See What the Florida Supreme Court Has to Say About Reasonably Ascertainable Creditors

If you are serving as the personal representative of a Florida estate than you will have to serve known or reasonably ascertainable creditors with something called a notice of administration. What happens if you forget one? That is the question the Florida Supreme Court addressed in a semi-recent case,Jones v. Golden. How long do creditors in Florida have to file a notice of a claim on the estate?

Notice to Creditors

• Florida personal representatives need to give notice to known reasonably ascertainable creditors.
• How do Florida probate lawyers know an estate’s creditors?
• Some parts of it are just common sense.
• Relatives know what credit cards the decedent used and other debt is relatively easy to find.
• Estate attorneys Florida also know it is not uncommon for utility companies and others to post claims on the docket of the estate.
• How long do creditors have to make a claim?
• Florida probate attorneys know this depends on a few factors.
• Personal representatives in Florida should make sure to serve known creditors with a notice of administration.
• Then what is the time limit?
• Read the notice!
• So what happens when someone does not get served with the notice?
• How long do they have to make a claim?

Jones v. Golden

• This was an interesting probate case that made it all the way to the Florida Supreme Court in late 2015.
• The guardian for the estate’s former wife made a statement of claim against his estate claiming that the estate owed money for the guardian fees.
• Did you know Florida guardians can charge fees for their services?
• The guardian was claiming entitlement to fees pursuant to a marital settlement agreement that were due to the wife.
• The personal representative was able to strike that claim at the trial court for not being served timely.
• The problem with that was the guardian was not served with the notice of administration.
• So what did the Supreme Court have to say about this?
• The Supreme Court of Florida held that claims of known or reasonably known ascertainable creditors of an estate who were not served with a copy of the notice to creditors are timely if filed within two years of the decedent’s death.
• What does that mean?

Want to learn more?

Check out a free copy of the whole case by clicking here.

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