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How to deal with NFA and Non NFA Firearms in a Florida Will

By David M. Goldman

Firearms and Florida estate planning has become a hot topic. Many of us own individual firearms and would like to have a beneficiary for them. While I prefer to deal with this using a NFA Firearms Trust there are times when individuals have other firearms or items subject to the NFA that they do not want to transfer into a NFA Trust. I was recently asked by a Virginia lawyer for some ideas on provisions to include in a clients will to help deal with these items properly.

While this can be a very complex issue, I will try to touch on a few of the areas of concern. First, you need to determine if you are dealing with a traditional will or a pourover will. If you are dealing with a pourover will, then you need to direct that NFA firearms go to the NFA trust and other personal property go to the other trust. The real problem is that if you are dealing with a traditional will.

Some of the sections that you should consider modifying are the areas where they talk about

Specific Gifts
Disposition of Property
Contingent Beneficiaries
Powers of the Personal Representative
Who is qualified as a PR
Guardianship provisions to the extent they are the guardian over the propery of an inappropriate heir
Payment of taxes and expenses - you may want to exclude these assets from the pool used to pay these funds.
Reliance of legal opinions
Incapacity in regards to these items.

As you can see it could be very tricky to deal with NFA firearms and regular assets within the same document and create confusion over what should be done and what is required to be done for each type of asset. It might be easier to deal with a codicil which only deals with modification for these specific items.

If you own NFA firearms as an individual you might consider moving them into a Gun Trust to protect your family and friends from inadvertent liability created by the improper use, transfer, possession, or transportation of these items. For help creating a NFA Gun Trust contact a Gun Trust Lawyer.

Full post as published by Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog on March 17, 2010 (boomark / email).