Florida Estate Beneficiaries’ Top 5 Questions to Ask the Florida Probate Lawyer
Q: Are you the beneficiary of a Florida estate ?
Where’s the money? When do I receive my inheritance?
If you are wondering how the Florida probate process works, how much it costs, and how it is handled, you are not alone. The Florida probate process can be confusing to those who never been involved with a Florida will, a revocable trust, joint accounts, or the administration of a Florida estate .
Here are five questions you can ask your Florida probate lawyer, or the Florida lawyer for the personal representative of the Florida estate.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of questions that you may have f or a Florida probate lawyer, and it is certainly not a complete list of everything you need to know. The good news is that there are a number of excellent Palm Beach probate lawyers and Florida probate attorneys from Jupiter, Florida down to Delray Beach, to Boca Raton, all the way to Weston and Aventura. Many of these Florida attorneys prepare wills & a trusts, and participate in Fort Lauderdale probates and Palm Beach probates. Many write estate plans for wealthy Florida clients from Miami to Palm Beach.
If a mother or father, or an aunt or other relative, passed away in Florida, he or she may have a Florida estate . Does the Florida estate need to go through the Florida probate process? These five questions may help you get some direction to get some Florida probate answers:
- How long will be probate process last ? It seems every beneficiary of a Palm Beach estate or a Broward County estate wants to know ” when do I get paid ? ” – – – when do I receive my Florida inheritance ? Your Palm Beach probate lawyer, or your Miami probate lawyer, will tell you that Florida estate creditors get paid first, along with expenses of the Florida estate administration. So-called “simple” estates may be able to be resolved within a matter of months, while more complex estates may take longer:
- challenges to the Florida will, or Palm Beach will contests ?
- difficult to value assets or hard to sell assets ?
- estate tax problems ?
These issues may, probably will, require a Palm Beach estate or a Broward County probate, to go more than one year.
2. Who pays for my Palm Beach probate lawyer ? Beneficiaries of Florida estates and Florida trusts pay their own lawyers. The probate lawyers for a Miami estate, or a Ft. Lauderdale probate, that is, for the estate executor — Florida personal representative – – are paid for by the Florida estate. This means that everyone’s inheritance under the Florida will or the Florida estate will be diminished by the personal representative’s legal fees and estate administration expenses. What if there are two or three Florida personal representatives?.
3. How much does the Florida Estate Lawyer get paid ? The law firm for the Florida personal representative , or any Florida probate lawyers who provide a benefit to the Florida estate, may only receive “reasonable compensation.” What the heck does that mean? Well, as most Florida probate lawyers will tell you: it depends. This depends on:
- the experience of the estate lawyer,
- how complex the Palm Beach estate is,
- whether the personal representative of the Florida estate needed to handle complex matters,
- what Broward County probate lawyers charge, and a host of other issues.
Sometimes many Palm Beach probate lawyers, or Florida probate lawyers in general, will charge a flat fee, or an hourly rate, or a fixed percentage under the Florida probate code.
4. What if there is a Will Contest or a Challenge to the Florida Will ? If there is probate litigation, an estate lawsuit such as a will challenge, or a will contest, this is going to slow the Palm Beach estate administration process down, and increase estate expenses. Beneficiaries, heirs, & family members who are involved in a Ft. Lauderdale estate, or a Palm Beach probate, may wish to attempt to mediate the probate lawsuit in an attempt to resolve issues now, rather than thousands and thousands of dollars in estate legal fees later.
5. What if I don’t like what the Florida Estate is doing ? If you don’t like how the Miami estate is being handled, or, for example, you don’t like what the Palm Beach personal representative is doing, you may have an opportunity to have a say. You can hire a Florida probate lawyer or a Florida probate litigator, to represent your interests in court and bring these issues to the attention of the Palm Beach probate judge — on your own dime. If you help the estate, you may be able to recover some of your Florida probate attorneys fees, but there is no guarantee. If the Fort Lauderdale personal representative has committed any wrongs, or violated their fiduciary duties, you may file a petition to remove the personal representative can also seek to have yourself appointed to administer the Broward estate.
In the end, many Florida beneficiaries and heirs at law, have a number of good questions about how the Florida probate process works from Palm Beach to Broward to Miami Dade County. Luckily, there are a number of excellent Florida estate lawyers, and Florida estate trial attorneys throughout South Florida.