Waiting For Your Inheritance: Florida Probate Administration & Petition for Discharge
Waiting on your inheritance from a Florida estate or a Florida probate administration? …….And the Florida personal representative wants you to sign documents which makes you wonder: where’s my inheritance and what’s taking so long?
If you are a beneficiary of a Florida estate, you may be wondering why you have not received your inheritance yet. While many beneficiaries may be referred to as impatient, understanding how the Florida probate process, or the Florida probate administration, closes or ends may be helpful. While this is not an exhaustive explanation, it should prove helpful. Consider a person, we’ll call them the “decedent”, who dies in Delray Beach, Florida with a $ 5 Million estate.
The Florida resident’s Florida will leaves his or her estate among five children equally and names a bank as the personal representative. The person who “runs” or administers a Florida estate is referred to as the “personal representative”, or what other states may call an “estate administrator” of an estate “executor”. He or she is a fiduciary who is charged with gathering the Florida assets of the deceased Delray Beach resident, paying off the Florida resident’s debts, and then distributing the assets to the five beneficiaries—after getting paid and paying his or her Florida probate lawyer. You are probably wondering what’s taking so long, right? It sounds simple. Without explaining the time frames and internal clocks of a Florida probate, suffice it to say there is some final “book-keeping” which the personal representative wants to take care of.
The personal representative of a Florida estate is entitled to be “discharged” or “released” from his or her service in administering this Palm Beach County estate. So, the personal representative, when he or she is ready to wind up and close the estate, often will file a petition for discharge. In our example, let’s say the personal representative reveals that $500,000 will go for debts and his or her fees and his or her attorneys fees, leaving each estate beneficiary with $1,000,000. The petition for discharge is a legal document filed in a Florida probate court where the decedent’s estate is being administered or “probated.” (In South Florida, there are probate courts in Miami, Ft.Lauderdale, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens.)
The petition for discharge typically informs the court and the beneficiaries, of what estate assets exist, how they will be distributed to the estate beneficiaries (also called a “plan for distribution” —in other words, “who gets what”), how much is being paid for attorneys fees and personal representative fees. The petition for discharge often includes an estate accounting. Many times, a personal representative will ask the beneficiaries of a Florida estate to sign a consent for discharge or a receipt and release. This document, prepared by a Florida probate lawyer, is asking you, the beneficiary, to consent to everything right then and there. Often, this can save the estate, and the beneficiaries, time and money. But don’t sign it unless your Palm Beach County probate administration lawyer has reviewed it and approved it. Get good legal advice or Florida probate advice.
What if you don’t want to sign?
If you have a Florida probate lawyer representing you, he or she can answer the petition for discharge within 20 days of service. You can agree or consent or raise any objections you have. If you believe the personal representative is charging too much in fees, you can say so and then you’ll get your day in court. If you believe that the plan for distribution of trust assets is not proper, you can say so…..and you’ll get your day in court.
Probate lawyers in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade County, Florida know that personal representatives are entitled to be discharged or released. They are entitled to finality by a Florida probate court: where a judge says, in the form of an order or a judgment, that the personal representative served his or her fiduciary role properly and that they have no liability or further responsibility regarding the estate or the beneficiaries. Take the petition for discharge and plan for distribution seriously: if you are going to object, you only have days to do so. And then, your objections will be heard by a judge. That means that there is a trial or an evidentiary hearing on the petition. So be ready. Need help with a trial on a petition for discharge? Email michelle@pankauskilawfirm.com Advocate hard. Litigate smart.