Why are you still fighting over estate assets when you settled your Florida probate lawsuit? Wasn’t the estate settlement agreement to the probate litigation Florida case supposed to end the litigation? If you are interested in beneficiaries’ rights to probates in Florida, or your rights as a beneficiary to an estate after you sign a settlement agreement to your probate lawsuit, you may want to read this Florida probate case out of Miami Dade whose opinion was just released yesterday from the Florida appeals court that hears probate appeals for Miami. In short, this Estate Case in Florida which involves probate beneficiaries and probate litigation over a bank account ,and an estate settlement agreement, makes you wonder: if I signed the settlement agreement, and then learned that someone got a lot of money from a bank account BEFORE the settlement agreement, can a beneficiary or the Florida probate estate go back and get that money? This is an interesting case to consider what your rights are under a Florida probate settlement agreement if you are wondering if you get money back.
Estate Settlement Agreement Waived Right to Inherit from Bank Account
- Evidently the appellants to this Florida estate lawsuit appeal released their rights to anIsraeli bank account
- The probate court in Miami ruled, and the 3rd DCA upheld, that the Sugars released their right to inherit funds from Judy’s mom’s Israeli bank account
- How do you release your rights to a bank account in a Florida probate case? Well, you release your rights to inherit in Florida by agreeing to do so in writing.
- Giving up rights to a bank account, a Miami probate, or any other estate property, can be done if the waiver is voluntary & knowingly entered into: like when you sign, for example, an estate settlement agreement to resolve a probate lawsuit Florida
- Ask any Palm Beach probate lawyer and they will tell you that a release or a waiver are both typical, basic terms that are put into estate settlement agreements in probate lawsuit settlements.
Probate Beneficiaries Keep Fighting: this time over an Israeli Bank Account
- The probate appeal case is Sugar v. In Re: Estate of Idelle Stern
- A Florida probate case which went to appeal in the 3rd District Court of Appeal for Florida, which hears probate appeals for Miami and Miami-Dade County
- If you have a probate appeal, do you know how long you have to file an estate appeal in Florida, and do you know WHERE you file your Florida probate appeal?
- Sam and Judy were beneficiaries of the estate of Judy’s mom
- They filed this probate appeal in Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal
- These beneficiaries sought relief, they filed a probate motion seeking relief under a 2011 probate settlement agreement
- BUT….. do the Sugars have to disgorge bank funds they received before the estate settlement?
- Do the Sugars have to give back to the estate money from the Israeli bank account transferred to them BEFORE the 2011 Florida probate settlement agreement?
What Does a Probate Settlement Agreement Cover in Florida?
- Most Miami probate settlement agreements have a “this is the final deal” provision
- In other words, when you SIGN A Florida PROBATE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, typically, THAT’S the deal and you get nothing more and you should get nothing less–generally
- Most Florida probate settlement agreements have a release and a waiver of rights
- Most Miami estate settlement documents which divide up the property, and estate beneficiary rights, are intended to give finality to the estate litigation or the probate dispute in Florida
- So, what happens if you sign a Florida probate settlement agreement and then learnthat someone got a lot of money BEFORE the settlement agreement from an asset which might or might not be in the Florida probate estate
- Well, most settlement agreements “subsume” all claims that one could make
Here is a link to read this Florida probate appeal opinion :http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/Opinions/3D14-1433.pdf