Many people believe that as long as they have a last will and testament, then probate will be unnecessary. While not having such a legal document in place will certainly require probate, official confirmation is needed in certain circumstances. The importance of...
Complex Legal Challenges
Probate
Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act
If a person dies and leaves their house to more than one adult child, what happens if the children cannot agree on whether to sell or keep the property? In the past, if the children could not agree, the only viable solution was for a partition action to be filed...
in a formal probate, does the Personal Representative need an attorney?
In our probate practice, we are often asked this question of whether the Personal Representative needs an attorney in a formal probate in Florida. [A formal probate is a full-blown probate that typically applies when the estate--not including the homestead--exceeds...
Florida Probate: Dead or Alive? Proof is Required
In order to probate the estate of a deceased person, one of the necessary criteria to be proven is that the person is, in fact, deceased. In most instances, establishing this is not a problem if you have an authenticated copy of the death certificate. This is usually...
Beware! Service of a Notice of Administration May Require Action
In our probate practice, we commonly have clients come in after having received certain probate papers. Usually, this is because there has been a death of a loved one and someone is trying to open a probate. Often among those papers served there is a document entitled...
Who is Eligible to Serve as Personal Representative in Florida?
When a formal probate is opened in Florida, the court will appoint a person to serve as Personal Representative (in other states, this is sometimes refer to as an “Executor” or “Administrator”). A common question which we run into in our estate practice is “Who is...
Deposit of Last Will and Testament with the Clerk
When a person dies resident in Florida, their original Last Will and Testament (“Will”) must be deposited with the Probate Division of the Clerk of Court of their county of residence. The applicable statue governing this procedure is Section 732.901, Fla. Stat....
Is a Trust the Same Thing as a Will?
In our estate planning practice, we often are asked whether a Trust is the same thing as a Last Will and Testament (“Will”). If fact, many times we hear clients refer to them interchangeably. However, a Will and a Trust are not the same. Understanding their...
Contesting a will in probate court
When a person dies without a will in Florida, that person’s assets will be passed to the person’s spouse and/or family members in accordance with Florida law. When someone does have a will, that will must be filed in probate court before any assets are distributed,...
The purpose of probate and how to avoid it
Assets that are left in a Florida resident's estate after he or she passes may be subject to probate. The goal of a probate proceeding is to validate a will or answer questions as to who has the strongest claim to receive some or all of a deceased person's estate. If...