What is a Caveat and Why Are Creditors Filing Them in My Dad’s West Palm Beach Probate Proceeding?

Are you currently serving as a personal representative of a   West Palm Beach estate? Have you noticed all the filings that you are being sent? Do you know what to do with them? Do you know what a caveat is? Why are these being filed by all of your parent’s estate’s creditors? An experienced West Palm Beach probate litigator can help you understand these documents andcreditor’s rights in a West Palm Beach probate.

Creditors

• Do you know the priority of who gets paid out of a Palm Beach estate?
• It may surprise you that inheritance itself falls to the bottom of the list.
• So who gets paid first?
• The lawyers of course!
• That’s one benefit of making the rules is you get to decide who gets paid first.
• Would anyone elect to be a lawyer for a dead person’s estate if they were not guaranteed fair compensation for their time?
• Next come funeral expenses up to six thousand in West Palm Beach.
• Then the government debts get paid first comes Federal debts and then money owed to Florida.
• The Court will then look to paying off all of the expenses from the person’s final illness.
• A family allowance of eighteen thousand dollars is also allowed for expenses while probate proceeds.
• Also the Court will look to arrearages from child support.
• Then business debts that were acquired after death will be paid off.
• Finally comes your West Palm Beach inheritance.

What is a Caveat?

• You may have noticed a document called a caveat being filed, you may notice several.
• Do you know what these documents are?
• In West Palm Beach creditors have a limited time to stake their claims against the decedent’s estate.
• Florida allows “interested parties” to file a caveat asking for the Court to notice them in all parts of the probate proceedings.
• A creditor may only file this document once a person has passed away.
• Strangely under Florida law a relative may file before and essentially ask the Court to “page” him when his inheritance is ready.
• Don’t be that relative.