local programs are available.
Recording Notification Service
Similar to deed and title monitoring, some Florida county clerks of the court have taken things a step further and provide a free recording notification service. This service lets you register your name (and variations of your name) with the clerk’s office, which will alert you if someone records a document (such as a deed or lien) in your name. This overlaps with services like Alachua County’s Property Watch, but also covers more types of documents and can help provide an extra set of eyes on your name and property. You can sign up for the Alachua County Clerk of Court’s Recording Notification Service; Marion County’s Property Alert Service; and check here to see if another county offers the service (as of writing, every county but Hamilton offers a similar service).
If you have been the victim of identity theft or title fraud, notify law enforcement for assistance. And if you want to take further steps to protect your property, contact a Gainesville estate planning attorney.
[1] § 689.15, Fla. Stat. (2023)
[2] Id.