Many times when you hire an attorney to assist in a residential real estate transaction, you can retain their services for a flat fee. On more complex transactions, an attorney may charge you an hourly rate.

The proper place to file a probate is the county where the decedent resided in at the time of their death. You must also file probate in any county where the decedent owned real estate.

Any debts of the deceased person are paid out of the assets that are a part of the estate. It’s important to note that the personal representative or the heirs are not personally responsible for these debts. If there are more debts than there are assets, there are different priorities of creditors that will be paid first before other creditors are paid.

When a person dies intestate that means a person has died without a will. In that case, the Florida statutes will determine who inherits your property after your death.

Probate is the judicial supervision of distributing someone’s assets once they are deceased. A common misconception in Florida is that a will avoids probate. Whether or not you have a will, you still have to go through probate once you’ve passed away. A trust is the only document that can avoid probate. The difference between having a will in probate and not having a will is, a will you will determine who receives your assets, and if you do not have a will, the statutes will determine who receives your assets following your death.

An attorney in the probate process in Florida represents the personal representative of the estate, which is the person who will actually handle the distribution of assets and the payment of any debts. The attorney will advise a personal representative how to stay within the bounds of the law and what time periods and when to take appropriate action.

The notice to creditors is a part of the probate process. After the personal representative has been appointed and given letters of administration, the personal representative must publish a notice to creditors in a newspaper for two consecutive weeks and must send the notice to creditors to all known and readily ascertainable creditors of the decedent.

Ancillary probate is when the deceased person died in another county or another state but owned real estate in a county in Florida. You must always open up a probate proceeding anywhere where the person who’s deceased owned real estate to properly effectuate the title transfer.

There are two primary types of probate proceedings in Florida, a formal administration and a summary administration. A summary administration is available if the person has less than $75,000 in assets or has been deceased for two or more years. There’s also what’s called an ancillary probate. An ancillary probate is where the person may have owned real estate in Florida but died in another state. Any time you own real estate, a probate must be [inaudible 00:00:34] in the county where the real estate’s located to affect the change of title.

If you die without a will or a trust, you are considered to have died “intestate”. What that means is that the Florida statutes will then determine how your property is distributed after your death.