Probate & Trust Administration

Probate is the court process that settles a person’s estate after they pass away. A personal representative collects the assets, pays valid debts, and distributes what’s left to the heirs or beneficiaries. In Florida, most estates go through either summary administration or formal administration, and trust assets are handled outside of probate.

After a person dies, there are many legal and financial matters involved in closing the estate. For family members who are executors, guardians, and trustees and who are still grieving, navigating the process can seem complicated and overwhelming.

We are Probate and Trust lawyers in Lighthouse Point and beyond and our practice encompasses many areas of Probate and Trust administration. As inheritance lawyers and estate settlement lawyers, we can help you with multiple probate options available in Florida. We represent trustees, beneficiaries, personal representatives, executors, and heirs including but not limited to the following areas:

Administering Estates & Trusts as a fiduciary, appointments of Personal Representatives and Trustees
Assisting Personal Representatives and Trustees in administrating Estates & Trusts
Aiding in hiring professionals who have experience in specialty areas, such as accountants, appraisers, and real estate professionals
Distributing wealth and assets to beneficiaries
Filing Summary Administration, Formal Administration, Ancillary Administration
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Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on how the assets were owned. Probate is usually needed for assets that were in the person’s name alone, with no beneficiary or joint owner. Assets in a trust, accounts with a payable-on-death beneficiary, and property held jointly with survivorship rights generally pass outside probate.

Find the original Will. Florida law requires whoever has it to deposit it with the clerk of court in the county where the person lived, within 10 days of learning of the death. After that, gather recent statements for bank accounts, real estate, and retirement accounts so an attorney can tell you which type of probate, if any, applies.

A simple formal administration often takes 6 to 12 months. Creditors have 3 months from the first publication of the notice to creditors to file claims, so the estate can’t close before that window ends. Disputes, real estate sales, or tax issues can take longer.

It’s a shorter, simpler form of probate. It’s available when the estate’s assets subject to probate are worth $150,000 or less, not counting exempt property, or when the person passed away more than two years ago. There’s no personal representative, and it often wraps up in a few months.

It’s the full probate process. The court appoints a personal representative (the Florida term for an executor), who collects the assets, pays valid debts and expenses, and distributes what remains to the heirs or beneficiaries.

In most cases, yes. Florida’s probate rules generally require the personal representative to be represented by a Florida attorney.

A Florida resident who is at least 18, or a nonresident who is a close relative, such as a spouse, child, parent, sibling, or a spouse of one of those relatives. People convicted of a felony can’t serve.

That usually requires ancillary administration, a separate Florida probate for the Florida property. We handle ancillary administration for families across the country.

Yes. Assets held in a trust don’t go through probate, but the trustee still has legal duties. Those include filing a Notice of Trust with the court, notifying beneficiaries, paying valid expenses, and keeping records before distributing assets.