Category Archives: Probate
The Worst Beneficiaries for Non-Probate Assets
In general, the duties of the personal representative of the estate of a deceased person increase proportionally with the value of the estate. The estate will settle quickly if the decedent owned little property, even if the heirs do not get along with each other. By contrast, probate will take longer if the decedent… Read More »
What Happens If a Deceased Person’s Estate Has Credit Card Debt?
It is an honor when family members trust you enough to choose you to be personal representative of their estate, but no one ever said that shepherding an estate through probate was an easy task. If the decedent was wealthy, the heirs will criticize you about every decision, accusing you of being irresponsible with… Read More »
Pour Over Wills
If your only experience with wills comes from the entertainment media and from tabloid news, you might reasonably believe that your only options are to divide your estate among your family members or to show your ungrateful relatives who is boss by leaving your property to a charity that is meaningful to you but… Read More »
How Do Florida’s Laws of Intestate Succession Deal With the Stepparent Wars?
The juiciest tabloid stories about disputes over the estate of a wealthy person are the ones that involve a relatively young widow and stepchildren who are uncomfortably close in age to her. The parties may say all kinds of terrible things about each other, but most of the time, the probate court ends up… Read More »
Florida Probate for Non-Floridians
Florida is the land of introduced species. Sure, it has the largest native population of crocodilians in the United States, but for every American alligator and American crocodile, you also find an array of newcomers, from reptiles such as the green iguana and Nile monitor lizard to species that strike an entirely different type… Read More »
What do you do when an estate doesn’t have a lot of assets?
Summary Administration Summary administration of an estate is mini probate. The petitioner, who may or may not be a beneficiary of the will, files a petition for summary administration, signed by all the beneficiaries of the will, and the court distributes the estate’s assets pursuant to the will. If the decedent does not have… Read More »
Naming Two Personal Representatives for Your Estate Is a Bad Idea
Your will tells the probate court who will inherit your property after you die, including which heirs will inherit specific assets or which ones will inherit which fraction of your money. Of course, the way wills work is that, by the time the court is ready to follow the instructions, you are no longer… Read More »
Probate Cases Where Legal Problems Are Part of the Defendant’s Legacy
The beneficiaries of a deceased person will inherit the decedent’s property, but in some cases, they also inherit the decedent’s problems. Probate is a difficult task for the personal representative when the decedent left two versions of a will and it is unclear which one is valid, or when the decedent died owing large… Read More »
Spousal Estrangement Makes Probate a Mess
In addition to being home to a vast array of terrifying reptile species, native and introduced, Florida is also the site of epic divorce battles. Real estate tycoon divorces seem to be the worst. Who can forget Burt and Lovey Handelsman, who spent 50 years in wedded bliss, buying up prime real estate in… Read More »
Maybe Revocable Trusts Are Not for Everyone
You know you are old if you have a bee in your bonnet about the 2012 film version of The Lorax. Just looking at the title character’s CGI animated fur makes you itch, and the book’s original rhymes get drawn out into over an hour of unrhymed, mostly pointless dialogue. The 1972 animated TV… Read More »
