• 24
  • August
    2010

Florida probate lawyers work with and think about probate issues every day, but they still understand that most people are not thinking about estate planning on a daily basis. Many people are unclear as to what probate even is. Hopefully this blog post can clear up some of the basics of Florida probate.

In Florida, probate is a court-supervised process for identifying and gathering the assets of a deceased person (decedent), paying the decedent's debts, and distributing the decedent's assets to their beneficiaries. The assets are distributed in this order: first, the decedent's assets are used to pay the cost of the probate proceeding, next, they are used to pay the decedent's outstanding debts, then the rest is distributed to the decedent's heirs. 

Chapters 731 through 735 of the Florida Statutes is where you can...

find the full Florida Probate Code.

Even If the decedent left a valid will, it will not pass ownership of probate assets to the heirs unless the will is admitted to probate in court. If there was no will, probate will still be necessary to pass ownership of the decedent's probate assets to the people who are designated to receive them under Florida law.

Another thing probate does is wind up the decedent's financial affairs after his or her death. The decedents debts will be properly paid as part of the probate process.

If the decedent has a will, it should be filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In most cases, this would be with the clerk in the county where the decedent was living at the time of their death. A filing fee must be paid to the clerk. The clerk will assign a file number, and will maintain an ongoing record of all papers filed with the clerk for the administration of the decedent's probate estate.

To protect the privacy of the decedent's heirs, documents that contain financial information pertaining to the decedent's probate estate are not available to the public.