Probate

The moment that a resident of Florida passes, all of the rights to their earthly assets transfer to the recipient. However, those rights are not legally enforceable until a judge has determined that the transfer is legally recognized...this process is called probate. Contrary to popular belief, having a Will does not prevent your family or loved ones from going through the probate process; rather, having a Will merely aids the judge in the determining to whom the rights should be transferred. If a Florida resident does not have a valid Last Will and Testament, then the court will apply the Florida probate code's intestate succession to determine to whom the rights should be transferred.

Formal Administration is the process of presenting to the judge all of the extensive assets (more than $75,000.00) the decedent left for the judge to determine to whom those assets belong. A formal administration requires full accounting of the decedent's assets and disclosures of all of the decedent's creditors.  Formal administration can be a length process as the court will seek to determine that all creditors are paid prior to any transfers to decedent's intended beneficiaries.

Summary Administration is a simplified form of probate for estates having less than $75,000.00 in assets (after excluding the homestead property) or in cases where the decedent has been deceased for longer than two years. During a summary administrations it is not necessary to obtain accounting of the entire estate items and due to the size of the estate a judge can recognize the legal transfers with much lass paperwork. Keller Legal has experienced that most probate cases can be handled in a summary administration. 

The Florida Constitution sets very high protections for a person's homestead property. Even after death, a creditor usually cannot obtain ownership to a decedent's homestead property or force the homestead property to be sold. A petition for an Order determining homestead is used in probate proceedings to have the court acknowledged that the decedent's homestead property is not part of the decedent's assets for the probate proceedings. Provided that the heir to the homestead property is decedent's relative, the court in most circumstances will acknowledge the transfer of the ownership for the homestead property to the relative outside of the Probate. It is therefore possible to keep the homestead property excluded from the estate valuation and the court will likely acknowledge the transfer of ownership for the decedent's home in an abbreviated proceeding. Keller Legal is happy to help you and your family through these difficult times by helping you navigate the probate process and choosing the correct type of probate proceeding. As always at Keller Legal, your first consultation is always free.